
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
2016-09-12
Rights
Public domain in the USA.
1918–1988
A mid-century science fiction writer whose stories often mix wry humor with classic magazine-era ideas, writing under the names L. J. Stecher and L. J. Stecher Jr. His work appeared in the great pulp-and-digest tradition and still circulates today through public-domain editions and anthologies.
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