The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Passenger, by Kenneth Harmon

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Title: The Passenger

Author: Kenneth Harmon

Illustrator: Connell

Release Date: November 19, 2009 [EBook #30500]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE PASSENGER

By KENNETH HARMON

_The classic route to a man's
heart is through his stomach
--and she was just his dish._

Illustrated by CONNELL

The transport swung past Centaurus on the last leg of her long journey
to Sol. There was no flash, no roar as she swept across the darkness of
space. As silent as a ghost, as quiet as a puff of moonlight she moved,
riding the gravitational fields that spread like tangled, invisible
spider webs between the stars.

Within the ship there was also silence, but the air was stirred by a
faint, persistent vibration from the field generators. This noiseless
pulse stole into every corner of the ship, through long, empty
passageways lined with closed stateroom doors, up spiraling stairways to
the bridge and navigational decks, and down into vast and echoing holds,
filled with strange cargo from distant worlds.

This vibration pulsed through Lenore's stateroom. As she relaxed on her
couch, she bathed in it, letting it flow through her to tingle in her
fingertips and whisper behind her closed eyelids.

"Home," it pulsed, "you're going home."

* * * * *

She repeated the word to herself, moving her lips softly but making no
sound. "Home," she breathed, "back home to Earth." Back to the proud old
planet that was always home, no matter how far you wandered under alien
suns. Back to the shining cities clustered along blue seacoasts. Back to
the golden grainlands of the central states and the high, blue grandeur
of the western mountains. And back to the myriad tiny things that she
remembered best, the little, friendly things ... a stretch of
maple-shadowed streets heavy and still with the heat of a summer noon; a
flurry of pigeons in the courthouse square; yellow