This book expands on the information in Stranded on Grzbt, that the Valryssian Clan has a human ancestor! Wil escaped Nazi Germany because he didn’t want to make killer bombs. Years later he builds a space rocket and launches himself into space. Certain death, of course, but worth it to see space.
Excerpt:
The next day the tube was taken from his arm and he was given odd, stretchy clothing that reminded him of knits but didn’t seem to be made with yarn. Lonen and another medical person took him through the ship on a floating wagon to his new quarters. His apartment was small, one room with a sectioned off bed. The walls and floors were made of silvery metal and a strange glowing ceiling lit the room.
Soon a tan uniformed blue man and some type of furry being with metal hands brought his belongings on a floating wagon. Mitzi, the kittens and the hens were on it in cages, but not his plants. His crate of notebooks and pile of clothing were there. No tools.
Too bad about the tools. He wanted to get a hold of that floating wagon and take it apart to see how it floated. Someday.
“Who’s this?” He waved at the furry, upright alien.
“It is amalgam. Part work beast, part robotics.”
The amalgam was small, perhaps three feet tall, had pale blue fur, big dark eyes, rather like a cow, with long lashes. Four limbs, similar to a human, but six fingers and toes.. Its torso had a metal plate, strapped on its chest. Three fingers were metal and three were fur. It had a metal and glass crown attachment around its head.
“Does it think? Speak?”
The man looked confused. “It does simple work.”
All right. Something about it looked …sad.
Wil was so weary of sad. And force. And no choices.
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