Silent Running Read Online Free Page A

into Keenan’s plate. “Look at that stuff!” he exclaimed in disgust. “How can you guys sit there and really say anything to me about this, this glop?”
    Embarrassed laughter went round the table.
    He lifted some of the food from Keenan’s plate. “Look at that. Fried synthetic glop! And you’ve become so dependent on it that I’ll bet you can’t even live without it.”
    “I don’t even want to, Lowell,” Barker muttered.
    Lowell stared incredulously. “Do you realize how pitiful that is, what you just answered? On Earth everywhere you go the temperature is seventy-five degrees. Everything’s the same. All the people are exactly the same.”
    He paused and asked in a hushed voice, “And what kind of life is that?”
    “Lowell, if it’s so rotten, why do you want to go back?” Barker demanded.
    “Because it’s not too late to change it.”
    Keenan with a half laugh leaned forward.
    “What do you want, Lowell? There’s hardly any more disease. There’s no more poverty. Nobody’s out of a job.”
    “That’s right,” Lowell conceded bitterly. “Every time we have the argument, you say the same thing to me. You give me the same three answers all the time. ‘Everybody has a job.’ That’s always the last one. But you know what there is no more of? My friend, there’s no more beauty, and there’s no more imagination. There are no frontiers left to conquer.”
    He paused to see the effect. By now, he might have been talking to two hundred million Americans. “You know why . . . only one reason why: the same attitude you guys are giving me right in this room today. And that is . . . nobody cares. Nobody cares!”
    Lowell’s voice dropped. “Take any little girl in America. Look at her young face, her laughing blue eyes. Do you know what she’s never going to be able to see?” Lowell’s voice choked up. “She’s never going to be able to see the simple wonder of a leaf in her hand. Because there aren’t going to be any trees.” His voice hushed. “You think about that.” He paused and gave a big sigh. There was a long silence.
    Finally, Barker said, “The fact is, Lowell, if people were interested something would have been done a long time ago.” He swung in his seat to Keenan and there was only one thing in his mind now: the bombing of the domes. “Ready?”
    “Yeah . . . I’m ready.”
    They rose and moved toward the door.
    But Lowell threw his body to block them. He put out his hands, reaching to halt them. “Wait! Wait a minute,” he pleaded. “I don’t think you guys understand what this means. Please don’t blow up the domes. They’re not replaceable.” His voice was choked with emotion.
    The three men brushed Lowell aside and moved on.
    Barker had the squib case, and Wolf had the instructions.
    “Which one first?” Keenan asked.
    “Outboard cluster, so let’s hit six.” Barker led the way out of the kitchen and down the corridor leading to the deck below.
    They reached the cargo deck and walked on through the tunnel toward Dome Six.
    Keenan looked at the squibs that Barker carried.
    “Kinda small, aren’t they?”
    Barker nodded. “I guess, for nuclear squibs.”
    They all reached the forest and began searching for something.
    Barker held the silver case marked in bright red:
    DANGER
CONTAINS AAK (4) ARMED SQUIBS
Read instructions before use.
    Together with the other two, Barker thrashed through the bushes, tearing at the foliage.
    Lowell stood listening to the retreating footsteps of the three men headed for Dome Six. Through the kitchen window he could see Valley Forge drift through the starry night, its hull and girders glistening.
    Restlessly, he made his way to Dome One, and walked through the silent forest. But the thought of its beauty being destroyed drove him back to his room.
    He threw himself moodily onto his cot and lay there as though in a trance. An air of doom hung over the ship, almost like the throbbing repetitious beat of drums. It might have