Jim Harmon 22 min read

A green captain must never show fear as his own crew closes in around him, and the rules he clings to may be exactly the trap.

Jim Harmon's 1962 story finds Captain Barnhart sweating through a mutinous morning by the book, reciting that officers must never panic while the crew's warm breath tickles his neck. Wry, tense social SF about command, regulation, and nerve. Read it for a sly golden-age tale that grins at the gap between the rulebook and reality.

In its time

Published in 1962, during the 1960s, new wave revolutionizes the genre.

Reading it

22 min read (a short story, a single idea, delivered and gone).

Illustrated by

Bob Ritter