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    Breaking Point
    Breaking Point
    Breaking Point
    Ebook74 pages57 minutes

    Breaking Point

    By James Gunn

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    About this ebook

    The ship was proof against any test, but the men inside her could be strained and warped, individually and horribly. Unfortunately, while the men knew that, they couldn't really believe it. The Aliens could—and did.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherEndymion Press
    Release dateAug 23, 2016
    ISBN9781531295523
    Breaking Point
    Author

    James Gunn

    James Gunn (1923–2020) was an award-winning science fiction author of more than twenty books, including The Listeners and Transformation. He was also the author of dozens of short stories such as "The Immortals" and editor of ten anthologies. 

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      Book preview

      Breaking Point - James Gunn

      BREAKING POINT

      James Gunn

      ENDYMION PRESS

      Thank you for reading. If you enjoy this book, please leave a review.

      All rights reserved. Aside from brief quotations for media coverage and reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced or distributed in any form without the author’s permission. Thank you for supporting authors and a diverse, creative culture by purchasing this book and complying with copyright laws.

      Copyright © 2016 by James Gunn

      Published by Endymion Press

      Interior design by Pronoun

      Distribution by Pronoun

      ISBN: 9781531295523

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

      I
      II
      III
      IV
      V
      VI
      VII

      I

      ~

      THEY SENT THE ADVANCE UNIT out to scout the new planet in the Ambassador, homing down on the secret beeping of a featureless box dropped by an earlier survey party. Then they sat back at GHQ and began the same old pattern of worry that followed every advance unit.

      Not about the ship. The Ambassador was a perfect machine, automatic, self-adjusting, self-regulating. It was built to last and do its job without failure under any and all conditions, as long as there was a universe around it. And it could not fail. There was no question about that.

      But an advance unit is composed of men. The factors of safety are indeterminable; the duplications of their internal mechanisms are conjectural, variable. The strength of the unit is the sum of the strengths of its members. The weakness of the unit can be a single small failing in a single man.

      Beep ... boop ...

      Gotcha! said Ives. Ives was Communications. He had quick eyes, quick hands. He was huge, almost gross, but graceful. On the nose, he grinned, and turned up the volume.

      Beep ... boop ...

      What else do you expect? said Johnny. Johnny was the pilot—young, wide, flat. His movements were as controlled and decisive as those of the ship itself, in which he had an unshakeable faith. He slid into the bucket seat before the great master console.

      Beep ... boop ...

      We expect the ship to do her job, said Hoskins, the Engineer. He was mild and deft, middle-aged, with a domed head and wide, light-blue eyes behind old fashioned spectacles. He shared Johnny’s belief in the machine, but through understanding rather than through admiration. But it’s always good to see her do it.

      Beep ... boop ...

      Beautiful, said Captain Anderson softly, and he may have been talking about the way the ship was homing in on the tiny, featureless box that Survey had dropped on the unexplored planet, or about the planet itself, or even about the smooth integration of his crew.

      Beep ... boop ...

      Paresi said nothing. He had eyebrows and nostrils as sensitive as a radarscope, and masked eyes of a luminous black. Faces and motives were to him what gauges and log-entries were to the Engineer. Paresi was the Doctor, and he had many a salve and many a splint for invisible ills. He saw everything and understood much. He leaned against the bulkhead, his gaze flicking from one to the other of the crew. Occasionally his small mustache twitched like the antennae of a cat watching a bird.

      Barely audible, faint as the blue outline of a distant hill, hungry and lost as the half-heard cry of a banshee, came the thin sound of high atmosphere against the ship’s hull.

      An hour passed.

      Bup-bup-bup-bup ...

      Shut that damned thing off!

      Ives looked up at the pilot, startled. He turned the gain down to a whisper. Paresi left the bulkhead and stood behind Johnny. What’s the matter? he asked. His voice was feline, too—a sort of purr.

      Johnny looked up at him quickly, and grinned. I can put her down, he said. That’s what I’m here for. I—like to think maybe I’ll get to do it, that’s all. I can’t think that with the autopilot blasting out an ‘on course’. He punched the veering-jet controls. It served men perfectly. The ship ignored him, homed on the beam. The ship computed velocity, altitude, gravity, magnetic polarization, windage; used and balanced and adjusted for them all. It adjusted for interference from the manual controls. It served men perfectly. It ignored them utterly.

      Johnny turned to look out and downward. Paresi’s gaze followed. It was a beautiful planet, perhaps a shade greener than the blue-green of earth. It seemed, indefinably, more park-like than wild. It had an air of controlled lushness and peace.

      The braking jets thundered as Johnny depressed a control. Paresi nodded slightly as he saw the pilot’s hand move, for he knew that the autopilot had done it, and that Johnny’s movement was one of trained reflex. The youngster was intense and alert, hair-trigger schooled, taught to pretend in

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