George Revelle 28 min read

Fifteen minutes to launch, Wade Boeman gazes up the silver hull and can't help thinking, if only Tomer were here now, then buries the thought behind the thin veil in his mind.

George Revelle's 1957 story builds a tense military space opera around a fraught launch and a hidden grief. Sharp, atmospheric golden-age SF. Read it for a story where an experienced hand sends a green pilot skyward, haunted by something he'd rather leave buried.

In its time

Published in 1957, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

28 min read (a novelette, room for a turn or two).

Illustrated by

Ed Emshwiller