Crashlander

I said, «Does General Products build complete spacecraft nowadays?»

«We are thinking of branching out. But there are problems.»

From the viewpoint of the puppeteer-owned company, it must have seemed high time. General Products makes the hulls for ninety-five percent of all ships in space, mainly because nobody else knows how to build an indestructible hull. But they'd made a bad start with this ship. The only room I could see for crew, cargo, or passengers was a few cubic yards of empty space right at the bottom, just above the air lock and just big enough for a pilot.

«You'd have a hard time selling that,» I said.

«True. Do you notice anything else?»

«Well …» The hardware that filled the transparent hull was very tightly packed. The effect was as if a race of ten-mile-tall giants had striven to achieve miniaturization. I saw no sign of access tubes; hence, there could be no in-space repairs. Four reaction motors poked their appropriately huge nostrils through the hull, angled outward from the bottom. No small attitude jets; hence, oversized gyros inside. Otherwise … «Most of it looks like hyperdrive motors. But that's silly. Unless you've thought of a good reason for moving moons around.»

«At one time you were a commercial pilot for Nakamura Lines. How long was the run from Jinx to We Made It?»

«Twelve days if nothing broke down.» Just long enough to get to know the prettiest passenger aboard, while the autopilot did everything for me but wear my uniform.

«Sirius to Procyon is a distance of four light-years. Our ship would make the trip in five minutes.»

«You've lost your mind.»

«No.»

But that was almost a light-year per minute! I couldn't visualize it. Then suddenly I did visualize it, and my mouth fell open, for what I saw was the galaxy opening before me. We know so little beyond our own small neighborhood of the galaxy. But with a ship like that —!

«That's goddamn fast.»

«As you say. But the equipment is bulky, as you note. It cost seven billion stars to build that ship, discounting centuries of research, but it will move only one man. As is, the ship is a failure. Shall we go inside?»

II.

The lifesystem was two circular rooms, one above the other, with a small air lock to one side. The lower room was the control room, with banks of switches and dials and blinking lights dominated by a huge spherical mass pointer. The upper room was bare walls, transparent, through which I could see air— and food-producing equipment.

«This will be the relaxroom,» said the puppeteer. «We decided to let the pilot decorate it himself.»

«Why me?»

«Let me further explain the problem.» The puppeteer began to pace the floor. I hunkered down against the wall and watched. Watching a puppeteer move is a pleasure. Even in Jinx's gravity the deerlike body seemed weightless, the tiny hooves tapping the floor at random. «The human sphere of colonization is some thirty light-years across, is it not?»

«Maximum. It's not exactly a sphere —»

«The puppeteer region is much smaller The Kdatlyno sphere is half the size of yours, and the kzinti is fractionally larger. These are the important space-traveling species. We must discount the Outsiders since they do not use ships. Some spheres coincide, naturally. Travel from one sphere to another is nearly nil except for ourselves, since our sphere of influence extends to all who buy our hulls. But add all these regions, and you have a region sixty light-years across. This ship could cross it in seventy-five minutes. Allow six hours for takeoff and six for landing, assuming no traffic snarls near the world of destination, and we have a ship which can go anywhere in thirteen hours but nowhere in less than twelve, carrying one pilot and no cargo, costing seven billion stars.»

«How about exploration?»

«We puppeteers have no taste for abstract knowledge. And how should we explore?» Meaning that whatever race flew the ship would gain the advantages thereby. A puppeteer wouldn't risk his necks by flying it himself. «What we need is a great deal of money and a gathering of intelligences to design something which may go slower but must be less bulky. General Products does not wish to spend so much on something that may fail. We will require the best minds of each sentient species and the richest investors. Beowulf Shaeffer, we need to attract attention.»

«A publicity stunt?»

«Yes. We wish to send a pilot to the center of the galaxy and back.»

«Ye … gods! Will it go that fast?»

«It would require some twenty-five days to reach the center and an equal time to return. You can see the reasoning behind —»

«It's perfect. You don't need to spell it out. Why me?»

«We wish you to make the trip and then write of it. I have a list of pilots who write. Those I have approached have been reluctant. They say that writing on the ground is safer than testing unknown ships. I follow their reasoning.»

«Me, too.»

«Will you go?»

«What am I offered?»