Tau zero Read Online Free PDF

lifted a hand. "No, don't say it. He's not exactly Adonis. His manners aren't always the sweetest. But he's got a wonderful mind, the best in the ship, I suspect. You don't get bored listening to him." Her gaze shifted aside. "He's pretty lonely too."
    Reymont stood quiet for a moment. "And you're pretty fine, Jane," he said. "Ingrid's meeting me here. Why don't you join us?"
    She cocked her head. "By golly, you do keep a human being hidden

    under that policeman. Don't worry, I won't let out your secret. And I won't stay, either. Privacy's hard to come by. You two use this while you've got it."
    She waved and left. Reymont peered after her and back down into the water. He was standing thus when Lindgren arrived.
    "Sorry I'm late," she said. "Beamcast from Luna. Another idiotic inquiry about how things are going for us. I'll be positively glad when we get out into the Big Deep." She kissed him. He hardly responded. She stepped back, trouble clouding her face. "What's the matter, darling?"
    "Do you think I'm too stiff?" he blurted.
    She had no instant reply. The fluorolight gleamed on her tawny hair, a ventilator's breeze ruffled it a little, the noise of the ball game drifted through the entrance arch. Finally: "What makes you wonder?"
    "A remark. Well meant, but a slight shock just the same."
    Lindgren frowned. "I've told you before, you've been heavier-handed than I quite liked, the few times you've had to make somebody toe the line. No one aboard is a fool, a malingerer, or a saboteur."
    "Should I not have told Norbert Williams to shut up the other day, when he started denouncing Sweden at mess? Things like that can have a rather nasty end result." Reymont laid a clenched fist in the other palm. "I know," he said. "Military-type discipline isn't needed, isn't desirable . . . yet. But I've seen so much death, Ingrid. The time could come when we won't survive, unless we can act as one and jump to a command."
    "Well, conceivably on Beta Three," Lindgren admitted. "Though the robot didn't send any data suggesting intelligent life. At most, we might encounter savages armed with spears—who would probably not be hostile to us."
    "I was thinking of hazards like storms, landslips, diseases, God knows what on an entire world that isn't Earth. Or a disaster before we get there. I'm not convinced modern man knows everything about the universe."
    "We've covered this ground too often."
    "Yes. It's old as space flight; older. That doesn't make it less real." Reymont groped for sentences. "What I'm trying to do is—I'm not sure. This situation is not like any other I was ever in. I'm trying to . . . somehow . . . keep alive some idea of authority. Beyond simple obedience to the articles and the officers. Authority which has the right to command anything, to command a man to death, if that's

    needful for saving the rest—" He stared into her puzzlement. "No," he sighed, "you don't understand. You can't. Your world was always good."
    "Maybe you can explain it to me, if you say it enough different ways." She spoke softly. "And maybe I can make a few things clear to you. It won't be easy. You've never taken off your armor, Carl. But we'll try, shall we?" She smiled and slapped the hardness of his thigh. "Right now, though, silly, we're supposed to be off duty. What about that swim?"
    She slipped out of her garments. He watched her approach him. She liked strenuous sports and lying under a sun lamp afterward. It showed in full breasts and hips, slim waist, long supple limbs, a tan against which her blondness stood vivid. "Bozhe moi, you're beautiful!" he said low in his throat.
    She pirouetted. "At your service, kind sir—if you can catch me!" She made four low-gravity leaps to the end of the diving board and plunged cleanly off it. Her descent was dreamlike slow, a chance for aerial ballet. The splash when she struck made lingering lacy patterns.
    Reymont entered directly from the poolside. Swimming was hardly different under this