Robert Silverberg by The Seed of Earth

Author:The Seed of Earth
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2011-09-06T13:35:50+00:00

IX

DAWES HAD never known four weeks could move so slowly.

The-novelty of being spacebome wore off almost at the beginning. In nospace, there was no sense of motion, no rocket vibration, no feeling of acceleration. The ship hung motionless. And the hundred passengers, crammed mercilessly into their tiny vessel, began to feel like prisoners in a large cell.

During that first week, the hundred colonists concentrated on getting to know each other—but in a distant, guarded way, as if each had something to hide from ail the others, that something being his inmost self. After a week, Dawes knew the names of almost all of his fellow selectees, but he knew little else about them. Each of the hundred cloaked himself in his private tragedy and made little effort to form friendships.

There were exceptions. Phil Haas, the West Coast laywer who had left wife and children behind, circulated among the entire group, making friends, talking to people, encouraging them, soothing them. Mary Elliot, the plump, motherly woman who was the oldest of all the hundred selectees at thirty-nine, did the same. And soon it became evident that Haas would be an ideal Colony Director, with Mary Elliot as his wife.

The ship was cramped. There was hardly any room in the sleeping quarters except for sleeping; the lounges aft were small and low of ceiling, while the galley just barely held all of them at table. The narrow companionways that ran the length of the ship would pass two abreast, no more. There was little in the way of recreation aboard ship: a few books, a few music-tapes, nighdy film showings. Most of the books and music and films were stowed away in the cargo hold with the other possessions of the colony-to-be.

As "day" dragged into "day" and week into week, Dawes found himself going stale with the monotony and constant discomfort. He counted days, then hours, until landing. He slept as much as he could, sometimes fifteen and sixteen hours a day, until he could sleep no more.

Little cliques were forming aboard the ship as the weeks passed. Groups of six or eight took shape: people from the same geographical area, or people of the same general age and intelligence groups, who saw something to share in their common misfortune. Dawes joined none of these groups. He was the youngest member of the colony, at twenty—by some fluke of the Computer, none of the other men was less than twenty-five, .and most were in their early thirties—and he stood to one side, unable to mingle at ease with the older people. Many of them had lost wives, families, homes that had been built and furnished with care and expense, jobs that had cost them outlay of energy and vigorous exertion. He felt guilty, in a way, that he had lost nothing more serious than his education and his chosen profession. Conscious that the other selectees were adults and he himself something less than that, though more than a boy, Dawes established and observed the gulf between them, and made few friends.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.