Read Seed of Stars for Free Online

"Just obliging a friend. She wanted to finish a little early."
    Dockridge nodded thoughtfully. "Yes. . . . This is about the time..."
    "Time, Doc?"
    "When he starts to need she a bit more than they thought they would."
    "Why's that, Doc?"
    Dockridge leaned against a bulkhead and gently massaged his left leg, a characteristic gesture. "Obvious, innit? The physicists will tell you that in a ship like this, equipped with anti-grav and inertialess drive it don't matter to the crew if she's traveling at point ten zeros five light, or full out They say the crew can't tell, and that there is no physical effect on the body. Maybe that's so—but there's something more to a human being than a collection of flesh, bone and internal plumbing. Travel fast enough and far enough and people begin to fed it, deep down in the psychological gut Call it the old terror of the unknown, the jungle feeling, if you like, but that's the way human beings are made. And they react to it I know. I seen it, and I've experienced it a hundred times. So, like I said, this is the time when she and he got off-duty periods coincidental that they need each other a special kind of hunger. Back to the womb, if you like. The old fundamentals that we're all built on. Of course, the young 'uns feel it especially." He scanned her pretty face with a sharp, friendly glance. "Don't you reckon so?"
    "How should I know?"
    "Stone me! What a question." Dockridge shook his head. "Warm little donah like you. Smart as paint, you are, Mia—don't tell me you don't know."
    "Well, yes, I suppose I do. But I've never heard it put like that before."
    "Well, there you are, the Dockridge Diagnosis. Strictly amateur stuff, of course, but between you and me the professionals can't do much better."
    She clipped back the junction box and packed her tool kit.
    "We got three good medics," he went on, "but they don't know everything. George Maseba, who knows the most, admits how little he really knows, sometimes ..."
    Now Mia was ready to go, but she listened to Dockridge. She found that she was listening quite hard.
    "Know what Maseba said to me, once? He said 'I wish I had the skill to rebuild myself.' I asked him what he meant. He said that one of the troubles of his job was that you spent so much time playing God that you began to ignore your own failings, and that because you were a doctor, other people preferred to ignore them too." He smiled at her, kindly. "You ever think that?"
    Now Mia was quite intent. "You mean me, particularly?"
    "Yes . . . you. You're just a little girl; at the age— and the time of voyage—to chuck down all you've got in one grand slam. I should be careful, Mia, I should, really."
    "But what do you mean?"
    "I wouldn't carry tales," he assured her. "Not this sort, gel, not this sort."
    "But, Doc—" Now she was troubled. Clearly, he either knew, or he had guessed something.
    "All right, chick. Don't upset yourself. Just think about it."
    She looked into his face, and somehow, despite its strange, Western features, he reminded her of her father.
    "Just remember what I said about the big dark outside. You think it stays outside, but it don't. It creeps into your mind, gel, because there's room for it there, still, no matter how civilized you are." He patted her cheek, and limped away.

    One table in the senior officers' recreation room was permanently reserved for the chess board on which lieutenants Maseba and Helen Lindstrom played a never-ending series of games during their off-duty periods. As they walked into the room together, they saw a white card in the middle of the board.
    Lindstrom picked up and read aloud from Magnus' impeccable script "White to mate in five, I think— and have you been teaching your bishops to waltz? C.M." She showed it to Maseba.
    "Damn him," muttered the senior medical officer. "That's the second game he's screwed up for us." He sat down.
    Lindstrom followed suit "Shall we do as he says?" she asked.
    Maseba nodded. "I guess I'm