The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Very Black, by Dean Evans

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Title: The Very Black

Author: Dean Evans

Release Date: March 10, 2010 [EBook #31586]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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Transcriber's Note:

This etext was produced from Fantastic Universe Aug-Sept 1953.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S.
copyright on this publication was renewed.

[_Anders was pretty sure he was going to die. No one had yet
flown the new-style jet job and lived to tell the tale. A story both
chilling and heart-warming that shows us how bravely the human
equation can operate when the chips are stacked against it._]

the very black

_by ... Dean Evans_

Jet test-pilots and love do not mix too happily as a
rule--especially with a ninth-dimensional alter ego messing
the whole act.

* * * * *

There was nothing peculiar about that certain night I suppose--except
to me personally. A little earlier in the evening I'd walked out on
the Doll, Margie Hayman--and a man doesn't do that and cheer over it.
Not if he's in love with the Doll he doesn't--not _this_ doll. If
you've ever seen her you'll give the nod on that.

The trouble had been Air Force's new triangular ship--the new saucer.
Not radio controlled, this one--this one was to carry a real live
pilot. At least that's what the doll's father, who was Chief Engineer
at Airtech, Inc., had in mind when he designed it.

The doll had said to me sort of casually, "Got something, Baby." She
called me baby. Me, one eighty-five in goose pimples.

"Toss it over, Doll," I said.

"No strings on you, Baby." She'd grinned that little one-sided grin of
hers. "No strings on you. Not even one. You're a flyboy, you are, and
you can take off or land any time any place you feel like it."

"Stake your mom's Charleston cup on that," I said.

She nodded. Her