
Transcriber's Note:
In the cramped wedge of a cylindrical satellite, George Tremont awakens from a long sleep, stretching his limbs in a space barely larger than a bathtub. The low‑ceiling cabin, filled with lockers, a tiny galley, and a mirrored bathroom, feels more like a high‑tech pantry than a starship. He readies himself for another day of shuttling between the moons of the Centauri system, his modest uniform and razor‑sharp routine a study in disciplined habit.
Tremont isn’t hauling minerals or food; his true cargo is ideas—patents, designs, and cutting‑edge concepts that command a premium across the interstellar market. With the Federated Governments handling bulk supplies, the profit in selling a single breakthrough can outweigh whole shipments of raw material. As he steps into the control room, a crew of two men and a young woman eye his arrival, and a tense exchange over a missing case hints at rivalries that could jeopardize his precarious trade.
Language
en
Duration
~28 minutes (27K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
Release date
2009-09-14
Rights
Public domain in the USA.
Subjects

1918–1997
A prolific American science-fiction writer, he built a long magazine career on brisk, idea-driven stories that appeared throughout the pulp and digest era. His work mixes adventure, humor, and classic mid-century genre imagination.
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