Sam Boone and the Thermal Couple

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In 2172 Earth managed to get one cranky and primitive starship a single light-year from home where, coincidence of coincidences, it managed to get itself rammed by a Stellar class cruise ship which was far outside its approved lanes.

The Greebnean owner of the ship was so anxious to avoid the galactic Hegemony’s court system that it gave the human crew a replacement ship from the inventory as payment. “Never to speak of this event,” it had pleaded desperately as it clamped the viewer for the ship’s instruction manual over the captain’s arm, thinking that appendage was the human’s primary sense organ, much like its own. “Never to make a claim,” it said in closing as it sent the remains of the ruptured Earth ship, the pinnacle of humanity’s scientific and engineering genius, into the furnace of a local sun. It wanted no evidence of its transgressions hanging about.

Earth was ecstatic when the crew returned in their new ship, just three weeks later. The gift that had been placed in their hands provided enough engineering and scientific data to build an entire fleet of workable starships. Humanity could start to explore “local” space quickly and economically. Humanity could finally enter the galactic community and fulfill its destiny among the stars.

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