The Project Gutenberg EBook of What Need of Man?, by Harold Calin

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Title: What Need of Man?

Author: Harold Calin

Illustrator: Summers

Release Date: January 6, 2010 [EBook #30867]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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Transcriber's Note:

This etext was produced from Amazing Stories, February, 1961.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S.
copyright on this publication was renewed.

WHAT NEED of MAN?

By HAROLD CALIN

Illustrated by SUMMERS

Bannister was a rocket scientist. He started with the
premise of testing man's reaction to space probes under
actual conditions; but now he was just testing space
probes--and man was a necessary evil to contend with.

* * * * *

When you are out in a clear night in summer, the sky looks very warm
and friendly. The moon is a big pleasant place where it may not be so
humid as where you are, and it is lighter than anything you've ever
seen. That's the way it is in summer. You never think about space
being "out there". It's all one big wonderful thing, and you can never
really fall off, or have anything bad happen to you. There is just
that much more to see. You lie on the grass and look at the sky long
enough and you fall into sort of a detached mood. It's suddenly as if
you're looking down at the sky and you're lying on a ceiling by some
reverse process of gravitation, and everything is absolutely pleasant.

[Illustration]

In winter it's quite another thing, of course. That's because the sky
never looks warm. In winter, if you are in a cold climate, the sky
doesn't appear at all friendly. It's beautiful, mind you, but never
friendly. That is when you see it as it really is. Summer has a way of
making it look friendly. The way you see it on a winter night is only
the merest idea of what it is really like.