《Long Way 》作者： - A. Bertram Chandler 【EPUB】

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THE LONG WAY There was Bruce Clayden, spaceman on holiday, and there was Betty Gavin, who was a not- unsuccessful painter. They were naked, both of them, but their relationship (although Clayden had entertained hopes that it might become otherwise) was purely platonic. They were wearing the rig of the day of the Helios Club. Clayden had joined from the need to relax after months cooped up in a tin coffin, and as a revolt against the obligatory wearing of uniform every waking hour, and the girl had become a member partly because of the opportunities for the study of human anatomies of all shapes and sizes. There was not, thought Clayden, watching her as she fussed with her little portable coffee maker, anything wrong with either the shape or the size of her own anatomy. The sunshine was lustrous on her golden hair, on the gleaming skin that was perhaps two shades darker, on the firm yet soft curves of her. She was frowning as she tinkered with the temperamental machine, and she was one of those women who, in such circumstances, somehow convey the impression of a very charming schoolgirl whose sums just will not come out right. Not that she was little. He said helpfully, "I suppose you charged the power pack" She snapped, "There's no need. This thing lives on solar energy." Clayden looked up at the cloudless sky. "You must have left it standing in the shade." She told him, "The trouble with you, Bruce, is that you think that only qualified astronauts are competent to handle even the simplest machinery." "The trouble with all of us," he said, half seriously, "is that we have all become far too dependent upon machinery. Even on the premises of this club, where we