Blish,James – And all the Stars a Stage

“Part of the fleet is going to be swallowed in any event,” Kamblin noted,

with a faint grimace. “And we can only hope that at least some of these

disappearances in that direction mean that the ships involved were

swallowed whole, without having been chewed to bits first. I can’t say that

I opt for that either, Ailiss.’

There was a short silence.

“Well, then,” Dr. Chase-Huebner said, “what is your alternative, Jorn?”

“There’s only one: to tam the ship out of what’s

left of the armada-that’s only a direction now any

how, not a body of anything-and resume cruising

along the galactic spiral arm our old Sun belonged to

. . . just as the Director started us out to do. We aren , t

out of that arm yet, of course. The stars will be sparser

there and the chances of finding a good planet-fall

correspondingly smaller; but all the same I wGuldnt

take us even one light year farther in toward the

galactic center.”

“I oppose it,” Dr. Chase-Huebner said. “There are penalties to pay for such

a policy which I don’t think you have considered. If we adopt it, we

divorce the

And all the Stars a Stage 165

Javelin quite finally from the organism of which it is supposed to be a part

… and I don’t mean just from the remaining tatters of the physical thing,

I agree that that’s only a wraith now, but also from the very notion of

being any longer a part of such an organism. That would deprive us of our

last cultural tie with home and race, weak though that admittedly is. The

results in terms of morale would be disastrous; it would, I think, destroy