The Golden Age of Science Fiction Vol. II by Various
Author:Various [various]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Anthologies, Science Fiction
Goodreads: 9587818
Publisher: Halcyon Press Ltd.
Published: 2010-09-30T04:00:00+00:00
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Contents
CUBS OF THE WOLF
BY RAYMOND F. JONES
It may be that there is a weapon that, from the viewpoint of the one itâs used on, is worse than lethal. You might say that death multiplies you by zero; what would multiplication by minus one do?
In the spring the cherry blossoms are heavy in the air over the campus of Solarian Institute of Science and Humanities. On a small slope that rims the park area, Cameron Wilder lay on his back squinting through the cloud of pink-white petals to the sky beyond. Beside him, Joyce Farquhar drew her jacket closer with an irritated gesture. It was still too cold to be sitting on the grass, but Cameron didnât seem to notice itâor anything else, Joyce thought.
âIf you donât submit a subject for your thesis now,â she said, âyouâll take another full six months getting your doctorate. Sometimes I think you donât really want it!â
Cameron stirred. He shifted his squinting gaze from the sky to Joyce and finally sat up. But he was staring ahead through the trees again as he took his pipe from his pocket and began filling it slowly.
âI donât want it if itâs not going to mean anything after I get it,â he said belligerently. âIâm not going to do an investigation of some silly subject like The Transience of Venusian Immigrants in Relation to the Martian Polar Ice Cap Cycle. Solarian sociologists are the butt of enough ridicule now. Do something like that and for the rest of your life you get knocking of the knees whenever anybody inquires about the specialty you worked in and threatens to read your thesis.â
âNobodyâs asking you to do anything you donât want to. But you picked the field of sociology to work in. Now I donât see why you have to act such a purist that it takes months to find a research project for your degree. Pick somethingâanything!âI donât care what it is. But if you donât get a degree and an appointment out of the next session I donât think weâll ever get marriedânot ever.â
Cameron removed his pipe from his mouth with a precise grip and considered it intently as it cupped in his hands. âIâm glad you mentioned marriage,â he said. âI was just about to speak of it myself.â
âWell, donât!â said Joyce. âAfter three yearsâThree years!â
He turned to face her and smiled for the first time. He liked to lead her along occasionally just to watch her explode, but he was not always sure when he had gone too far. Joyce had a mind like a snapping, random matching calculator while he operated more on a slow, carefully shaping analogue basis, knowing things were never quite what they seemed but trying to get as close an approximation of the true picture as possible.
âWill you marry me now?â he said.
The question did not seem to startle her. âNo degree, no appointmentâand no chance of getting oneâwe couldnât even get a license. I hope you arenât suggesting we try to get along without one, or on a forgery!â
Cameron shook his head.
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