The body tanks had to be replenished and the ship had tobe serviced—and the crew was having a Lotus dream in itsbed of protoplasm. But Kelly knew how to arouse them....
Has Anybody
Here Seen
Kelly?
By Kenneth O'Hara
Illustrated by Paul Orban
The Crew pulsed with contentment,and its communalsinging brought a pleasant kind ofglow that throbbed gently in thecontrol room.
"'Has anybody here seen Kelly ... K-E-double-L-Y?'"
"Shut up and dig my thought!"Kelly's stubborn will insisted. "I'mgoing on out for a while!"
The delicate loom of the Crew'slight pattern increased its frequencya little and the song stopped. "Betternot," the Crew said.
"But why not?"
"No need."
"We could be running into somethingbad," Kelly thought.
"No danger now, Kelly. Checkingthe ship is just a waste of time."
"How can you waste what youhave so damn much of?" Kellythought.
"Do not leave us again, Kelly.We love you and you are the mostinteresting part of the Crew whenyou're with it."
"The ship ought to be checked.Our bodies ought to be looked at."
"We know there is no dangerany more, Kelly. Do not go. Thereare so many interesting experienceswe have not even begun to shareyet. We are only half way throughyour life and we have not evenstarted to experience your impressionsof your colorful and complexEarth culture. And we have noteven started on the adult lives ofLakrit or Lljub. Come back withyour Crew, Kelly."
"But no one's checked the shipfor over a year!"
"Please do not worry about theship, Kelly. In fifty years nothinghas gone wrong. We can trust theship thoroughly now, it will takecare of us."
"It will take care of us! That'sa helluva way to look at it!"
"There can be no danger now,Kelly. In fifty years we have encounteredevery conceivable danger,every imaginable kind of worldor possible menace."
"Have we?" Kelly thought."Every danger from outside maybe,and I'm not even sure of that. Buthow about danger from inside?"
"Inside?"
"Us. How about apathy for instance?Apathy's a real danger. Youtalk about this space-can like it wasa big metal mother! Listen, I'msupposed to see that this tub holdstogether. At least until we get backsomewhere near enough to theSolar system so we'll feel we'vebeen somewhere else!"
"But, Kelly—"
"I'm getting out for a while, Itell you!"
"All right," the Crew sighed. Thelight loom faded a bit, down to aself-indulgent glow. "Hurry back tous, Kelly."
"I'll give some thought to it."
So Kelly concentrated on the increasinglypainful and difficult taskof tearing his consciousness free ofthe big glob of protoplasm in thetank, and getting it back into hisbody that hibernated in the bunkroom.
As usual the switch was too painful.It stretched and stretched andfinally snapped in an all too familiarexplosion of shocking light.
His bones creaked. His skinrustled as he sat up andlooked around. There was the oldfeeling that there was dust overeverything when there was no dust.There was all that emptiness sweepingaway into the endless silenceand he thought again, as he alwaysdid, how comforting and cozy itwas being a part of the Crew.
But someone had to check theship. It was only machinery afterall, and machinery could wear out,sooner or later. And he wasn't atall sure, as h