John McGreevey 25 min read

Dirk Jemson presses his forehead to the cool astro-chart and hopes he won't be sick, for if he's ordered to take control as the cruiser enters Caliban's gravity, he shudders at the prospect.

John McGreevey's 1950 story is a tense military space opera about fear and courage. Sharp, humane golden-age SF. Read it for a story that looks squarely at the terror a young crewman hides from his steady shipmates, and asks what it truly means to be brave when the brave walk alone.

In its time

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

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

W. E. Terry