
Oliver Meek is a lanky, nervous clerk who never imagined his life would leave the quiet of a cloistered outpost. Now, a government welfare agency has drafted him into a far‑flung space‑polo league, betting on his untested skill while a mysterious feud between the Ring Rats simmers nearby. The remote settlement on a tiny rock orbiting Saturn, with its half‑built repair shop and the modest Saturn Inn, frames a world where even the simplest task can feel like a gamble.
As Meek steps into the greasy‑capped workshop, he discovers a community of rough‑shod mechanics, educated bugs, and corporate freighters loading strange radiation moss. He must learn to keep his footing in low gravity, fix his own equipment, and navigate the uneasy alliances that bind the outpost together. All the while, the looming contest of space‑polo offers a bizarre chance for Meek to prove himself—or be swept aside by the very forces he’s been pulled into.
Language
en
Duration
~58 minutes (56K 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
2020-09-05
Rights
Public domain in the USA.

1904–1988
A quiet giant of science fiction, he wrote humane, thoughtful stories that mixed cosmic ideas with small-town warmth. Best known for classics like City and Way Station, he spent decades imagining futures shaped as much by kindness as by technology.
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