Blish,James – And all the Stars a Stage

“Frequently. However, there have been meals coming in and going out of

there all that time, and somebody’s been eating them.”

‘That could be the doctor. Anyhow, I think we ought to go to the control

barrel and take a look. Unless my memory has gone bad entirely, that’s

Yellow Warning One we’re hearing.”

Jorn sighed and pushed himself carefully back from the board. “I hope not,”

he said; but he followed her out, all the same, wincing as the fluorescent

light came pouring through the open door.

They shuffled toward the barrel, favoring their individual arthritides with

the unselfconsciousness of long resignation. Looking at the ship around him

closely for the first time in many months, Jorn found good reason to renew

his wish that no planet-fall was

And all the Stars a Stage 171

being foreshadowed. It was not only that he personally had been disappointed

more than often enough already-he could still, he told himself, see the

course of that apathy dispassionately for what it was. But in addition, the

javelin was shabby. The children bad been keeping her running, at least as

far as her essential services were concerned, but they had not been keeping

her up . . . and where little negligence are allowed, big ones are sure to

come creeping after, unnoticed until it is too late.

Well, perhaps that’s our fault, too-all of us on the original crew. They

never had the training we had. We were too old and tired and discouraged to

give it to them, even if we’d had all the facilities. And of course, you

can’t expect anything of passengers …