The Project Gutenberg EBook of Mr. Spaceship, by Philip K. Dick

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Title: Mr. Spaceship

Author: Philip K. Dick

Release Date: May 25, 2010 [EBook #32522]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MR. SPACESHIP ***

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

This etext was produced from Imagination Stories of Science
and Fantasy January 1953. Extensive research did not uncover
any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was
renewed.

A human brain-controlled spacecraft would mean mechanical
perfection. This was accomplished, and something unforeseen: a
strange entity called--

Mr. Spaceship

_By_

_Philip K. Dick_

[Illustration]

Kramer leaned back. "You can see the situation. How can we deal with a
factor like this? The perfect variable."

"Perfect? Prediction should still be possible. A living thing still
acts from necessity, the same as inanimate material. But the
cause-effect chain is more subtle; there are more factors to be
considered. The difference is quantitative, I think. The reaction of
the living organism parallels natural causation, but with greater
complexity."

Gross and Kramer looked up at the board plates, suspended on the wall,
still dripping, the images hardening into place. Kramer traced a line
with his pencil.

"See that? It's a pseudopodium. They're alive, and so far, a weapon we
can't beat. No mechanical system can compete with that, simple or
intricate. We'll have to scrap the Johnson Control and find something
else."

"Meanwhile the war continues as it is. Stalemate. Checkmate. They
can't get to us, and we can't get through their living minefield."

Kramer nodded. "It's a perfect defense, for them. But there still
might be one answer."

"What's that?"

"Wait a minute." Kramer turned to his rocket expert, sitting with the
charts and files. "The heavy cruiser that returned this week. It
didn't actually touch, did it? It came close but there was no
contact."

"Correct." The expert nodded. "The mine was twenty miles off. The
cruiser