Dark Star Read Online Free Page A

of these days Corporal Boiler was going to . . .
    Pinback shoved the mike aside and leaned over. "I said, I'm trying to reach Talby. Something's wrong with the damned intercom. If you're not going to talk to me, then I'm going to work, I need a last-minute diameter approximation. Do you expect me to figure that my self?"
    "Calm down, Pinback. There's something wrong with everything on this ship." He flicked a fingertip on his own mike. "Talby, Talby, this is Dooiittle, do you read me? Answer me, Talby . . . wake up, man."
    Eleven, twelve, thirteen, wonder what I've seen . . .
    Three blue-white suns, just above the plane of the ecliptic. He jotted them down in his mental catalog. Odd to see three of the same magnitude grouped so closely together. Another interesting surprise.
    Exactly how many stars were now included in his private collection he didn't know. There were at least several thousand. He would know better if he entered them formally in the ship's scientific records—something he adamantly refused to do.
    Doolittle had bugged him about it when be found out what the astronomer was doing—or rather, wasn't doing. But Talby's smile had defeated him. You couldn't reduce a star to an abstract figure, Talby had patiently tried to explain. It was demeaning, both to the man and to the star. Doolittle gave up after a while.
    Talby touched controls, and the observation chair swerved another ninety degrees, tilted forward. Maybe he could convince Doolittle to rotate the ship again, so that he could see the other half of the heavens for a while. Doolittle never understood these requests. He insisted that after a while all stars looked the same: uniform, ugly little fireflies glaring in the night-space. Talby couldn't make him see. Poor Doolittle.
    Poor Talby.
    Something buzzed insistently in his head. At first he thought it might be another of his headaches. In a way, it was.
    "Talby, Talby, this is Doolittle. Can you read me? Acknowledge, Talby."
    The corporal blinked, forced himself out of the real universe and back into the irritating dreamworld of reality . . . the triangular dreamworld of the Dark Star .
    "Oh, yes, Doolittle. Yes, I read you. What is it?"
    Doolittle continued to manipulate the instruments in front of him as he spoke to Talby. The astronomer was beginning to worry him. No, no . . . that wasn't quite right. Talby had been worrying him for some time now. He always meant to do something about it, but there were so many other things to worry about, so many other tasks he was responsible for now.
    Not that Talby had ever done anything to threaten the safety of the ship—quite the contrary. He was efficient in his duties to the point of abnormality. But it bothered Doolittle that the astronomer spent so much time in the observation dome. It bothered Doolittle that Talby didn't eat his meals with the rest of them. It bothered Doolittle that Talby never joined them for their admittedly deadly dull group recreation periods.
    But mostly it bothered Doolittle because Talby seemed so friggin' happy
    "Uh, Lieutenant Doolittle?" He blinked, glanced irritably at Pinback.
    "I'm okay, Pinback. Hello, Talby? We need a diameter approximation here."
    "Roger, Doolittle," responded Talby, prompt, efficient. "Have it in a minute."
    "Talby, were you counting again?"
    "I'm always counting, Lieutenant You know that." A pause. Then, "Point zero niner five—no special setting required. Too bad it's a bummer."
    "Yeah," said Doolittle curtly. "Thanks, Talby."
    Doolittle would have liked to hate Talby. For his happiness, for his easy efficiency, for the way he stood the agony of the voyage. But he couldn't. Talby was one of them. Talby was human in a way the frog-faced messager from Earth never could be.
    Pinback again. "I need a GHF reading on the gravity correction."
    "I'll check it," Doolittle replied.
    "I'll have a By SA plus one, Boiler."
    Doolittle almost smiled. They were operating loose, easy now. The supersmooth crew of the