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members of his cohort trained on ah, that was another matter.
What made it possible for Sandy to sneak in a few lessons was that flight-simulation took place right
after the midday meal and its consequent stun time. Since Sandy was physiologically exempt from stun
time he could get there before any of the others. It helped, too, that the instructor in charge was not the
smartest Hakh hli on the ship. The reason he was there was that he had actually been in the crew that
was preparing to land somewhere in the Alpha Centauri system. They never did land, because there
wasn t anything big enough to land on, but he was the closest the Hakh'hli had to an experienced lander
pilot. Although he had never been authorized to let Sandy try his hand at pilotage, he had never been
ordered not to, either. With a little wheedling, Sandy got past him and again took his place in the
simulator capsule.
Sandy had brought cushions with him and used them to wedge himself into the kneeling-seat that had
never been designed to accommodate a mere human anatomy. For a quarter of a twelfth-day no, he
corrected himself; for about twenty minutes, in the Earth reckoning of his new wrist watch he was able
to go through the whole sequence, from the magnetic-repulsion launch of the capsule from its recess in
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the side of the great interstellar ship, through the course-correction that brought it over the Earth s pole in
a descending slant, through the dodging of space debris and the buffeting of atmospheric entry, and to a
good, or at least not catastrophic, landing on a level, snow-covered plain between high mountains. The
simulator made it all real. When the lander lurched away from the mother ship pistons gave it a
realistic jolt as it happened the screens showed the black of space, and the green planet underneath,
and the great ship shrinking rapidly away. When he turned the lander, the same pistons gave his capsule
enough of a twist to match physical sensations with the slipping images on the screens, and they filled in
again to suggest the terrible jolting of atmosphere entry.
A session in the lander simulator was as good as any Earthly video game for a young adult, or actually a
lot better. It wasn t good enough, though. When Sandy had to get out to make way for the first real
space cadet from his cohort he was sulking. I don t see why I can t fly it down, he complained to
Polly unwisely, because she gave him a pinch.
Because you re too little, and too clumsy, and too dumb! she told him. Now get out of the way so I
can check out!
He glowered after her as she climbed in. Obie touched the small of Sandy s back in sympathy. I d let
you fly if I could, he said. Sandy shrugged morosely; they both knew that Obie s time for influencing
anyone else in the cohort had passed with his brief sexual phase. Well, Obie said helpfully, do you
want to do something else? I m last on the list; we ve got at least a twelfth and a half before my turn.
Do what? Sandy asked.
We could watch an Earth film, Obie proposed. There s a Star Trek I d like to see again. I like
those funny spaceships.
No way, Sandy said positively, because Earthly ideas of nonexistent spaceships weren t what
interested him; if he were going to watch films on his free time he wanted something with prettier girls in
scantier clothing. Or alternatively
He looked around thoughtfully. The four other waiting members of his cohort had started a Questions
Game name all fifty-three states of the U.S.A. in order, left to right, from Guam to Puerto Rico and
were conspicuously shunning both Sandy and Obie. The communications screen was being ignored.
Well, he said slowly, there is a film I d like to see again. Only it isn t from Earth. It s Hakh hli.
It took Obie a lot of juggling to find the old records Lysander wanted, but when they appeared on the
screen even the other members of the cohort gave up their game to cluster around. That wasn t
particularly welcome to Sandy. What he was seeing was a personal matter; most of the times he watched
it he did so in private, because he didn t want anyone else intruding on the yearning he always felt.
It was the record of the discovery of the lost Earth spaceship, half a century before. It showed the
detection of the artifact, in orbit around the planet Mars, and the growing images of it as the interstellar
ship drew close to investigate.
There wasn t any need to launch a lander for it; the Hakh hli had simply sent out an unmanned probe.
The cameras on the probe showed the ship growing large, filling the screen. As the probe cautiously
circled, the shape of the thing was clear: a torpedo with a great chemical-fuel nozzle at one end, a
transparent cone at the other. And behind the transparency of the cone
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Behind the transparency were two figures in spacesuits. They did not move. Their half-silvered visors
showed nothing inside.
Which one is your mother? Obie asked sympathetically.
Now, how the hell do I know? Sandy snarled. But actually he thought he did. The one on the right was
smaller than the other, and its spacesuit had a golden sunburst emblazoned on the breast. Earth females,
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