Have space suit-- will travel by Robert A. Heinlein Read Free Book Online Page B

be?”
    “A mental hospital.”
    She looked big-eyed and then grinned. “Why, Kip, surely your grip on reality is not that weak?”
    “I’m not sure about anything. Space pirates-Mother Things.”
    She frowned and bit her thumb. “I suppose it must be confusing. But trust your ears and eyes. My grip on reality is quite strong, I assure you- you see, I’m a genius.” She made it a statement, not a boast, and somehow I was not inclined to doubt the claim, even though it came from a skinny-shanked kid with a rag doll in her arms.
    But I didn’t see how it was going to help.
    Peewee went on: “ ‘Space pirates’ . . . mmm. Call them what you wish. Their actions are piratical and they operate in space-you name them. As for the Mother Thing . . . wait until you meet her.”
    “What’s she doing in this hullabaloo?”
    “Well, it’s complicated. She had better explain it. She’s a cop and she was after them-“
    “A cop?”
    “I’m afraid that is another semantic inadequacy. The Mother Thing knows what we mean by cop and I think she finds the idea bewildering if not impossible. But what would you call a person who hunts down miscreants? A cop, no?”
    “A cop, yes, I guess.”
    “So would I.” She looked again at her watch. “But right now I think we had better hang on. We ought to be at halfway point in a few minutes- and a skew-flip is disconcerting even if you are strapped down.”
    I had read about skew-flip turn-overs, but only as a theoretical maneuver; I had never heard of a ship that could do one. If this was a ship. The floor felt as solid as concrete and as motionless. “I don’t see anything to hang on to.”
    “Not much, I’m afraid. But if we sit down in the narrowest part and push against each other, I think we can brace enough not to slide around. But let’s hurry; my watch might be slow.”
    We sat on the floor in the narrow part where the angled walls were about five feet apart. We faced each other and pushed our shoes against each other, each of us bracing like an Alpinist inching his way up a rock chimney-my socks against her tennis shoes, rather, for my shoes were still on my workbench, so far as I knew. I wondered if they had simply dumped Oscar in the pasture and if Dad would find him.
    “Push hard, Kip, and brace your hands against the deck.”
    I did so. “How do you know when they’ll turn over, Peewee?”
    “I haven’t been unconscious-they just tripped me and carried me inside-so I know when we took off. If we assume that the Moon is their destination, as it probably is, and if we assume one gravity the whole jump -which can’t be far off; my weight feels normal. Doesn’t yours?”
    I considered it. “I think so.”
    “Then it probably is, even though my own sense of weight may be distorted from being on the Moon. If those assumptions are correct, then it is almost exactly a three-and-a-half-hour trip and-“ Peewee looked at her watch. “-E.T.A. should be nine-thirty in the morning and turn-over at seven-forty-five. Any moment now.”
    “Is it that late?” I looked at my watch. “Why, I’ve got a quarter of two.”
    “You’re on your zone time. I’m on Moon time-Greenwich time, that is. Oh, oh! Here we go!”
    The floor tilted, swerved, and swooped like a roller coaster, and my semicircular canals did a samba. Things steadied down as I pulled out of acute dizziness.
    “You all right?” asked Peewee.
    I managed to focus my eyes. “Uh, I think so. It felt like a one-and-a-half gainer into a dry pool.”
    “This pilot does it faster than I dared to. It doesn’t really hurt, after your eyes uncross. But that settles it. We’re headed for the Moon. We’ll be there in an hour and three quarters.”
    I still couldn’t believe it. “Peewee? What kind of a ship can gun at one gee all the way to the Moon? They been keeping it secret? And what were you doing on the Moon anyhow? And why were you stealing a ship?”
    She sighed and spoke to her doll. “He’s a