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Lifeboat [MultiFormat]
eBook by Jeff Hecht
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$0.59 |
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$0.50 |
eBook Category: Science Fiction
eBook Description: What good is a lifeboat in hyperspace if it can't hold the equipment needed to return to normal space? Can it be more than a security blanket of metal? Perhaps.
eBook Publisher: Fictionwise.com, Published: New Dimensions 8, ed. Robert Silverberg, 1978
Fictionwise Release Date: May 2008
Available eBook Formats [MultiFormat - What's this?]: Adobe Acrobat (PDF) [144 KB], eReader (PDB) [27 KB], Palm Doc (PDB) [13 KB], Rocket/REB1100 (RB) [13 KB], Microsoft Reader (LIT) [74 KB] - PocketPC 1.0+ Compatible, Franklin eBookMan (FUB) [83 KB], hiebook (KML) [59 KB], Sony Reader (LRF) [45 KB], iSilo (PDB) [11 KB], Mobipocket (PRC) [14 KB], Kindle Compatible (MOBI) [42 KB], OEBFF Format (IMP) [23 KB]
Words: 4152
Reading time: 11-16 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
 
Long ago, before they built the first hyperspace ship, the designers sat in a circle and asked each other what they could do if there was an emergency as the ship sped faster than light through loopholes in space-time. They sat silently and stared for a while, as people tend to do when they are brought together to find ideas. Then one of them, who had been raised in a family that sailed ships on seas of water, suggested that they build lifeboats. The others, knowing that the physical realities made the idea meaningless, paused for a moment to laugh, then began passing their own notions around the circle. Finally, when they could find no ideas that could be translated into the reality of hardware, they told each other that there could never be an emergency in hyperspace.
The one who had suggested lifeboats looked around the circle then, and gathered his courage to speak. He told them of the Titanic, of how it could never sink and of how it promptly did. The others tried to convince him that, in hyperspace, lifeboats would be only worthless security blankets of metal. He would not listen, and, ever so slowly, the others had to admit that they could think of nothing better. At last they agreed, if only to bring the meeting to an end, and lifeboats were added to the design.
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You are in the corridor when you sense that something is going wrong. There is no definable sight, sound, or smell that registers on your consciousness, but something alerts you at the subconscious level of your mechanic's instincts. You come quickly to full alertness and test each of your senses. Is the subsonic hum of the driving motors off-key? Have the lights flickered or dimmed?
You try to tell yourself that nothing could go wrong. There are no emergencies in hyperspace; the state of the art is hundreds of years past that. You try to tell yourself that you are off duty, that, if there is a problem, there are others who know how to mend it. But you cannot fight down the instinctive adrenaline. And you are not surprised when the alarm sounds, even though you have never heard of alarms in hyperspace.
As you look around, you see a handle thrust itself into the corridor as the letters "LIFEBOAT" begin to flash beside it. You have never seen the word before, but you understand the meaning. You pull the handle; it opens a hatch and you step through the entryway.
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