 |
RosettaBooks are available in a number of eBook Formats |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
Beyond Apollo
 About the Book
|
|
|
|
Preview
Chapter 1
I loved the Captain in my own way, although I knew that he was insane, the poor bastard. This was only partly his fault: one must consider the conditions. The conditions were intolerable. This will never work out.
Chapter 2
In the novel I plan to write of the voyage, the Captain will be a tall, grim man with piercing eyes who has no fear of space. "Onward!" I hear him shout. "Fuck the bastards. Fuck control base; they´re only a bunch of pimps for the politicians anyway. We´ll make the green planet yet or plunge into the sun. Venus forever! To Venus! Shut off all the receivers now. Take no messages. Listen to nothing they have to say; they only want to lie about us to keep the administrators content. Venus or death! Death or Venus! No fear, no fear!"
He has also had, in the book, a vigorous and satisfying sex life, which lends power and credence to his curses and his very tight analysis of the personalities at control. "We will find our humanity under the gases of Venus," the Captain will say, and then the sounds of the voyage overwhelm us and momentarily he says nothing more. I sit with hands clasped, awaiting further word.
The novel, when I write it, should find a large commercial outlet. People still love to read stories of space, and here for the first time they will learn the sensational truth. Even though it is necessary for me to idealize the Captain in order to make the scheme more palatable, the novel will have great technical skill and will make use of my many vivid experiences in and out of the program. They cannot do this kind of thing to us and leave us nothing. I believe that passionately. The novel will be perhaps sixty-five thousand words long, and I will send it only to the very best publishers.
Chapter 3
On one of these nights I dream that the Captain is falling again. He is falling through the capsule into the center of the sun. "Out," he says, "enough of this. I´m calling a halt to the bullshit before they turn me into a machine." Backed into a bulkhead, I beg him to be controlled and assume command of the voyage again, but he says he cannot because of the forces of gravity. Gravity is making him fall into the sun.
"I can´t do all this myself," I cry as he begins to slither away again. "I´m only equipped to be the copilot. My certification is limited."
"I´m sorry," he says with infinite regret, disappeared to the neck now, his fine eyebrows poised as if for sex or intricate testimony. "I misjudged the whole thing totally. It is a mystery. You will have to do the best you can, Evans: find some answers of your own," and then he disappears, not saying goodbye. The ship convulses slightly as if the Captain were excrement just cleansed.
I wonder why I do not follow my commander into the sun and be done with it, but there is not time for reflection; I have many things to do to keep the ship on course lest it miss Venus and follow the Captain into the solar region. I resolve to follow it through; perhaps this is another simulation testing my psychological strength.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Kindle
Sony Reader
Palm Digital
MS Reader
Adobe Reader
Mobipocket