STARMAN'S QUEST

By Robert Silverberg

The Lexman Spacedrive gave manthe stars—but at a fantastic price.

Interstellar exploration, colonization,and trade became things of reality.The benefits to Earth were enormous.But because of the Fitzgerald Contraction,a man who shipped out to spacecould never live a normal life on Earthagain.

Travelling at speeds close to that oflight, spacemen lived at an acceleratedpace. A nine-year trip to Alpha Centauriand back seemed to take onlysix weeks to men on a spaceship. Whenthey returned, their friends and relativeshad aged enormously in comparison,old customs had changed, eventhe language was different.

So they did the only thing they coulddo. They formed a guild of Spacers,and lived their entire lives on the starships,raised their families there, andnever set foot outside their own Enclaveduring their landings on Earth.They grew to despise Earthers, and theEarthers grew to despise them in turn.There was no logical reason for it, exceptthat they were—different. Thatwas enough.

But not all Starmen liked being different.Alan Donnell loved space, andthe ship, and life aboard it. His father,Captain of the Valhalla, lived for nothingbut the traditions of the Spacers.But his twin brother, Steve, couldn'tstand it, and so he jumped ship.

It had happened only a few weeksbefore, as Alan experienced it. ForSteve, though, he knew it would havebeen nine years in the past. Now, whileAlan was still only 17 years old, Stevewould be 26!

Thinking about it got under Alan'sskin, finally. The bond between twinsis a strong one, and Alan couldn'tstand to see it broken so abruptly andpermanently. There were other things,too. If Alan remained on the Valhalla,he'd have to marry one of the girls ofthe ship, and the choice of those hisown age was pitifully small. And aboveall else, he was convinced that thesecret of the Cavour Hyperdrive washidden somewhere on Earth—the CavourHyperdrive, that would enableman to leap interstellar distances almostinstantaneously, and bring an endto the sharp differences betweenEarthers and Spacers.

These forces worked quietly withinhim—and suddenly, without reallymeaning to, Alan in turn jumped shipand remained on Earth!

There were many times when heregretted it. He found Earth a bewilderingand utterly hostile place. To stayalive, he had to play a ruthless game—andhe couldn't even find anyone totell him the rules. Within the first fewhours, he came dangerously close tobeing murdered and then to beingthrown in jail. He had no clues to thewhereabouts of Steve, and couldn'teven be sure his nine-years-older twinbrother was still alive. And the CavourHyperdrive was the merest will-o'-the-wisp,dancing wildly before him in hisdreams.

Somehow, he survived. It wasn'teasy, and he didn't do it without serioussacrifices. He became a professionalgambler, and almost became adrug addict. He became involved in amonstrous criminal syndicate, knowingthat no criminal could possibly escapepunishment. He betrayed the fewfriends he had, and fought furiouslyagainst everyone and everything heencountered.

He thought longingly, often, of theValhalla, and his lost life aboard her.But he never completely lost hope.

Starman's Quest is Alan Donnell'sstory—a story that will keep you onthe edge of your chair until the verylast page. It's the most exciting bookyet from one of the most exciting newwriters ever to hit the science-fictionfield.

GNOME PRESS, INC....