Hansen, barely a year out of school and alone on Communications Relay Station 43.4SC, sees the emergency light flash for the first time in two centuries. He contacts the ship, only to have its gruff Captain Fromer insist that he never sent any call, and a comic standoff between textbook procedure and old spacers’ habits begins.
A brisk, wry short story of the magazine era about machines, rules and human stubbornness. Download the free EPUB.