Click on image to enlarge.

	Regular				Club
You Pay:	$0.79				$0.67
Micropay Rebate:	50%				50%
Cost After Rebate:	$0.39				$0.33
You Save:	50.63%				58.23%

eBook Category: Science Fiction
eBook Description: In a world with a failing space program, and failing relationships, two strangers share an obsession with the moon, with each other, and with reaching for the stars.

eBook Publisher: Fictionwise.com, Published: Asimov's, 1989
Fictionwise Release Date: December 2003

11 Reader Ratings: Great Good OK Poor

Available eBook Formats [MultiFormat - What's this?]: Adobe Acrobat (PDF) [87 KB], eReader (PDB) [34 KB], Palm Doc (PDB) [21 KB], Rocket/REB1100 (RB) [20 KB], Microsoft Reader (LIT) [69 KB] - PocketPC 1.0+ Compatible, Franklin eBookMan (FUB) [91 KB], hiebook (KML) [77 KB], Sony Reader (LRF) [49 KB], iSilo (PDB) [18 KB], Mobipocket (PRC) [22 KB], Kindle Compatible (MOBI) [50 KB], OEBFF Format (IMP) [33 KB]
Words: 6424
Reading time: 18-25 min.
Microsoft Reader (LIT) Format: Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud ENABLED
Adobe Acrobat (PDF) Format:  Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud DISABLED
All Other formats: Printing DISABLED, Read-aloud DISABLED

SIDE PANEL

"You must not embrace the night," Karyn said.

Carter did not understand. In part, she was telling him to stay on Earth, to stay off the shuttles; but there was little chance of spaceflight for him, or anyone, in the near future, and they had been through all that before. So what was she trying to tell him now?

Carter stepped out onto the apartment balcony and looked up into the night sky. He left the sliding door open so Karyn could follow, but he knew she would stay inside. For seven and a half weeks now Karyn had not once left the apartment unless the sun was out, the sky clear and blue without a trace of cloud.

Far to the west, across the open plaza and just above the lowest building of the apartment complex, Carter could see the lights of the gantry blinking in the warm night air, flickering like the stars overhead. He sat in the chair nearest the railing where he could look down at the smallest of the plaza's three pools, five stories directly below him. Although it was close to midnight, a lone figure swam steadily back and forth, in and out of the cone of light from the underwater lamp. The swimmer--a woman, he thought--did not slow or miss a beat, even when making the smooth flip-turns at each end of the pool. Perfectly at home in the water, even though not born to it.

Maybe that was the analogy he needed for his testimony at the Congressional hearings, Carter thought. That there were people, like the swimmer, always at home in the water, while others never were. The same should be true of outer space, he believed, and he could see no reason for halting manned space exploration because of those who could not go into space. The answer was to go on with those who could.