Murray Leinster

Operation Murray Leinster

Book Excerpt: ...as that sickening feeling of free fall, but he grimly made himself think of it as soaring upward instead of dropping--which was the fact, too--and waited until the third-stage rockets boomed suddenly and went on and on and on. This was nearly normal acceleration; the effect of this acceleration was the feel of nearly normal weight. He felt about as one would feel in Earth in a contour-chair tilted back so that one faced the ceiling. He knew approximately where the ship would be by this time, and it ought to have been a thrill. Cochrane was hundreds of miles above Earth and headed eastward out and up. If a port were open at this height, his glance should span continents. No.... The ship had taken off at night. It would still be in Earth's shadow. There would be nothing at all to be seen below, unless one or two small patches of misty light which would be Earth's too-many great cities. But overhead there would be stars by myriads and myriads, of every possible color and degree of brightness. They...