Richard McKenna 40 min read

Subspace cruising never bores Ensign Welnicki: idle at his watch, he daydreams of never-found alien intelligences that eat mathematics and fight with music, and of the medal of honor he'll surely win.

Richard McKenna's 1958 story is a wry, imaginative space opera by the author of 'The Sand Pebbles.' Clever, engaging golden-age SF. Read it for a genial story where a bored young officer's flights of fancy about aliens and glory brush up against a stranger reality, from a fine and thoughtful writer.

In its time

Published in 1958, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

Kelly Freas