Blish,James – And all the Stars a Stage

trouble begins.”

“I don’t see the analogy,” Jorn confessed.

“I mean that by that time they’ll be beginning to feel the heat-all of

them, not just the neurotics who think they can feel it now. It’ll occur to

them that the Sun really is going to explode. Then they’ll begin to wonder

what they’re really working for: in other words, whether or not what

they’re doing is going to get them an entrance ticket to one of our ships.

And the moment we have to start paying them in hope instead of in credits,

well be in trouble–and there won~t be a ship in the fleet that’s much

beyond half done at that point, except of course the javelin.”

“But we are going to be carrying pasengers,” Jorn said hesitantly. “Lots of

them.”

“My dear Jorul Never mind, Ailiss O’Kung says you may be a great navigator

… Of course we’ll be carrying passengers-roughly a hundred for every

crewman on the javelin, and even more on the others. But how many people

does that come to? We won’t know until we see how many ships we manage to

build before we have to leave, but I’ll tell you this: under the best

possible circumstances, the total population of the fleet will be less than

the differential birthrate of

64 James Blish

this planet for one single day. Probably a good deal less.”

“Still, Director, we won’t be taking the old, or the handicapped or . . .

certainly not the newborn . . .”

“Ah,” Ertak said with a frozen smile. “That makes it look much easier. But

let’s do a little simple multiplication, by tens. The Javelin will be able

to carry about twenty-five hundred people. If the fleet consists of a