I felt the spaceship rising. I felt her reaching for the stars. I was
a part of her. I screamed with pain and exaltation. The hand pressed
harder, choking the breath from me, stripping the plastiskin away in
long, damp strips.
Darkness flickered before my eyes. I lay helpless and afraid and
transfigured with a joy I had never known before.
Distorted, half-naked, I clung to life.
* * * * *
When I opened my eyes, they were all around me. They stood in a
half-circle, trim, uniformed. Their smooth faces and cropped hair
and softly molded bodies looked strange against the functional steel
angularity of the astrogation blister.