The Project Gutenberg EBook of Has Anyone Here Seen Kelly?, by Bryce Walton

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: Has Anyone Here Seen Kelly?

Author: Bryce Walton

Illustrator: Paul Orban

Release Date: September 25, 2009 [EBook #30086]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HAS ANYONE HERE SEEN KELLY? ***

Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

[Illustration]

_The body tanks had to be replenished and the ship had to
be serviced--and the crew was having a Lotus dream in its
bed 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 communal singing brought a
pleasant kind of glow that throbbed gently in the control room.

"'Has anybody here seen Kelly ... K-E-double-L-Y?'"

"Shut up and dig my thought!" Kelly's stubborn will insisted. "I'm going
on out for a while!"

The delicate loom of the Crew's light pattern increased its frequency a
little and the song stopped. "Better not," the Crew said.

"But why not?"

"No need."

"We could be running into something bad," Kelly thought.

"No danger now, Kelly. Checking the ship is just a waste of time."

"How can you waste what you have so damn much of?" Kelly thought.

"Do not leave us again, Kelly. We love you and you are the most
interesting part of the Crew when you're with it."

"The ship ought to be checked. Our bodies ought to be looked at."

"We know there is no danger any more, Kelly. Do not go. There are so
many interesting experiences we have not even begun to share yet. We are
only half way through your life and we have not even started to
experience your impressions of your colorful and complex Earth culture.
And we have not even started on the adult lives of Lakrit or Lljub. Come
back with your Crew, Kelly."

"But no one's checked the ship for over a year!"

"Please do not worry about the ship, Kelly. In fifty years nothing has
gone wrong. We can trust the ship thoroughly now, it will take care of
us."