Blish,James – And all the Stars a Stage

it?”

“The ship is in the building,” Ertak said, leaning back in his chair. He

was visibly satisfied with the sensation he had produced by his summary,

though certainly he must have seen it many times before in

And all the Stars a Stage 35

other interviews. “And we are surveying suitable target systems. There seems

to be no shortage of them, especially since the first trip will be wholly

exploratory, with no attempts at planet-falls. We might even skulk around

the area of the Great Nova while we’re at it, just to get a close look at

the remains of an event which influenced our history so much. Why not? It

would only add a few months or so to the tripf”

Jorn could find nothing further to say. The Director seemed slightly

disappointed.

“Well,” he said at last, “this is why you’re here. We are building only one

ship, necessarily; but we are recruiting two crews, the one to understudy

the other. You are only the fourth man to get through our primary screen,

so we owe you a choice. Providing that you survive the secondary

screening-and the training programs thereafter-which crew would you like to

be on: the working crew, or the stand-by?”

“The ‘working crew’ is the one that will actually go on the trip?”

“Yes,” Director Ertak said. “The stand-by crew is only to replace washouts,

or men invalided out, or killed in some accident-the great Unforeseeable.”

“I want to be in the working crew,” Jorn said, without an instant’s further

hesitation.

For some reason, this did not appear to please Ailiss O’Kung. More

surprisingly, it did not appear to please the Director much, either. He