
Part 1
A weary space trader finds himself tangled in a series of absurd interstellar errands, from shepherding a rogue herd of elephants to attempting the delivery of a massive whale to an alien ruler who simply can’t accept the cargo. His uneasy partnership with the charismatic yet unreliable Captain Hannah leads to a string of near‑disasters, each one more bizarre than the last, as they navigate the quirks of zero‑gravity commerce and the perils of drunken jumps through the cosmos.
During a routine hop into an unknown sector, the narrator’s ship is invaded by a pair of bright‑eyed children who somehow glide through solid viewport glass and materialize aboard the vessel. Their innocent chatter and uncanny presence turn the already chaotic situation into a surreal puzzle, forcing the crew to question the limits of physics and the nature of their own reality. The story balances witty dialogue with a whimsical sense of wonder, inviting listeners to drift along a light‑hearted adventure that teeters between comedy and the uncanny.
Language
en
Duration
~21 minutes (20K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
Release date
Sep 12, 2016
Rights
Public domain in the USA.
1918–1988
A mid-century American science fiction writer, he published sharp, imaginative stories under the names L. J. Stecher and L. J. Stecher Jr. His work belongs to the classic magazine era of sci-fi, with many stories still widely read today through Project Gutenberg and other archives.
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by Jr. L. J. Stecher