The Project Gutenberg EBook of Shock Absorber, by E.G. von Wald

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Title: Shock Absorber

Author: E.G. von Wald

Release Date: January 21, 2008 [EBook #24380]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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SHOCK ABSORBER

BY E. G. VON WALD

Illustrated by van Dongen

[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Astounding Science
Fiction June 1955. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]

_A man acts on what he believes the facts are, not on the facts. He
lives or dies by what the facts are. Now sometimes you don't have
time to correct a man's beliefs, yet he must act correctly...._

The aging little psychologist looked down at the captain's insignia on
his sleeve and scowled.

"I know it's a lousy, fouled-up situation, commander," he said with
evident irony. "You speak of discipline. Well, it's bad enough here on
Mars, where a junior officer like you feels free to argue with a full
captain like me, but out there with the fleet, discipline is now
virtually nonexistent."

He looked up again and quickly added, "Oh, of course there is a
discipline of a sort, and in its own way it is quite effective. Strict,
too, as you will find. But it has few of the marks of the military
academy, of which the regular officers were so fond. Perhaps that was
the reason why they let the situation get away from them, and why we are
in charge of it now."

"I still think--" the commander started, but he was interrupted again.

"I know what you think, commander. You can forget it. It's wishful
thinking and we cannot permit such daydreaming in our precarious
condition. Face the facts as they exist in the present. After we kick
the aliens out of our solar system, maybe we can go back to the old
ideas again. Maybe. I'm not even very sure of that. But as for now, the
characteristic of despair is the lowest common denomina