The Project Gutenberg EBook of All Day September, by Roger Kuykendall

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Title: All Day September

Author: Roger Kuykendall

Release Date: January 4, 2008 [EBook #24161]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ALL DAY SEPTEMBER ***

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ALL DAY SEPTEMBER

By ROGER KUYKENDALL

Illustrated by van Dongen

[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Astounding Science
Fiction June 1959. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]

_Some men just haven't got good sense. They just can't seem to
learn the most fundamental things. Like when there's no use
trying--when it's time to give up because it's hopeless...._

The meteor, a pebble, a little larger than a match head, traveled
through space and time since it came into being. The light from the star
that died when the meteor was created fell on Earth before the first
lungfish ventured from the sea.

In its last instant, the meteor fell on the Moon. It was impeded by
Evans' tractor.

It drilled a small, neat hole through the casing of the steam turbine,
and volitized upon striking the blades. Portions of the turbine also
volitized; idling at eight thousand RPM, it became unstable. The shaft
tried to tie itself into a knot, and the blades, damaged and undamaged
were spit through the casing. The turbine again reached a stable state,
that is, stopped. Permanently stopped.

It was two days to sunrise, where Evans stood.

It was just before sunset on a spring evening in September in Sydney.
The shadow line between day and night could be seen from the Moon to be
drifting across Australia.

Evans, who had no watch, thought of the time as a quarter after
Australia.

Evans was a prospector, and like all prospectors, a sort of jackknife
geologist, selenologist, rather. His tractor and equipment cost two
hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Fifty thousand was paid