One-Way Journey

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Behind the comforting walls of Terra Import’s headquarters on Kollidor, commander Leon Warshow was fumbling nervously with the psych reports on his mirror-bright desk. Commander Warshow was thinking about spaceman Matt Falk, and about himself. Commander Warshow was about to react very predictably.

Personnel Lieutenant Krisch had told him the story about Falk an hour before, and Warshow was doing the one thing expected of him: he was waiting for the boy, having sent for him, after a hasty conference with Cullinan, the Magyar’s saturnine psych officer.

An orderly buzzed and said, “Spaceman Falk to see you, sir.”

“Have him wait a few minutes,” Warshow said, speaking too quickly. “I’ll buzz for him.”

It was a tactical delay. Wondering why he, an officer, should be so tense before an interview with an enlisted man, Warshow riffled through the sheaf of records on Matt Falk. Orphaned, 2543…Academy…two years’ commercial service, military contract…injury en route to Kollidor…

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