"C M Kornbluth - The Goodly Creatures" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kornbluth C M)

"Mac, does anybody there know exactly what the, I.S.U. initiation fee is?"



"I'll see, J. F."
 A moment later he heard Angelo's voice. "It's kind of complicated, Mr. FarwellтАФmaybe to keep
anybody from saying it's exactly this or exactly that. Here's the way it works: base fee, $1000, to be paid
before they issue you a work card. What they call 'accrual fee' on top of thatтАФ$100 if you're twenty
years old, $200 if you're twenty-two, $300 if you're twenty-four and so- on up to 30, and after that you
can't



join. You can pay accrual fee out of your first voyage. From the accrual fee you can deduct $50 for
each dependent. On top of that there's a 5 per cent assessment of your first-voyage pay only, earmarked
for the I.S.U. Space Medicine Research Foundation at Johns Hopkins.. And that's all."



Farwell had been jotting it down. "Thanks, Angelo," he said absently. The Space Medicine Research
thing was good, but he'd have to be careful that they weren't represented at the F.P.A.C.S.H.; you didn't
want a direct union tie-in there. Now what could you do about the fee? Get the union to dig up
somebody who's paid only the $1000 base because of age and the right number of dependents. Forget
the accrual and the assessment. How many people on a space shipтАФ50, 60? Make it 60 to get a
plausibly unround number. Sixty into 1000 is 168%oo.



"Dear Editor: Is there anybody riding the spaceways who would not cheerfully pay $16.67 cents to
insure that the crewmen who hold his life in their hands are thproughly experienced veterans of
interplanetary flight? Is there anybody so short-sighted that he would embark with a green crew to save
$16.67? Of course not! And yet that is what certain short-sighted persons demand! Throwing up a
smoke-screen of loose charges to divert the public from the paramount issue of SAFETY they accuseтАФ"



That wasn't exactly it. He had made it look as though the passengers paid the I.S.U. initiation fee. Well,
he'd struck a keynote; Copy could take it from there.



And then there ought to be a stuntтАФa good, big stunt with pix possibilities. Girls, or violence, or both.
Maybe a model demonstrating an escape hatch or something at a trade show, something goes wrong, a
heroic I.S.U. member in good standing who happens to be nearby dashes inтАФ



He was feeling quite himself again.