Orphans of the Sky

Orphans

of the

Sky

Robert A. Heinlein

Copyright © 1941, 1963 by Robert A. Heinlein, © 1988 The Robert and Virginia Heinlein Library Foundation

Cover design by Passageway Pictures

Books by Robert A. Heinlein

Novels

FOR US, THE LIVING

METHUSELAH’S CHILDREN

BEYOND THIS HORIZON

ROCKETSHIP GALILEO

SPACE CADET

RED PLANET

SIXTH COLUMN

FARMER IN THE SKY

THE PUPPET MASTERS

BETWEEN PLANETS

THE ROLLING STONES

STARMAN JONES

REVOLT IN 2100

THE STAR BEAST

TUNNEL IN THE SKY

DOUBLE STAR

TIME FOR THE STARS

THE DOOR INTO SUMMER

CITIZEN OF THE GALAXY

HAVE SPACESUIT – WILL TRAVEL

STARSHIP TROOPERS

STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND

PODKAYNE OF MARS

GLORY ROAD

FARNHAM’S FREEHOLD

THE MOON IS A HARSH MISTRESS

I WILL FEAR NO EVIL

TIME ENOUGH FOR LOVE

THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST

FRIDAY

JOB: A COMEDY OF JUSTICE

THE CAT WHO WALKS THROUGH WALLS

TO SAIL BEYOND THE SUNSET

Collections of 2 or more novellas, short stories, etc.

THE MAN WHO SOLD THE MOON

WALDO AND MAGIC INC.

DESTINATION MOON
 

THE GREEN HILLS OF EARTH

ASSIGNMENT IN ETERNITY

THE MENACE FROM EARTH

THE UNPLEASANT PROFESSION OF JONATHAN HOAG

ORPHANS OF THE SKY

THE WORLDS OF ROBERT A. HEINLEIN

THE PAST THROUGH TOMORROW

EXPANDED UNIVERSE

THE NOTEBOOKS OF LAZARUS LONG (quotations)

Nonfiction

TRAMP ROYAL

TAKE BACK YOUR GOVERNMENT
 

GRUMBLES FROM THE GRAVE (edited by Virginia Heinlein)

Orphans

of the

Sky

Robert A. Heinlein

Part One

UNIVERSE

I

UNIVERSE

The Proxima Centauri Expedition, sponsored by the Jordan Foundation in 2119, was the first recorded attempt to reach the nearer stars of this galaxy. Whatever its unhappy fate we can only conjecture. . . .

—Quoted from
The Romance of Modern Astrography,
by Franklin Buck, published by Lux Transcriptions, Ltd., 3.50 cr.

"THERE'S A MUTIE! Look out!"
 

      
At the shouted warning, Hugh Hoyland ducked, with nothing to spare. An egg-sized iron missile clanged against the bulkhead just above his scalp with force that promised a fractured skull. The speed with which he crouched had lifted his feet from the floor plates. Before his body could settle slowly to the deck, he planted his feet against the bulkhead behind him and shoved. He went shooting down the passageway in a long, flat dive, his knife drawn and ready.

      
He twisted in the air, checked himself with his feet against the opposite bulkhead at the turn in the passage from which the mutie had attacked him, and floated lightly to his feet. The other branch of the passage was empty. His two companions joined him, sliding awkwardly across the floor plates.

      
"Is it gone?" demanded Alan Mahoney.

      
"Yes," agreed Hoyland. "I caught a glimpse of it as it ducked down that hatch. A female, I think. Looked like it had four legs."

      
"Two legs or four, we'll never catch it now," commented the third man.

      
"Who the Huff wants to catch it?" protested Mahoney. "I don't."

      
"Well, I do, for one," said Hoyland. "By Jordan, if its aim had been two inches better, I'd be ready for the Converter."

      
"Can't either one of you two speak three words without swearing?" the third man disapproved. "What if the Captain could hear you?" He touched his forehead reverently as he mentioned the Captain.

      
"Oh, for Jordan's sake," snapped Hoyland, "don't be so stuffy, Mort Tyler. You're not a scientist yet. I reckon I'm as devout as you are—there's no grave sin in occasionally giving vent to your feelings. Even the scientists do it. I've heard 'em."

      
Tyler opened his mouth as if to expostulate, then apparently thought better of it.

      
Mahoney touched Hoyland on the arm. "Look, Hugh," he pleaded, "let's get out of here. We've never been this high before. I'm jumpy—I want to get back down to where I can feel some weight on my feet."

      
Hoyland looked longingly toward the hatch through which his assailant had disappeared while his hand rested on the grip of his knife, then he turned to Mahoney. "O.K., kid," he agreed, "it's a long trip down anyhow."

      
He turned and slithered back toward the hatch, whereby they had reached the level where they now were, the other two following him. Disregarding the ladder by which they had mounted, he stepped off into the opening and floated slowly down to the deck fifteen feet below, Tyler and Mahoney close behind him. Another hatch, staggered a few feet from the first, gave access to a still lower deck. Down, down, down, and still farther down they dropped, tens and dozens of decks, each silent, dimly lighted, mysterious. Each time they fell a little faster, landed a little harder. Mahoney protested at last.

      
"Let's walk the rest of the way, Hugh. That last jump hurt my feet."

      
"All right. But it will take longer. How far have we got to go? Anybody keep count?"

      
"We've got about seventy decks to go to reach farm country," answered Tyler.

      
"How do you know?" demanded Mahoney suspiciously.

      
"I counted them, stupid. And as we came down I took one away for each deck."

      
"You did not. Nobody but a scientist can do num- bering like that. Just because you're learning to read and write you think you know everything."

      
Hoyland cut in before it could develop into a quarrel. "Shut up, Alan. Maybe he can do it. He's clever about such things. Anyhow, it feels like about seventy decks—I'm heavy enough."

      
"Maybe he'd like to count the blades on my knife."

      
"Stow it, I said. Dueling is forbidden outside the village. That is the Rule." They proceeded in silence, running lightly down the stairways until increasing weight on each succeeding level forced them to a more pedestrian pace. Presently they broke through into a level that was quite brilliantly lighted and more than twice as deep between decks as the ones above it. The air was moist and warm; vegetation obscured the view.

      
"Well, down at last," said Hugh. "I don't recognize this farm; we must have come down by a different line than we went up."

      
"There's a farmer," said Tyler. He put his little fingers to his lips and whistled, then called, "Hey! Shipmate! Where are we?"

      
The peasant looked them over slowly, then directed them in reluctant monosyllables to the main passageway which would lead them back to their own village.

      
A brisk walk of a mile and a half down a wide tunnel moderately crowded with traffic—travelers, porters, an occasional pushcart, a dignified scientist swinging in a litter borne by four husky orderlies and preceded by his master-at-arms to clear the common crew out of the way—a mile and a half of this brought them to the common of their own village, a spacious compartment three decks high and perhaps ten times as wide. They split up and went their own ways, Hugh to his quarters in the barracks of the cadets—young bachelors who did not live with their parents. He washed himself, and went thence to the compartments of his uncle, for whom he worked for his meals. His aunt glanced up as he came in, but said nothing, as became a woman.

      
His uncle said, "Hello, Hugh. Been exploring again?"

      
"Good eating, Uncle. Yes."

      
His uncle, a stolid, sensible man, looked tolerantly amused. "Where did you go and what did you find?"
      
Hugh's aunt had slipped silently out of the compartment, and now returned with his supper which she placed before him. He fell to—it did not occur to him to thank her. He munched a bite before replying.
 

      
"Up. We climbed almost to the level-of-no-weight.

A mutie tried to crack my skull."
 

      
His uncle chuckled. "You'll find your death in those passageways, lad. Better you should pay more attention to my business against the day when I'll die and get out of your way."

      
Hugh looked stubborn. "Don't you have any curiosity, Uncle?"

      
"Me? Oh, I was prying enough when I was a lad. I followed the main passage all the way around and back to the village. Right through the Dark Sector I went, with muties tagging my heels. See that scar?"
 

      
Hugh glanced at it perfunctorily. He had seen it many times before and heard the story repeated to boredom. Once around the Ship—
pfui!
He wanted to go everywhere, see everything, and find out the why of things. Those upper levels now—if men were not intended to climb that high, why had Jordan created them?

      
But he kept his own counsel and went on with his

meal. His uncle changed the subject. "I've occasion to visit the Witness. John Black claims I owe him three swine. Want to come along?"

      
"Why, no, I guess not—Wait—I believe I will."
 

      
"Hurry up, then."

      
They stopped at the cadets' barracks, Hugh claiming an errand. The Witness lived in a small, smelly compartment directly across the Common from the barracks, where he would be readily accessible to any who had need of his talents. They found him sitting in his doorway, picking his teeth with a fingernail. His apprentice, a pimply-faced adolescent with an intent nearsighted expression, squatted behind him.

      
"Good eating," said Hugh's uncle.

      
"Good eating to you, Edard Hoyland. D'you come on business, or to keep an old man company?"

      
"Both," Hugh's uncle returned diplomatically, then explained his errand.

      
"So?" said the Witness. "Well—the contract's clear enough:

      
"Black John delivered ten bushels of oats,
 

      
Expecting his pay in a pair of shoats;
 

      
Ed brought his sow to breed for pig;
 

      
John gets his pay when the pigs grow big.

      
"How big are the pigs now, Edard Hoyland?"

      
"Big enough," acknowledged Hugh's uncle, "but Black claims three instead of two."

      
"Tell him to go soak his head. 'The Witness has spoken.' "

      
He laughed in a thin, high cackle.

      
The two gossiped for a few minutes, Edard Hoyland digging into his recent experiences to satisfy the old man's insatiable liking for details. Hugh kept decently silent while the older men talked. But when his uncle turned to go he spoke up.

      
"I'll stay awhile, Uncle."
 

      
"Eh? Suit yourself. Good eating, Witness."
 

      
"Good eating, Edard Hoyland."
 

      
"I've brought you a present, Witness," said Hugh,

when his uncle had passed out of hearing.
 

      
"Let me see it."
 

      
Hugh produced a package of tobacco which he

had picked up from his locker at the barracks. The Witness accepted it without acknowledgment, then tossed it to his apprentice, who took charge of it.

      
"Come inside," invited the Witness, then directed his speech to his apprentice. "Here, you—fetch the cadet a chair."