
A seemingly ordinary cargo run turns surreal when Paul Asher, a 27‑year‑old furnishings buyer, finds his sleek vehicle barreling through a mounted checkpoint and into a field that hides a barn that isn’t a barn at all. Inside, the wooden façade gives way to gleaming metal corridors and humming machinery, revealing a hidden spaceship that whisks him and the enigmatic Naomi deeper into an unknown world. Their quick‑fire banter frames a high‑speed chase that plunges Paul from a mundane road trip into a secretive complex where a balding, wheelchair‑bound commander demands something Paul might unknowingly possess.
As the engines roar to life, Paul must decide whether to play the innocent buyer or the reluctant key‑holder that Naomi insists he is. The opening act thrusts listeners into a pulse‑pounding race of twists, futuristic tech, and a mysterious partnership that hints at larger conspiracies waiting just beyond the next curve.
Language
en
Duration
~22 minutes (21K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
Release date
2009-09-22
Rights
Public domain in the USA.
Subjects

1920–1987
A sharp, witty voice in mid-century science fiction, he wrote stories that mixed big ideas with a journalist’s eye for human behavior. Best known for the Nebula Award-winning "Mother to the World," he also helped shape the science fiction community behind the scenes.
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by Richard Wilson

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by Richard Wilson

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