• Complain

Robert Heinlein - Logic of Empire

Here you can read online Robert Heinlein - Logic of Empire full text of the book (entire story) in english for free. Download pdf and epub, get meaning, cover and reviews about this ebook. genre: Science fiction. Description of the work, (preface) as well as reviews are available. Best literature library LitArk.com created for fans of good reading and offers a wide selection of genres:

Romance novel Science fiction Adventure Detective Science History Home and family Prose Art Politics Computer Non-fiction Religion Business Children Humor

Choose a favorite category and find really read worthwhile books. Enjoy immersion in the world of imagination, feel the emotions of the characters or learn something new for yourself, make an fascinating discovery.

No cover

Logic of Empire: summary, description and annotation

We offer to read an annotation, description, summary or preface (depends on what the author of the book "Logic of Empire" wrote himself). If you haven't found the necessary information about the book — write in the comments, we will try to find it.

Robert Heinlein: author's other books


Who wrote Logic of Empire? Find out the surname, the name of the author of the book and a list of all author's works by series.

Logic of Empire — read online for free the complete book (whole text) full work

Below is the text of the book, divided by pages. System saving the place of the last page read, allows you to conveniently read the book "Logic of Empire" online for free, without having to search again every time where you left off. Put a bookmark, and you can go to the page where you finished reading at any time.

Light

Font size:

Reset

Interval:

Bookmark:

Make

Robert A. Heinlein

Logic of Empire

'Don't be a sentimental fool, Sam!'

'Sentimental, or not,' Jones persisted, 'I know human slavery when I see it. That's what you've got on Venus.'

Humphrey Wingate snorted. 'That's utterly ridiculous. The company's labor clients are employees, working under legal contracts, freely entered into.'

Jones' eyebrows raised slightly. 'So? What kind of a contract is it that throws a man into jail if he quits his job?'

'That's not the case. Any client can quit his job on the usual two weeks notice-I ought to know; I -'

'Yes, I know,' agreed Jones in a tired voice. 'You're a lawyer. You know all about contracts. But the trouble with you, you dunderheaded fool, is that all you understand is legal phrases. Free contract-nuts! What I'm talking about is facts, not legalisms. I don't care what the contract says-those people are slaves!'

Wingate emptied his glass and set it down. 'So I'm a dunderheaded fool, am I? Well, I'll tell you what you are, Sam Houston Jones-you are a half-baked parlor pink. You've never had to work for a living in your life and you think it's just too dreadful that anyone else should have to. No, wait a minute,' he continued, as Jones opened his mouth, 'listen to me. The company's clients on Venus are a damn sight better off than most people of their own class here on Earth. They are certain of a job, of food, and a place to sleep. If they get sick, they're certain of medical attention. The trouble with people of that class is that they don't want to work -,

'Who does?'

'Don't be funny. The trouble is, if they weren't under a fairly tight contract, they'd throw up a good job the minute they got bored with it and expect the company to give 'em a free ride back to Earth. Now it may not have occurred to your fine, free charitable mind, but the company has obligations to its stockholders-you, for instance!-and it can't afford to run an interplanetary ferry for the benefit of a class of people that feel that the world owes them a living.'

'You got me that time, pal,' Jones acknowledged with a wry face, '-that crack about me being a stockholder. I'm ashamed of it.'

'Then why don't you sell?'

Jones looked disgusted. 'What kind of a solution is that? Do you think I can avoid the responsibility of knowing about it just unloading my stock?'

'Oh, the devil with it,' said Wingate. 'Drink up.'

'Righto,' agreed Jones. It was his first night aground after a practice cruise as a reserve officer; he needed to catch up on his drinking. Too bad, thought Wingate, that the cruise should have touched at Venus-'All out! All out! Up aaaall you idlers! Show a leg there! Show a leg and grab a sock!' The raucous voice sawed its way through Wingate's aching head. He opened his eyes, was blinded by raw white light, and shut them hastily. But the voice would not let him alone. 'Ten minutes till breakfast,' it rasped. 'Come and get it, or we'll throw it out!'

He opened his eyes again, and with trembling willpower forced them to track. Legs moved past his eyes, denim clad legs mostly, though some were bare-repulsive hairy nakedness. A confusion of male voices, from which he could catch words but not sentences, was accompanied by an obbligato of metallic sounds, muffled but pervasive-shrrg, shrrg, thump! Shrrg, shrrg, thump! The thump with which the cycle was completed hurt his aching head but was not as nerve stretching as another noise, a toneless whirring sibilance which he could neither locate nor escape.

The air was full of the odor of human beings, too many of them in too small a space. There was nothing so distinct as to be fairly termed a stench, nor was the supply of oxygen inadequate. But the room was filled with the warm, slightly musky smell of bodies still heated by bedclothes, bodies not dirty but not freshly washed. It was oppressive and unappetizing-in his present state almost nauseating.

He began to have some appreciation of the nature of his surroundings; he was in a bunkroom of some sort. It was crowded with men, men getting up, shuffling about, pulling on clothes. He lay on the bottom-most of a tier of four narrow bunks. Through the interstices between the legs which crowded around him and moved past his face he could see other such tiers around the walls and away from the walls, stacked floor to ceiling and supported by stanchions.

Someone sat down on the foot of Wingate's bunk, crowding his broad fundamental against Wingate's ankles while he drew on his socks. Wingate squirmed his feet away from the intrusion. The stranger turned his face toward him. 'Did I crowd 'ja, bud? Sorry.' Then he added, not unkindly, 'Better rustle out of there. The Master-at-Arms'll be riding you to get them bunks up.' He yawned hugely, and started to get up, quite evidently having dismissed Wingate and Wingate's affairs from his mind.

'Wait a minute!' Wingate demanded hastily.

'Huh?'

'Where am I? In jail?'

The stranger studied Wingate's bloodshot eyes and puffy, unwashed face with detached but unmalicious interest. 'Boy, oh boy, you must 'a' done a good job of drinking up your bounty money.'

'Bounty money? What the hell are you talking about?'

'Honest to God, don't you know where you are?'

'No.'

'Well ... ' The other seemed reluctant to proclaim a truth made silly by its self-evidence until Wingate's expression convinced him that he really wanted to know. 'Well, you're in the Evening Star, headed for Venus.'

A couple of minutes later the stranger touched him on the arm. 'Don't take it so hard, bud. There's nothing to get excited about.'

Wingate took his hands from his face and pressed them against his temples. 'It's not real,' he said, speaking more to himself than to the other. 'It can't be real -,

'Stow it. Come and get your breakfast.'

'I couldn't eat anything.'

'Nuts. Know how you feel ... felt that way sometimes myself. Food is just the ticket.' The Master-at-Arms settled the issue by coming up and prodding Wingate in the ribs with his truncheon.

'What d'yuh think this is-sickbay, or first class? Get those bunks hooked up.'

'Easy, mate, easy,' Wingate's new acquaintance conciliated, 'our pal's not himself this morning.' As he spoke he dragged Wingate to his feet with one massive hand, then with the other shoved the tier of bunks up and against the wall. Hooks clicked into their sockets, and the tier stayed up, flat to the wall.

'He'll be a damn sight less himself if he interferes with my routine,' the petty officer predicted. But he moved on. Wingate stood barefooted on the floorplates, immobile and overcome by a feeling of helpless indecision which was re-inforced by the fact that he was dressed only in his underwear. His champion studied him.

'You forgot your pillow. Here-' He reached down into the pocket formed by the lowest bunk and the wall and hauled out a flat package covered with transparent plastic. He broke the seal and shook out the contents, a single coverall garment of heavy denim. Wingate put it on gratefully. 'You can get the squeezer to issue you a pair of slippers after breakfast,' his friend added. 'Right now we gotta eat.'

The last of the queue had left the galley window by the time they reached it and the window was closed. Wingate's companion pounded on it. 'Open up in there!'

It slammed open. 'No seconds,' a face announced.

The stranger prevented the descent of the window with his hand. 'We don't want seconds, shipmate, we want firsts.'

'Why the devil can't you show up on time?' the galley functionary groused. But he slapped two ration cartons down on the broad sill of the issuing window. The big fellow handed one to Wingate, and sat down on the floor-plates, his back supported by the galley bulkhead.

'What's your name, bud?' he enquired, as he skinned the cover off his ration. 'Mine's Hartley-"Satchel" Hartley.'

Next page
Light

Font size:

Reset

Interval:

Bookmark:

Make

Similar books «Logic of Empire»

Look at similar books to Logic of Empire. We have selected literature similar in name and meaning in the hope of providing readers with more options to find new, interesting, not yet read works.


Robert Heinlein - By His Bootstraps
By His Bootstraps
Robert Heinlein
Robert Heinlein - Starship Troopers
Starship Troopers
Robert Heinlein
Robert Heinlein - The Menace From Earth
The Menace From Earth
Robert Heinlein
Robert Heinlein - For Us, The Living
For Us, The Living
Robert Heinlein
Robert Heinlein - Tunnel In The Sky
Tunnel In The Sky
Robert Heinlein
Robert Heinlein - Orphans of the Sky
Orphans of the Sky
Robert Heinlein
Robert Heinlein - Friday
Friday
Robert Heinlein
Robert Heinlein - Farmer in the Sky
Farmer in the Sky
Robert Heinlein
Robert Heinlein - Between Planets
Between Planets
Robert Heinlein
No cover
No cover
Heinlein Robert Anson
Reviews about «Logic of Empire»

Discussion, reviews of the book Logic of Empire and just readers' own opinions. Leave your comments, write what you think about the work, its meaning or the main characters. Specify what exactly you liked and what you didn't like, and why you think so.