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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Homesick, by Lyn Venable
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Homesick
+
+Author: Lyn Venable
+
+Illustrator: Ed Emshwiller
+
+Release Date: August 3, 2009 [EBook #29599]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HOMESICK ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<div class="figleft"><img src="images/001.png" width="210" height="550" alt="" title="" /></div>
+
+<h1><i><big>Homesick</big></i></h1>
+
+<h2>By LYN VENABLE</h2>
+
+<p class="hd1"><big><b>Illustrated by EMSH</b></big></p>
+
+<div class="bk1"><i><big><b>What thrill is there in going out among the
+stars if coming back means bitter loneliness?</b></big></i></div>
+
+<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">Frankston</span> pushed listlessly
+at a red checker with
+his right forefinger. He
+knew the move would cost him
+a man, but he lacked enough interest
+in the game to plot out a
+safe move. His opponent, James,
+jumped the red disk with a black
+king and removed it from the
+board. Gregory, across the room,
+flicked rapidly through the pages
+of a magazine, too rapidly to be
+reading anything, or even looking
+at the pictures. Ross lay
+quietly on his bunk, staring out
+of the viewport.</p>
+
+<p>The four were strangely alike
+in appearance, nearly the same
+age, the age where gray hairs
+finally outnumber black, or baldness
+takes over. The age when the
+expanding waistline has begun to
+sag tiredly, when robust middle
+age begins the slow accelerating
+decline toward senility.</p>
+
+<p>A strange group to find aboard
+a spaceship, but then <i>The Columbus</i>
+was a very strange ship.
+Bolted to its outer hull, just under
+the viewports, were wooden
+boxes full of red geraniums, and
+ivy wound tenuous green fronds
+over the gleaming hull that had
+withstood the bombardment of
+pinpoint meteors and turned
+away the deadly power of naked
+cosmic rays.</p>
+
+<p>Frankston glanced at his wristchrono.
+It was one minute to six.</p>
+
+<p>"In about a minute," he
+thought, "Ross will say something
+about going out to water
+his geraniums." The wristchrono
+ticked fifty-nine times.</p>
+
+<p>"I think I'll go out and water
+my geraniums," said Ross.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">No one</span> glanced up. Then
+Gregory threw his magazine
+on the floor. Ross got up and
+walked, limping slightly, to a
+wall locker. He pulled out the
+heavy, ungainly spacesuit and
+the big metal bulb of a headpiece.
+He carried them to his
+bunk and laid them carefully
+down.</p>
+
+<p>"Will somebody please help me
+on with my suit?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>For one more long moment, no
+one moved. Then James got up
+and began to help Ross fit his
+legs into the suit. Ross had arthritis,
+not badly, but enough so
+that he needed a little help climbing
+into a spacesuit.</p>
+
+<p>James pulled the heavy folds
+of the suit up around Ross's body
+and held it while Ross extended
+his arms into the sleeve sections.
+His hands, in the heavy gauntlets,
+were too unwieldy to do the front
+fastenings, and he stood silently
+while James did it for him.</p>
+
+<p>Ross lifted the helmet, staring
+at it as a cripple might regard a
+wheelchair which he loathed but
+was wholly dependent upon.
+Then he fitted the helmet over
+his head and James fastened it
+down and lifted the oxygen tank
+to his back.</p>
+
+<p>"Ready?" asked James.</p>
+
+<p>The bulbous headpiece inclined
+in a nod. James walked to a panel
+and threw a switch marked <span class="smcapl">INNER
+LOCK</span>. A round aperture slid silently
+open. Ross stepped through
+it and the door shut behind him
+as James threw the switch back
+to its original position. Opposite
+the switch marked <span class="smcapl">OUTER LOCK</span> a
+signal glowed redly and James
+threw another switch. A moment
+later the signal flickered out.</p>
+
+<p>Frankston, with a violent gesture,
+swept the checker board
+clean. Red and black men clattered
+to the floor, rolling and
+spinning. Nobody picked them
+up.</p>
+
+<p>"What does he do it for?" demanded
+Frankston in a tight
+voice. "What does he get out of
+those stinking geraniums he can't
+touch or smell?"</p>
+
+<p>"Shut up," said Gregory.</p>
+
+<p>James looked up sharply. Curtness
+was unusual for Gregory, a
+bad sign. Frankston was the one
+he'd been watching, the one
+who'd shown signs of cracking,
+but after so long, even a psycho-expert's
+opinion might be haywire.
+Who was a yardstick? Who
+was normal?</p>
+
+<p>"Geraniums don't smell much
+anyway," added Gregory in a
+more conciliatory tone.</p>
+
+<p>"Yeah," agreed Frankston, "I'd
+forgotten that. But why does he
+torture himself like this, and us,
+too?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because that's what he wanted
+to do," answered James.</p>
+
+<p>"Sure," agreed Gregory, "the
+whole trip&mdash;the last twenty years
+of it, anyhow&mdash;all he could talk
+about was how, when he got back
+to Earth, he was going to buy a
+little place in the country and
+raise flowers."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, we're back," muttered
+Frankston, with a terrible bitterness.
+"He's raising flowers, but
+not in any little place in the
+country."</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">Gregory</span> continued almost
+dreamily, "Remember the
+last night out? We were all gathered
+around the viewscreen. And
+there was Earth, getting bigger
+and greener and closer all the
+time. Remember what it felt like
+to be going back, after thirty
+years?"</p>
+
+<p>"Thirty years cooped up in this
+ship," grumbled Frankston. "All
+our twenties and thirties and forties ..."</p>
+
+<p>"But we were coming home."
+There was a rapt expression on
+Gregory's lined and weathered
+face. "We were looking forward
+to the twenty or maybe thirty
+good years we had left, talking
+about what we'd do, where we'd
+live, wondering what had
+changed on Earth. At least we
+had that last night out. All the
+data was stashed away in the microfiles,
+all the data about planets
+with air we couldn't breathe and
+food we couldn't eat. We were
+going home, home to big, friendly,
+green Earth."</p>
+
+<p>Frankston's face suddenly
+crumpled as though he were
+about to weep and he cradled his
+head against his arms. "God, do
+we have to go over it all again?
+Not again tonight!"</p>
+
+<p>"Leave him alone," ordered
+James with an inflection of command
+in his voice. "Go to the
+other section of the ship if you
+don't want to listen. He has to
+keep going over it, just like Ross
+has to keep watering his geraniums."</p>
+
+<p>Frankston remained motionless
+and Gregory looked gratefully
+at James. James was the
+steady one. It was easier for him
+because he understood.</p>
+
+<p>Gregory's face became more
+and more animated as he lost
+himself, living again his recollections:
+"The day we blasted in.
+The crowds. Thousands of people,
+all there to see us come in. We
+were proud. Of course, we
+thought we were the first to land,
+just like we'd been the first to
+go out. Those cheers, coming
+from thousands of people at once.
+For us. Ross&mdash; Lt. Ross&mdash;was the
+first one out of the lock. We'd decided
+on that; he'd been in command
+for almost ten years, ever
+since Commander Stevens died.
+You remember Stevens, don't
+you? He took over when we lost
+Captain Willers. Well, anyway,
+Ross out first, and then you,
+James, and you, Frankston, and
+then Trippitt, and me last, because
+you were all specialists and
+I was just a crewman. <i>The</i> crewman,
+I should say, the only one
+left.</p>
+
+<p>"Ross hesitated and almost
+stumbled when he stepped out,
+and tears began pouring from his
+eyes, but I thought&mdash;well, you
+know, coming home after thirty
+years and all that. But when I
+stepped out of the lock, my eyes
+stung like fire and a thousand
+needles seemed to jab at my skin.</p>
+
+<p>"And then the President himself
+stepped forward with the
+flowers. That's where the real
+trouble began, with the flowers.
+I remember Ross stretching out
+his arms to take the bouquet, like
+a mother reaching for a baby.
+Then suddenly he dropped them,
+sneezing and coughing and sobbing
+for breath, and the President
+reached out to help him, asking
+him over and over what was
+wrong.</p>
+
+<p>"It was the same with all of
+us, and we turned and staggered
+back to the ship, closing the lock
+behind us. It was bad then. God,
+I'll never forget it! The five of
+us, moaning in agony, gasping for
+breath, our eyes all swollen shut,
+and the itching ... that itching."
+Gregory shuddered.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">Even</span> the emotionally disciplined
+James set his teeth
+and felt his scalp crawl at the
+memory of that horror. He
+glanced toward the viewport, as
+though to cleanse his mind of the
+memory. He could see Ross out
+there, among the geraniums,
+moving slowly and painfully in
+his heavy spacesuit. Occupational
+therapy. Ross watered flowers
+and Gregory talked and Frankston
+was bitter and ... himself?
+Observation, maybe.</p>
+
+<p>Gregory's voice began again,
+"And then they were pounding on
+the lock, begging us to let the
+doctor in, but we were all rolling
+and thrashing with the itching,
+burning, sneezing, and finally
+James got himself under control
+enough to open the locks and let
+them in.</p>
+
+<p>"Then came the tests, allergy
+tests. Remember those? They'd
+cut a little row of scratches in
+your arm ..." Each man instinctively
+glanced at his forearm,
+saw neat rows of tiny pink scars,
+row on row. "Then they'd put a
+little powder in each cut and each
+kind of powder was an extract
+of some common substance we
+might be allergic to. The charts
+they made were full of 'P's, P
+for positive, long columns of big,
+red 'P's. All pollen, dust, wool,
+nylon, cotton, fish, meat, fruit,
+vegetables, grain, milk, whisky,
+cigarettes, dogs, cats&mdash;everything!
+And wasn't it funny about
+us being allergic to women's face
+powder? Ha! We were allergic
+to women from their nylon hose
+to their face powder.</p>
+
+<p>"Thirty years of breathing
+purified, sterilized, filtered air,
+thirty years of drinking distilled
+water and swallowing synthetic
+food tablets had changed us. The
+only things we weren't allergic
+to were the metal and plastic and
+synthetics of our ship, <i>this</i> ship.
+We're allergic to Earth. That's
+funny, isn't it?"</p>
+
+<p>Gregory began to rock back
+and forth, laughing the thin high
+laugh of hysteria. James silently
+walked to a water hydrant and
+filled a plastic cup. He brought
+Gregory a small white pill.</p>
+
+<p>"You wouldn't take this with
+the rest of us at supper. You'd
+better take it now. You need it."</p>
+
+<p>Gregory nodded bleakly, sobering
+at once, and swallowed the
+pellet. He made a face after the
+water.</p>
+
+<p>"Distilled," he spat. "Distilled
+... no flavor ... no life ...
+like us ... distilled."</p>
+
+<p>"If only we could have blasted
+off again." Frankston's voice
+came muffled through his hands.
+"It wouldn't have made any difference
+where. Anywhere or nowhere.
+No, our fine ship is obsolete
+and we're old, much too old.
+They have the spacedrive now.
+Men don't make thirty-year junkets
+into space and come back
+allergic to Earth. They go out,
+and in a month or two they're
+back, with their hair still black
+and their eyes still bright and
+their uniforms still fit. A month
+or two is all. Those crowds that
+cheered us, they were proud of us
+and sorry for us, because we'd
+been out thirty years and they
+never expected us back at all.
+But it was inconvenient for
+Spaceport." Bitter sarcasm tinged
+his voice. "They actually had to
+postpone the regular monthly
+Trans-Galactic run to let us in
+with this big, clumsy hulk."</p>
+
+<p>"Why didn't we ever see any
+of the new ships either going out
+or coming back?" asked Gregory.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">Frankston</span> shook his head.
+"You don't see a ship when it's
+in spacedrive. It's out of normal
+space-time dimensions. We had a
+smattering of the theory at cadet
+school ... anyway, if one did
+flash into normal space-time&mdash;say,
+for instance, coming in for
+a landing&mdash;the probability of us
+being at the same place at the
+same time was almost nil. 'Two
+ships passing in the night' as the
+old saying goes."</p>
+
+<p>Gregory nodded, "I guess Trippitt
+was the lucky one."</p>
+
+<p>"You didn't see Trippitt die,"
+replied James.</p>
+
+<p>"What was it?" asked Frankston.
+"What killed Trippitt? So
+quickly, too. He was only outside
+a few minutes like the rest of us,
+and eight hours later he was
+dead."</p>
+
+<p>"We couldn't be sure," answered
+James. "Some virus.
+There are countless varieties.
+People live in a contaminated atmosphere
+all their lives, build up
+a resistance to them. Sometimes
+a particularly virulent strain will
+produce an epidemic, but most
+people, if they're affected, will
+have a mild case of whatever it
+is and recover. But after thirty
+years in space, thirty years of
+breathing perfectly pure, uncontaminated
+air, Trippitt had no
+antibodies in his bloodstream.
+The virus hit and he died."</p>
+
+<p>"But why didn't the rest of us
+get it?" asked Gregory.</p>
+
+<p>"We were lucky. Viruses are
+like that."</p>
+
+<p>"Those people talked about
+building a home for us," muttered
+Frankston. "Why didn't
+they?"</p>
+
+<p>"It wouldn't have been any
+different," answered James gently.
+"It would have been the
+same, almost an exact duplicate
+of the ship, everything but the
+rockets. Same metal and plastic
+and filtered air and synthetic
+food. It couldn't have had wool
+rugs or down pillows or smiling
+wives or fresh air or eggs for
+breakfast. It would have been
+just like this. So, since the ship
+was obsolete, they gave it to us,
+and a plot of ground to anchor
+it to, and we're home. They did
+the best they could for us, the
+very best they could."</p>
+
+<p>"But I feel stifled, shut in!"</p>
+
+<p>"The ship is large, Frankston.
+We all crowd into this section because,
+without each other, we'd
+go mad." James kicked the edge
+of the magazine on the floor.
+"Thank God we're not allergic
+to decontaminated paper. There's
+still reading."</p>
+
+<p>"We're getting old," said Gregory.
+"Some day one of us will be
+here alone."</p>
+
+<p>"God help him then," answered
+James, with more emotion than
+was usual for him.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">During</span> the latter part of
+the conversation, the little
+red signal had been flashing persistently.
+Finally James saw it.
+Ross was in the outer lock. James
+threw the decontaminator switch
+and the signal winked out. Every
+trace of dust and pollen would
+have to be removed from Ross's
+suit before he could come inside
+the ship.</p>
+
+<p>"Just like on an alien planet,"
+commented Gregory.</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't that what this is to us&mdash;an
+alien planet?" asked Frankston,
+and neither of the other men
+dared answer his bitter question.</p>
+
+<p>A few minutes later, Ross was
+back in the cabin, and James
+helped him out of his spacesuit.</p>
+
+<p>"How are the geraniums,
+Ross?" asked Gregory.</p>
+
+<p>"Fine," said Ross enthusiastically.
+"They're doing just fine."</p>
+
+<p>He walked over to his bunk
+and lay down on his side so he
+could see out of the viewport.
+There would be an hour left before
+darkness fell, an hour to
+watch the geraniums. They were
+tall and red, and swayed slightly
+in the evening breeze.</p>
+
+<p class="rgt"><b>&mdash;LYN VENABLE</b></p>
+
+<div class="trn"><div class="figt"><a href="images/002-2.jpg"><img src="images/002-1.jpg" width="146" height="200" alt="" title="" /></a></div>
+
+<p><big><b>Transcriber's Note:</b></big></p>
+
+<p>This etext was produced from <i>Galaxy Science Fiction</i> December 1952.
+Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S.
+copyright on this publication was renewed. Minor spelling and
+typographical errors have been corrected without note.</p></div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Homesick, by Lyn Venable
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HOMESICK ***
+
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Homesick, by Lyn Venable
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Homesick
+
+Author: Lyn Venable
+
+Illustrator: Ed Emshwiller
+
+Release Date: August 3, 2009 [EBook #29599]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HOMESICK ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+_Homesick_
+
+By LYN VENABLE
+
+Illustrated by EMSH
+
+
+ _What thrill is there in going out among the
+ stars if coming back means bitter loneliness?_
+
+
+Frankston pushed listlessly at a red checker with his right forefinger.
+He knew the move would cost him a man, but he lacked enough interest in
+the game to plot out a safe move. His opponent, James, jumped the red
+disk with a black king and removed it from the board. Gregory, across
+the room, flicked rapidly through the pages of a magazine, too rapidly
+to be reading anything, or even looking at the pictures. Ross lay
+quietly on his bunk, staring out of the viewport.
+
+The four were strangely alike in appearance, nearly the same age, the
+age where gray hairs finally outnumber black, or baldness takes over.
+The age when the expanding waistline has begun to sag tiredly, when
+robust middle age begins the slow accelerating decline toward senility.
+
+A strange group to find aboard a spaceship, but then _The Columbus_ was
+a very strange ship. Bolted to its outer hull, just under the viewports,
+were wooden boxes full of red geraniums, and ivy wound tenuous green
+fronds over the gleaming hull that had withstood the bombardment of
+pinpoint meteors and turned away the deadly power of naked cosmic rays.
+
+Frankston glanced at his wristchrono. It was one minute to six.
+
+"In about a minute," he thought, "Ross will say something about going
+out to water his geraniums." The wristchrono ticked fifty-nine times.
+
+"I think I'll go out and water my geraniums," said Ross.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+No one glanced up. Then Gregory threw his magazine on the floor. Ross
+got up and walked, limping slightly, to a wall locker. He pulled out the
+heavy, ungainly spacesuit and the big metal bulb of a headpiece. He
+carried them to his bunk and laid them carefully down.
+
+"Will somebody please help me on with my suit?" he asked.
+
+For one more long moment, no one moved. Then James got up and began to
+help Ross fit his legs into the suit. Ross had arthritis, not badly, but
+enough so that he needed a little help climbing into a spacesuit.
+
+James pulled the heavy folds of the suit up around Ross's body and held
+it while Ross extended his arms into the sleeve sections. His hands, in
+the heavy gauntlets, were too unwieldy to do the front fastenings, and
+he stood silently while James did it for him.
+
+Ross lifted the helmet, staring at it as a cripple might regard a
+wheelchair which he loathed but was wholly dependent upon. Then he
+fitted the helmet over his head and James fastened it down and lifted
+the oxygen tank to his back.
+
+"Ready?" asked James.
+
+The bulbous headpiece inclined in a nod. James walked to a panel and
+threw a switch marked INNER LOCK. A round aperture slid silently open.
+Ross stepped through it and the door shut behind him as James threw the
+switch back to its original position. Opposite the switch marked OUTER
+LOCK a signal glowed redly and James threw another switch. A moment
+later the signal flickered out.
+
+Frankston, with a violent gesture, swept the checker board clean. Red
+and black men clattered to the floor, rolling and spinning. Nobody
+picked them up.
+
+"What does he do it for?" demanded Frankston in a tight voice. "What
+does he get out of those stinking geraniums he can't touch or smell?"
+
+"Shut up," said Gregory.
+
+James looked up sharply. Curtness was unusual for Gregory, a bad sign.
+Frankston was the one he'd been watching, the one who'd shown signs of
+cracking, but after so long, even a psycho-expert's opinion might be
+haywire. Who was a yardstick? Who was normal?
+
+"Geraniums don't smell much anyway," added Gregory in a more
+conciliatory tone.
+
+"Yeah," agreed Frankston, "I'd forgotten that. But why does he torture
+himself like this, and us, too?"
+
+"Because that's what he wanted to do," answered James.
+
+"Sure," agreed Gregory, "the whole trip--the last twenty years of it,
+anyhow--all he could talk about was how, when he got back to Earth, he
+was going to buy a little place in the country and raise flowers."
+
+"Well, we're back," muttered Frankston, with a terrible bitterness.
+"He's raising flowers, but not in any little place in the country."
+
+ * * * * *
+
+Gregory continued almost dreamily, "Remember the last night out? We were
+all gathered around the viewscreen. And there was Earth, getting bigger
+and greener and closer all the time. Remember what it felt like to be
+going back, after thirty years?"
+
+"Thirty years cooped up in this ship," grumbled Frankston. "All our
+twenties and thirties and forties ..."
+
+"But we were coming home." There was a rapt expression on Gregory's
+lined and weathered face. "We were looking forward to the twenty or
+maybe thirty good years we had left, talking about what we'd do, where
+we'd live, wondering what had changed on Earth. At least we had that
+last night out. All the data was stashed away in the microfiles, all the
+data about planets with air we couldn't breathe and food we couldn't
+eat. We were going home, home to big, friendly, green Earth."
+
+Frankston's face suddenly crumpled as though he were about to weep and
+he cradled his head against his arms. "God, do we have to go over it all
+again? Not again tonight!"
+
+"Leave him alone," ordered James with an inflection of command in his
+voice. "Go to the other section of the ship if you don't want to listen.
+He has to keep going over it, just like Ross has to keep watering his
+geraniums."
+
+Frankston remained motionless and Gregory looked gratefully at James.
+James was the steady one. It was easier for him because he understood.
+
+Gregory's face became more and more animated as he lost himself, living
+again his recollections: "The day we blasted in. The crowds. Thousands
+of people, all there to see us come in. We were proud. Of course, we
+thought we were the first to land, just like we'd been the first to go
+out. Those cheers, coming from thousands of people at once. For us.
+Ross-- Lt. Ross--was the first one out of the lock. We'd decided on
+that; he'd been in command for almost ten years, ever since Commander
+Stevens died. You remember Stevens, don't you? He took over when we lost
+Captain Willers. Well, anyway, Ross out first, and then you, James, and
+you, Frankston, and then Trippitt, and me last, because you were all
+specialists and I was just a crewman. _The_ crewman, I should say, the
+only one left.
+
+"Ross hesitated and almost stumbled when he stepped out, and tears began
+pouring from his eyes, but I thought--well, you know, coming home after
+thirty years and all that. But when I stepped out of the lock, my eyes
+stung like fire and a thousand needles seemed to jab at my skin.
+
+"And then the President himself stepped forward with the flowers. That's
+where the real trouble began, with the flowers. I remember Ross
+stretching out his arms to take the bouquet, like a mother reaching for
+a baby. Then suddenly he dropped them, sneezing and coughing and sobbing
+for breath, and the President reached out to help him, asking him over
+and over what was wrong.
+
+"It was the same with all of us, and we turned and staggered back to the
+ship, closing the lock behind us. It was bad then. God, I'll never
+forget it! The five of us, moaning in agony, gasping for breath, our
+eyes all swollen shut, and the itching ... that itching." Gregory
+shuddered.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+Even the emotionally disciplined James set his teeth and felt his scalp
+crawl at the memory of that horror. He glanced toward the viewport, as
+though to cleanse his mind of the memory. He could see Ross out there,
+among the geraniums, moving slowly and painfully in his heavy spacesuit.
+Occupational therapy. Ross watered flowers and Gregory talked and
+Frankston was bitter and ... himself? Observation, maybe.
+
+Gregory's voice began again, "And then they were pounding on the lock,
+begging us to let the doctor in, but we were all rolling and thrashing
+with the itching, burning, sneezing, and finally James got himself under
+control enough to open the locks and let them in.
+
+"Then came the tests, allergy tests. Remember those? They'd cut a little
+row of scratches in your arm ..." Each man instinctively glanced at his
+forearm, saw neat rows of tiny pink scars, row on row. "Then they'd put
+a little powder in each cut and each kind of powder was an extract of
+some common substance we might be allergic to. The charts they made were
+full of 'P's, P for positive, long columns of big, red 'P's. All pollen,
+dust, wool, nylon, cotton, fish, meat, fruit, vegetables, grain, milk,
+whisky, cigarettes, dogs, cats--everything! And wasn't it funny about us
+being allergic to women's face powder? Ha! We were allergic to women
+from their nylon hose to their face powder.
+
+"Thirty years of breathing purified, sterilized, filtered air, thirty
+years of drinking distilled water and swallowing synthetic food tablets
+had changed us. The only things we weren't allergic to were the metal
+and plastic and synthetics of our ship, _this_ ship. We're allergic to
+Earth. That's funny, isn't it?"
+
+Gregory began to rock back and forth, laughing the thin high laugh of
+hysteria. James silently walked to a water hydrant and filled a plastic
+cup. He brought Gregory a small white pill.
+
+"You wouldn't take this with the rest of us at supper. You'd better take
+it now. You need it."
+
+Gregory nodded bleakly, sobering at once, and swallowed the pellet. He
+made a face after the water.
+
+"Distilled," he spat. "Distilled ... no flavor ... no life ... like
+us ... distilled."
+
+"If only we could have blasted off again." Frankston's voice came
+muffled through his hands. "It wouldn't have made any difference where.
+Anywhere or nowhere. No, our fine ship is obsolete and we're old, much
+too old. They have the spacedrive now. Men don't make thirty-year
+junkets into space and come back allergic to Earth. They go out, and in
+a month or two they're back, with their hair still black and their eyes
+still bright and their uniforms still fit. A month or two is all. Those
+crowds that cheered us, they were proud of us and sorry for us, because
+we'd been out thirty years and they never expected us back at all. But
+it was inconvenient for Spaceport." Bitter sarcasm tinged his voice.
+"They actually had to postpone the regular monthly Trans-Galactic run
+to let us in with this big, clumsy hulk."
+
+"Why didn't we ever see any of the new ships either going out or coming
+back?" asked Gregory.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+Frankston shook his head. "You don't see a ship when it's in spacedrive.
+It's out of normal space-time dimensions. We had a smattering of the
+theory at cadet school ... anyway, if one did flash into normal
+space-time--say, for instance, coming in for a landing--the probability
+of us being at the same place at the same time was almost nil. 'Two
+ships passing in the night' as the old saying goes."
+
+Gregory nodded, "I guess Trippitt was the lucky one."
+
+"You didn't see Trippitt die," replied James.
+
+"What was it?" asked Frankston. "What killed Trippitt? So quickly, too.
+He was only outside a few minutes like the rest of us, and eight hours
+later he was dead."
+
+"We couldn't be sure," answered James. "Some virus. There are countless
+varieties. People live in a contaminated atmosphere all their lives,
+build up a resistance to them. Sometimes a particularly virulent strain
+will produce an epidemic, but most people, if they're affected, will
+have a mild case of whatever it is and recover. But after thirty years
+in space, thirty years of breathing perfectly pure, uncontaminated air,
+Trippitt had no antibodies in his bloodstream. The virus hit and he
+died."
+
+"But why didn't the rest of us get it?" asked Gregory.
+
+"We were lucky. Viruses are like that."
+
+"Those people talked about building a home for us," muttered Frankston.
+"Why didn't they?"
+
+"It wouldn't have been any different," answered James gently. "It would
+have been the same, almost an exact duplicate of the ship, everything
+but the rockets. Same metal and plastic and filtered air and synthetic
+food. It couldn't have had wool rugs or down pillows or smiling wives or
+fresh air or eggs for breakfast. It would have been just like this. So,
+since the ship was obsolete, they gave it to us, and a plot of ground to
+anchor it to, and we're home. They did the best they could for us, the
+very best they could."
+
+"But I feel stifled, shut in!"
+
+"The ship is large, Frankston. We all crowd into this section because,
+without each other, we'd go mad." James kicked the edge of the magazine
+on the floor. "Thank God we're not allergic to decontaminated paper.
+There's still reading."
+
+"We're getting old," said Gregory. "Some day one of us will be here
+alone."
+
+"God help him then," answered James, with more emotion than was usual
+for him.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+During the latter part of the conversation, the little red signal had
+been flashing persistently. Finally James saw it. Ross was in the outer
+lock. James threw the decontaminator switch and the signal winked out.
+Every trace of dust and pollen would have to be removed from Ross's suit
+before he could come inside the ship.
+
+"Just like on an alien planet," commented Gregory.
+
+"Isn't that what this is to us--an alien planet?" asked Frankston, and
+neither of the other men dared answer his bitter question.
+
+A few minutes later, Ross was back in the cabin, and James helped him
+out of his spacesuit.
+
+"How are the geraniums, Ross?" asked Gregory.
+
+"Fine," said Ross enthusiastically. "They're doing just fine."
+
+He walked over to his bunk and lay down on his side so he could see out
+of the viewport. There would be an hour left before darkness fell, an
+hour to watch the geraniums. They were tall and red, and swayed slightly
+in the evening breeze.
+
+ --LYN VENABLE
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note:
+
+ This etext was produced from _Galaxy Science Fiction_ December 1952.
+ Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S.
+ copyright on this publication was renewed. Minor spelling and
+ typographical errors have been corrected without note.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Homesick, by Lyn Venable
+
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