The Greatest Sci-Fi Books - Cyril M. Kornbluth Edition. Cyril M. Kornbluth

      CHAPTER I.

       Table of Contents

      In many countries of the world there are Interplanetary or Rocket Societies whose members, fired with Man's age-old dream of space flight, can do little more than plan on paper the vital statistics necessary for the first flight to the Moon. This story, second in last year's International Fantasy Award, tells of one such Society suddenly endowed with unlimited capital.Morning of a bureaucrat.

      On the wall behind his desk Daniel Holland, general manager of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, had hung the following:

      His diploma from Harvard Law, '39;

      A photograph of himself shaking hands with his hero, the late David Lilienthal, first A.E.C. chairman;

      His certificate of honorable active service