'Outrider' (11,000 words.)
In a glide that was only a few degrees off level flight the ship
slid into a tenuous upper reaches of the atmosphere.
No-first-name Gregg is travelling as a mere company employee on
the express liner Wallaby, en route from Mars to Earth.
Then the A-(for Allen) Drive goes badly wrong, leaving the ship
blind, deaf, and rudderless. Like Conrad's Lord Jim, Gregg
has a Guilty Secret in His Past for which he must Redeem Himself
with an Act of Heroism. Which he does, at hazard, becoming
the nearest thing to a human barnacle in the process. Gripping
stuff (pun intended). And 'Outrider' is a well-fitted story:
one word more would be too many; one less would be too few.
Synopsis by Graham Andrews
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