Question: What is the plot of the story involving two characters who embark on an unexpected adventure in space, where they encounter challenges and a mysterious girl while trying to fulfill a lucrative order for a specific asteroid?

Answer:
Bob Parker, the President of Interplanetary Hauling & Moving Co., sells asteroids to wealthy people on earth. Clients ask for asteroids with size parameters and specifications, and Bob finds them in space and hauls them to earth. His company is almost bankrupt because a rival company, Saylor & Saylor, stole his idea and now offers the same services. Bob receives mail from Mr. Andrew S. Burnside with a request for an asteroid that he would like to use in an upcoming wedding.

Bob and his partner Queazy set out to find the perfect asteroid for Mr. Burnside, although they know it’s a longshot. Fairly quickly, they find one that looks perfect. The men land on the asteroid, and Bob deploys his atomic-whirl spectroscope to test it. Suddenly, a beautiful woman interrupts him and demands that they leave the asteroid. She pulls out her spasticizer gun before telling them that they can have it in a month after she’s gone. Bob explains that they are desperate, but the girl retorts that her fate is worse than death if she leaves.

Suddenly, the Saylor brothers’ ship appears, and Bob tells the girl that they have to fight this enemy together. Wally and Billy Saylor, along with three other men, jump out of the ship. Bob tells them that Mr. Burnside has ordered this asteroid, and the Saylor brothers say that they received the same order. Bob quickly grabs the girl’s spasticizer while Queazy throws his body at Billy. However, Wally manages to shoot the gun out of Bob’s hand and attack him. Bob is knocked unconscious in the scuffle.

When Bob wakes up, he is completely alone, floating in space. He panics because he has very little oxygen left. Finally, he hears Queazy’s voice explaining that the girl used her ship’s technology to find them both. The mystery girl introduces herself as Starre Lowenthal, the granddaughter of Mr. Burnside. She concedes that this entire mission was fake. She told her grandfather that she would only marry her fiance Mac if he could get this particular asteroid, and then she made plans to conquer and protect the asteroid so it could not be supplied for the wedding.

Bob is confident that they can reach the Saylor brothers before they bring the asteroid back to earth, but his plan does nothing to protect Starre from marrying a man she doesn’t love. She agrees to help Bob and Queazy. Within five days, Bob realizes he is in love with Starre.

Starre compares her small ship to a yo-yo, and Bob gets an idea - they will use Starre’s ship like a yo-yo to retrieve the asteroid from the Saylor brothers. Once the team catches up to the Saylor brothers, Bob flings Starre’s ship at the asteroid several times, and Wally calls them to tell them that they might die as a result of the damage their ship has sustained. Bob makes it clear that they have no intention of stopping, and the Saylor brothers release the asteroid.

Answer: Bob Parker and his business partner Quentin "Queazy" Zuyler fly through an asteroid belt searching for one with exact specifications in terms of size and mineral composition requested by a wealthy client, Andrew S. Burnside. Bob and Queazy operate the Interplanetary Hauling Company, which provides the innovative service of delivering an asteroid to the client's home. Bob had invented this service, but his business is suffering thanks to strong-arming by their main competitor, the Saylor Brothers. They need to find Mr. Burnside's asteroid because the payout of $550,000 will save their business. When Bob and Queazy discover an appropriate asteroid, they land and survey the surface to check its dimensions and mineral composition. However, they are interrupted by a beautiful young woman who confirms the composition of the asteroid but demands they leave at once or else she will alert the Interplanetary Commission that they have broken the law. When Bob sees her dumbbell-shaped spaceship, he realizes she comes from wealth and becomes obstinate; he shares with her the importance of this asteroid to his business. While the woman acknowledges his situation, she says if she leaves the asteroid, she will face "a fate worse than death!" As they finish their conversation, the Saylor Brothers' ship arrives, and Bob informs the woman that they must stick together to stand against them. Bob argues with Wally and Billy Saylor and eventually he and Queazy attack the two brothers. In the ensuing fight, the Saylors use the woman's paralyzing spasticizer to disable the three rivals and leave them scattered and stranded to die in space. When Bob awakens, he realizes he is running out of air, but soon Queazy retrieves him in their ship with the woman's dumbbell ship in tow; the woman had saved Queazy and together they tracked down Bob. The woman reveals her name is Starre Lowenthal, and she is Andrew S. Burnside's granddaughter. She explains she had concocted a scheme to avoid having to marry her fiance, Mac, who was a protégé of her grandfather's: She said she would marry Mac if they could hold a wedding atop an asteroid with very unique specifications. Her grandfather then commissioned Bob's company as well as the Saylor's to ensure such an asteroid would be discovered. And Starre came to the asteroid to ensure that if someone did find it, they wouldn't be able to take it back with them. Although Bob is in love with Starre, he still needs the money for his business, so he decides to pursue the Saylor Brothers and retrieve the asteroid after all; he assures Starre that they will deal with her marriage issue later. Making use of his ship's ability to accelerate and decelerate extremely fast, Bob attaches Starre's ship to theirs and uses it as a kind of yo-yo to threaten and disable the Saylor Brothers' ship. They relinquish the asteroid, and Bob, Queazy, and Starre win the day.

Answer:
Bob Parker and Quentin Zuyler (Queazy) are co-pilots of a ship that has been on a mission for three weeks to locate a valuable asteroid. One of the richest men in the world, Andrew S. Burnside, of Philadelphia, has requested that Bob specifically source an asteroid for his backyard of an exact dimension and composition for a wedding on June 2nd. Having weddings on asteroids in backyards had become a fad among the richest people on Earth.
When they land on the asteroid, they put on spacesuits and begin exploring and testing its composition. They’re startled by a woman who is squatting on the asteroid and claiming she is protected by law to remain there. She is certain about not wanting the asteroid to move from its position, and even pulls a weapon (a spasticizer) on Bob to try to prove her point when he tries to plead with her that his livelihood depends on them taking the asteroid back to Earth. Just as Bob and Queazy were turning to leave the asteroid, the Saylor brothers landed on it.
The Saylor brothers were a rival operation to Bob and Queazy, and Bob says they are known for being rough to get their way. They landed on the asteroid with three other men, claimed they also had a direct order from Mr. Burnside for the asteroid, and began an attack on Bob and Queazy. Bob made a diversion with the woman’s paralyzing weapon, Queazy threw Billy Saylor off the asteroid into space, and Wally Saylor shot the weapon out of Bob’s hand.
Bob was unconscious after the fight and woke up spinning in outer space running out of oxygen. With his last breath he called for Queazy on the intercom and was swiftly rescued by both he and the woman and revived to life. The woman revealed herself to be Andrew S. Burnside's granddaughter,  Starre Lowenthal. She was squatting on the asteroid to try to stop its delivery to Earth. She told her grandfather that she would only marry the man he set her up with, Mac, if it was atop this exact asteroid - thinking that there was no way it was possible for it to be found, and if by small chance it was she would scare those people away.

Bob tells Starre they can still intercept the Saylor brothers’ ship since they have to take a long slow orbit back to Earth while his ship can go direct because it’s not towing an asteroid. Along the five day journey to Earth, Bob and Starre fall in love with each other, but Starre seems determined that she would have to keep her promise to marry Mac if the asteroid is delivered. They hook up Starre’s dumbbell shaped spaceship that they are towing like a yo-yo and use it to bludgeon the Saylor brothers’ ship, causing them to release the asteroid and jet away into outer space, leaving Bob, Queasy and Starre in possession.

Answer:
Bob Parker and his partner Queazy are searching for an asteroid of exact proportions to meet a client’s demand. This job is very important because their company, Interplanetary Hauling & Moving Co., is in dire straits and likely to go under without the significant payday this asteroid will bring: $550,000. The client who requested an asteroid this size wants it for a wedding in his backyard by 11:30 am on June 2; otherwise, the order is void. Parker started the “asteroid in your backyard” promotion, but since then, other companies have been offering the same service. Most notably, competition from Saylor & Saylor is hurting his business. Parker and Queazy locate the perfect asteroid that meets the exact specifications of the request, only to find that someone else, a beautiful young woman, already has laid claim to it. She orders them to leave and threatens to report them to the Interplanetary Commission or to shoot them with her spasticizer. Parker explains why the asteroid is so important to them, and the girl explains that if they take it, she will meet a fate worse than death. Then suddenly, the Saylors’ ship comes into view and lands. Billy and Wally Saylor alight along with three other men, threatening Parker. So Parker tells them that he has an ethergram from Mr. Burnsides ordering this specific asteroid, but Wally announces that they also have the order. Bob grabs the girl’s spasticizer while Queazy grabs Billy Saylor and hurls him into space. But Wally shoots the spasticizer out of Bob’s hand, and someone hits Bob hard and knocks him out.
	When Bob regains consciousness, he is almost out of oxygen. He calls out for Queazy with his last breath, and Queazy responds and brings the ship to pick him up. The girl had rescued Queazy. She introduces herself as Starre Lowenthal, Mr. Burnside’s granddaughter. Her grandfather wants her to marry Mac andwouldn’tt take no for an answer, so finally Starre told him she would marry Mac if he could find an asteroid with specific dimensions and containing the minerals she specified. Bob knows the way the Saylors will have to take the asteroid into Earth’s orbit and knows they can catch up to them. He tells Starre they have to do that to say the business, but they will work out her problem, too.
	After five days, Bob is in love with Starre, and she knows it. He starts to tell her, but she stops him because of Mac and the bargain she has to live up to. Bob says he thinks her ship is the solution, and she says it’s just a big yo-yo. As Bob thinks about this, he devises a way to use her ship as a yo-yo to attack the Saylors’ ship. They catch up to the Saylors and attack them with Starre’s ship until the Saylors release the asteroid and fly away.


Question: What role do the Saylor brothers play in the story involving a desperate quest for an asteroid amidst competition and unforeseen challenges?

Answer:
The Saylor brothers, Wally and Billy, are Bob Parker’s enemies. Bob was the first person with the unique idea to sell asteroids to wealthy people on earth, and his business would have been very successful if the Saylor brothers did not poach his idea and begin stealing his clients. Bob worries about the Saylor brothers from the beginning of the story, and he acknowledges that they do not always play by the rules. If Wally and Billy can make a buck by inconveniencing or cheating someone else, they will do it. The brothers are not only intimidating in terms of their business prowess; they are also described as giant when compared to Bob.

Queasy and Bob have a legitimate order from Mr. Burnside for the asteroid, and they have no idea that the Saylor brothers have received the same order. Yet, they still worry that somehow, someway, their enemies will hear about the potential to make half a million dollars and try to steal their opportunity out from under them. Within moments of setting eyes on their spaceship, Bob tells Starre that they have to fight the Saylor brothers together. He doesn’t know her at all, and she actually just pulled a gun on him, but he so deeply mistrusts Wally and Billy that it’s worth it to take a chance on Starre.

Of course, Bob turns out to be right. The second the Saylor brothers get a chance to potentially kill Bob, Queazy, and Starre, they take it. Bob floats in space, unconscious, for several weeks before Starre eventually finds Queazy and Bob, and they give him oxygen and food. Bob is truly close to death before his friends save him in the knick of time, and the Saylor brothers would be perfectly fine with that outcome.

Wally and Billy give Bob all the motivation in the world to try and steal the asteroid back, and Bob is determined to catch up with his rivals and make it work somehow. When he comes up with his yo-yo idea using Starre’s ship, he shows zero empathy for the Saylor brothers. During his attempts to retrieve the rock, he seriously damages the brothers’ ship, and they have the gall to call him and attempt to make him feel guilty about their desperate state. Bob, however, cannot be swayed. He knows that he found the asteroid first and that the brothers purposefully cast him out into space to die. His determination saves the day when the Saylor brothers are forced to dispatch Mr. Burnside’s asteroid.

Answer: Wally and Billy Saylor are boorish twin brothers who operate a company, Saylor & Saylor, that competes with The Interplanetary Hauling & Moving Company operated by Bob and Queazy. The Saylors have cashed in on Bob's "asteroid in your back yard" idea like many other companies on Earth, only they have been more successful. Thanks to their lack of business scruples, the Saylors have nearly put Bob and Queazy out of business. Because of this, Bob worries about them taking the asteroid that will net his company $550,000 if they catch wind of his arrangement. Unfortunately, the Saylors have also been hired by the same wealthy client that hired Bob and Queazy because the asteroid request was so unusual and specific, the client wanted to make sure it could be found in time for his granddaughter's wedding. Soon after Bob and Queazy meet the granddaughter, who is making temporary camp on the asteroid to avoid getting married, the Saylors arrive and paralyze the three of them in order to take the asteroid back to Earth and cash in for themselves. After they awaken and reunite, Bob, Queazy, and the granddaughter Starre, race after the Saylors and use Starre's ship as a yo-yo projectile. They damage the Saylors' ship and threaten to kill them so that they will release the asteroid. The Saylors threaten to call the Interplanetary Commission, but Bob is persistent, and he slams their ship again, causing them to give up the asteroid.

Answer:
The Saylor brothers are the antagonists of the story. They have an interplanetary moving company in competition with Bob and Queazy, and are known to be violent in getting their way.
Because Mr. Burnside was so desperate to have his granddaughter’s wedding go on, he put the order out to both companies for this exact asteroid, causing the Saylor brothers to come into conflict with Bob and Queazy (who were also trying to deliver it to Earth), and Starre (who was desperate for it to not be delivered to Earth since she didn’t want to get married). The Saylor brothers and three other men violently force all of them off the asteroid and into outer space to die and hurry off to Earth with the asteroid, which is the climax of the story.
Ultimately, Bob, Queasy, and Starre get justice by retrieving the asteroid after they intercept the Saylor brothers and attack their ship using a yo-yo method with Starre’s spaceship they are towing, forcing the Saylor brothers to retreat into outer space.

Answer: The Saylor brothers provide the conflict and competition that drives Bob Parker and Queazy to search the galaxy for an asteroid with the particular specifications Burnside requests. The Saylors are less-than-honest competitors with Bob’s Interplanetary and Hauling Company. While Bob Parker came up with the “asteroid in your backyard” concept, his competitors, especially the Saylors, soon offer the same service. Bob’s company is on the verge of collapse and must fill Mr. Burnside’s order if it is to survive. In desperation, they take on Burnsides’s almost impossible order. When they find the asteroid, it is occupied by a young girl who turns out to be Burnside’s granddaughter. As they talk with her to try to negotiate for the asteroid, the Saylor brothers arrive, trying to take the asteroid. In the fighting that ensues, the Saylors knock Queazy, Bob, and Starre unconscious, leaving them for dead, and take the asteroid. Bob is unconscious for three weeks, and when he comes to, he is down to five pounds of oxygen. Fortunately, Starre and Queazy find him and save him. Then they set sail for tracking down the Saylor brothers. When they find them, they attack the Saylors’ ship with Starre’s ship, using it like a yo-yo. The Saylors contact Bob to let him know they are losing air and that he is going to kill them; however, they refuse to turn over the asteroid. When Bob hits them again with the yo-yo, they finally give up, release the asteroid, and sail away.


Question: Describe Bob's relationship with Starre, a girl he encounters while trying to fulfill a peculiar order involving an asteroid, amidst a conflict with rival space haulers.

Answer:
Bob Parker is taken with Starre Lowenthal from the moment she appears in front of him. Starre wears a spacesuit when Bob and Queazy land on her asteroid and begin conducting tests to see if it’s a good fit for Mr. Burnside, and although Bob can’t get a look at her entire appearance, he is immediately attracted to her blue eyes, beautiful brown hair, and full lips. The fact that Starre is curt and demanding does not change his innate attraction to her. Bob does not get offended by Starre’s refusal to hold a real conversation with him; he just keeps trying. Even Starre’s decision to pull out her spasticizer and aim it at the men doesn’t truly deter Bob. He continues to try and convince her that his economic well-being depends on the asteroid. The only time he becomes annoyed with the beautiful girl is when he sets eyes on her perfect ship and assumes that she is already plenty wealthy. Still, he chooses not to attack nor namecall, he simply uses reason to convince her that the asteroid is more useful to him.

Moments later, when the Saylor brothers show up at Starre’s asteroid, Starre already has a good feeling about Bob and Queazy. That’s why, when Wally and Billy attack the trio, it is Starre that uses her dumbbell-shaped ship to locate the men and save their lives. Bob and Queazy end up owing everything to the beautiful brunette. Without her, their corpses would be floating through space.

The first time that Bob sees Starre after she saves his life, he notices the paper flower in her hair and the pretty blue outfit she’s wearing. He can’t take his eyes off of her, and his feelings towards her do not change when she admits that she essentially set them up. She is Mr. Burnside’s granddaughter, and she never intended to let anyone find the perfect asteroid and haul it back to earth. She set up a deal with her grandfather that she knew he couldn’t follow through with. Starre does not want to marry Mac, the man that she’s engaged to, and that’s why she was living on the perfect asteroid that Mr. Burnside ordered from Bob and the Saylor brothers.

Although Bob has every right to be angry with Starre, he completely falls in love with her on their mission to recollect the asteroid that the Saylor brothers stole from them. He tries to convince her not to marry Mac, but she acknowledges that she must hold up her end of the bargain with her grandfather. Unfortunately, Bob can’t have it both ways. If he wants to save his company from going under, he needs the asteroid, and if he fulfills Mr. Burnside’s order, Starre must marry Mac.

Answer: When Bob first meets Starre on the asteroid, he is struck by her physical beauty, but the two of them do not get along. Starre reveals that the asteroid's mineral composition is exactly what Bob had been looking for to fulfill his client's request. However, Starre orders Bob to leave and says he can come back in a month. Although Bob doesn't know this yet, Starre wants to stay there for a month in order to avoid having to get married to her grandfather's protégé Mac and send away anyone who might come and try to take the asteroid back to her grandfather. Starre and Bob mostly have a strained relationship until they are both attacked by the Saylor Brothers and left for dead; Starre proves she is more than the spoiled, rich girl Bob thinks she is when she uses her own ship to save Queazy and then Bob. As they track the Saylor Brothers, Bob slowly falls in love with Starre, who seems to have an interest in Bob, too; however, she feels compelled by her obligation to her grandfather to marry Mac. Although Bob is unhappy that she cannot reciprocate his feelings, he still devises a plan to take down the Saylors and promises Starre they will come up with a plan to help her avoid the marriage. Starre seems pleased by this and encourages Bob as he implements his plan of attack against the Saylor Brothers.

Answer:
Starre Lowenthal is Andrew S. Burnside's granddaughter. She is the cause of her and Bob meeting, since she was the one who ordered this exact asteroid to be delivered to Earth before her wedding - not thinking it would ever actually happen.
She rescues both Bob and Queazy after the Saylor brothers attempt to kill all of them by paralyzing them and tossing them into outer space. Starre is crestfallen that she now has to marry Mac, who her grandfather has been pestering her for years to wed. She thought she had the perfect plan to get out of it, but it had all fallen apart when the Saylor brothers were also given the order for the asteroid by her eager grandfather wanting to see the marriage go through.
During the five day journey back to Earth together to intercept the Saylor brothers, Starre and Bob fall in love with each other. Starre provides the idea to make a yo-yo out of her spaceship, and they work happily together with Queazy to get the work done. Bob and Starre are equally elated when the Saylor brothers release the asteroid, though it is unclear what the future for them together holds.

Answer: When Bob first sees Starre, he is struck by her beauty, but despite her plight, he is determined to take the asteroid to Earth and collect her grandfather’s fee that he needs so badly. Initially, Starre is antagonistic to Bob and Queazy because she is staying on the asteroid to claim it and prevent anyone from taking it. If her grandfather gets hold of it, she will have to marry Mac, a fate she considers worse than death. After the Saylors’ attack on all three of them, Starre and Queazy rescue Bob just as his oxygen is running out. They save his life, and it isn’t long before Bob is in love with her. Starre realizes this, and just before Bob can profess his feelings, she stops him because she will have to keep her word and marry Mac if the asteroid is delivered on time. When Bob devises a way to use Starre’s ship like a yo-yo to attack the Saylors’ ship, he also tells Starre that they will work on a solution to her problem, too. It seems that Bob will try to collect Burnsides’ payment for delivery of the asteroid but somehow prevent Starre from having to marry Mac.


Question: Why is the mission to secure Mr. Burnside’s asteroid so important to Bob and Queazy, given the unexpected challenges they face in their quest for success?

Answer:
Bob and Queazy are willing to risk their lives to try and get the asteroid back from Wally and Billy Saylor because their economic survival depends on it. Bob is the president of Interplanetary Hauling & Moving Co., and his rivals, the Saylor brothers, have put his business in serious jeopardy. Although his novel idea to sell asteroids to wealthy earthmen originally made him some cash, it wasn’t long before other companies got wind of his genius idea and started offering the same service. If the Saylor brothers keep beating Bob and Queazy to the punch, the men will no longer be in business.

When Starre demands that Bob and Queazy leave her asteroid since she is the common law owner, both men try to explain to her why they desperately need the rock. The potential to make $550,000 means everything to Bob because his failure to secure that capital means that he and Queazy will lose their business and slave away for the rest of their lives as glass factory workers.

Answer: Bob Parker created the idea of the "asteroid in your back yard", and since then it has become a fad sweeping Earth. As a result, a number of moving companies have emerged as competitors to Bob's Interplanetary Hauling & Moving Co., primarily Saylor & Saylor. The Saylor brothers engage in unscrupulous business practices and have crippled Bob's business to the point of desperation. Therefore, Bob and his business partner Queazy need to fulfill Mr. Burnside's extremely specific wedding-asteroid request for his granddaughter; successful completion of the order would net their company $550,000 and save them from financial ruin.

Answer:
This mission to secure Mr. Burnside’s asteroid is so important to Bob and Queazy because it will pay them $5.00 per ton, which they estimate will net them $550,000. They look for it for three weeks before finding it, demonstrating how valuable this job is to them.
Securing the asteroid is also a point of pride for them, as they feel their business is threatened by the rival Saylor brothers, and the success of this mission would demonstrate their claim in the business of interplanetary deliveries.

Answer: Securing Mr. Burnside’s asteroid is critical for Bob’s business to survive. He is having financial difficulty due to stiff competition, particularly from the Saylor brothers. The $550,000 from Mr. Burnside will help prevent his company from going bankrupt and going out of business. Burnside’s order for an asteroid in his back yard is quite specific: it must be 506 feet long, 98 feet at the base and tapering to 10 feet at the apex, 9-12 feet thick, a smooth plane on the top side and a rough plane underneath. It must also be composed of iron ore, tungsten, quartz crystals, and cinnabar. It has to be in Burnside’s back yard before 11:30 am on June 2. The order is so specific that normally Bob and Queazy would not have accepted it, but since the business is about to fold, they are desperate and willing to try to fill it. When they find the asteroid in just three weeks, it seems they have had an incredible stroke of good luck, until the Saylor brothers show up to claim it, too. Filling the Burnsides order is a matter of life or death for Bob and Queazy’s company, and they are prepared to do everything humanly possible to collect the asteroid and take to Earth.


Question: How does Bob Parker, caught in a chaotic interstellar adventure involving a valuable asteroid and rival competitors, almost die?

Answer: Bob Parker almost dies after the Saylor brothers find Starre’s asteroid and decide that although Bob and Queazy landed on it first, they want to be the ones to fulfill Mr. Burnside’s order. Bob tries to defend his turf with Starre’s spasticizer, but Wally is able to shoot the gun out of his hands. Bob is unable to defend himself from the ginormous Saylor brothers after he loses Starre’s weapon, and he is beaten in the stomach and thrown into space to float with little oxygen and zero sustenance. He remains isolated, drifting through space, for three weeks before his friend Queazy and Starre are able to locate him. He describes the sensation as “being buried alive.” At the time that he is found, he has only a few short days of oxygen left until he will choke to death.

Answer: Soon after Bob and Queazy meet Starre Lowenthal on the asteroid, Wally and Billy Saylor arrive to claim the asteroid for themselves and deliver it to Mr. Burnside. When Bob realizes both companies have received orders from Mr. Burnside, he threatens to report the brothers to the Interplanetary Commission since he arrived at the asteroid first and the law dictates ownership goes to whoever arrived first. Then, Bob grabs Starre's paralyzing spasticizer and signals to Queazy, who quickly throws Billy Saylor into space. Wally shoots the spasticizer from Bob's hand, and Bob knocks Wally's gun away. At the same time, Bob feels a sudden crushing pain and hears Starre screaming before he blacks out. When Bob awakens later, he discovers he is alone in the vastness of space and running out of air. The Saylor brothers have taken the asteroid and left him there to die, separated from Queazy and Starre. He realizes he has only five pounds of air pressure left, and he had been shot by spastic rays. However, his state of suspended animation likely kept him alive long enough to be saved by Queazy and Starre because his body didn't require as much oxygen.

Answer:
Bob Parker almost dies while fighting with the Saylor brothers on the asteroid that he was ordered to deliver by Mr. Burnside. The Saylor brothers are known for using rough force to get their way, and after Bob wakes up unconscious and running out of air (only five pound of pressure left) spinning alone in outer space, he concludes that he must have been given a dose of spastic rays that effected his muscles in an extreme way that caused him to go into suspended animation with very low oxygen demand.
He had been floating like that for three weeks before he regained consciousness at the last possible moment before he was going to die alone, and was then rescued by Queazy and Starre after calling on the intercom one last time. His narrow rescue gives him added purpose in retaliating against the Saylor brothers to retrieve the asteroid, which may ultimately win him his love, Starre.

Answer: Bob Parker almost dies after the face-to-face encounter with the Saylor brothers on the asteroid. When he grabs Starre’s spasticizer to use against them, Wally shoots it out of his hand. Someone hits Bob so hard that he is knocked unconscious and off the asteroid so that he is floating in space. When he regains consciousness, he is down to 5 pounds of oxygen, and as this supply dwindles, he grows weaker, knowing that he is dying either of oxygen deprivation or starvation from being unconscious for so long. Just as his oxygen runs out, Bob curses the Saylor brothers and calls out to Queazy one last time--and Queazy responds. He and Starre locate Bob, and they provide him with oxygen. Queasy explains they would both be dead if not for Starre; she was knocked unconscious, too, but came to and made her way to her ship. She used the direction-finder on the telaudio to locate Queazy and pick him up. Then when they got Bob’s signal, they found him, too.


Question: What is the plot of the story that explores the conflicting desires of a young man torn between the allure of space exploration and the comforts of a stable life on Earth?

Answer:
After studying for six years, Ben sits at his U.S. Academy of Interplanetary Flight graduation. Next to Ben is Mickey, his best friend who also plans to go into deep space. Ben is an orphan, and he wonders if the only person he invited, Charlie Taggart, is there. Ben met Charlie, an accomplished spaceman, when he was a boy, and Charlie took him under his wing. When Ben connects with Charlie after the ceremony, he worries about his gaunt face and terrible cough.

Ben then meets Laura, Mickey’s sister. There is an undeniable and instant connection between them. Charlie only has 24 hours to spend with Ben before he has to report back for duty, and although he wants to have some drinks with Ben alone, Laura invites them both over, and Ben can’t help but say yes.

Moments later, Dean Dawson reminds Ben about an offer to teach at the Academy. Mickey takes this opportunity to admit to Ben that he will be working as a Supervisor at White Sands Port. Ben is disappointed to hear that Mickey has chosen to live a boring life, but Mickey insists that he does not want to die in his 30s.

After dinner at Mickey’s house, Laura and Ben take a walk together. Laura asks about Charlie’s life before he was a spaceman, but Ben doesn’t have answers for her. He doesn’t know anything about Charlie’s past. Ben looks at Laura and realizes that she has feelings for him, too. When she suggests that a career in deep space may not be worth what Ben would be leaving behind, Ben finds himself at a crossroads. Should he live his dream  or should he settle down with the woman he loves and live an ordinary life?

The next morning, Charlie gives Ben an old tin with souvenirs inside, and then tells him to meet him at the Space Rat, a little cafe on Mars, when he gets there. Ben still hasn’t chosen a career path and decides to stay with Mickey and Laura and their family until he does. He experiences forty days of happiness with his love, Laura, and forty nights of indecision about which career to choose. Ben asks Laura to marry him, but she says she can’t unless he decides to stay on earth.

The next day, Ben receives a message informing him that Charlie has died from lung-rot, a disease he got in space. When Ben looks in Charlie’s tin and finds useless trinkets, he decides  to take the teaching job so that he does not live a similarly meaningless life. However, hours later, he looks in the tin again and finds a wedding ring. Ben surmises that Charlie wanted to tell him to take the chance on space, and he believes it’s the right decision to make. He can’t live his life without knowing what the stars look like, even if that means he can’t have Laura too.

Answer:
Spacemen Die at Home is a story in the form of a letter written from Ben to Laura, explaining his decision to leave her behind on Earth. It all begins in June of 1965 in New Mexico when the first class of the U.S. Academy of Interplentary Flight is finally graduating after six years. These 25 students were trained to take on interplanetary flight and space exploration, so they can continue to discover the outer planets. Robert Chandler gave a speech detailing why these brave men were so important to modern society, as women were not allowed to become space explorers. Mickey and Ben, graduates and friends, sat next to each other during the ceremony. Mickey struggles to find his family in the crowd, and Ben reveals that he was orphaned after his parents died in a rocket crash. A spaceman named Charlie Taggart (Stardust Charlie) raised him instead. He was one of the oldest spacemen ever, having travelled for nearly 25 years, and was the Chief Jetman on the Lunar Lady.
After the ceremony, Ben runs into Charlie and sees how much he’s aged in just a year. He looks ill and drugged, but he still asks Ben to celebrate with him. Before Ben can respond, Mickey and his sister Laura came up to him. He is instantly attracted to her and feels a connection. Ben was supposed to spend the weekend with Mickey and his family, but now that Charlie’s in town he feels conflicted. Both Ben and Charlie decide to join them, despite Charlie not being a family man. Dean Dawson, an academy professor, approaches Ben and reminds him of his job offer at the Academy. Ben turns him down laughing, until Mickey reveals that he is not going to space anymore. Instead, he’ll be the Cargo Supervisor of White Sands Sport. After an awkward dinner together, Laura and Ben went stargazing and spoke of Charlie and the draw of space. Laura hints at loving Ben, but doesn’t say it outright. Charlie left the next day, but left Ben some of his possessions. He knows he hasn’t got much time in this universe, but he goes back to Mars anyways.
With several job options to choose from, Ben decides to stay at Mickey’s house for the timebeing. He stays for 40 days and nights, spending much of his time with Laura. He asked Laura to marry him, but she says she’d only marry him if he were a teacher, not a spaceman. Ben was faced with a serious conundrum. The next day he received word that Charlges Taggart died of lung-rot, and Ben broke down. Ben sifted through Charlie’s possessions and decided to take on a the teaching gig for Dawson. However, after looking through the box again, he found a wedding ring. Seeing himself in Charlie, Ben decided to fly to the stone cafe on Mars called the Space Rat where Stardust Charlie said he’d be waiting for him.

Answer:
Nearly the entire story is a recollection of the narrator, Ben, as he writes a letter to his love, Laura, who he is leaving behind for his dreams of becoming a spaceman.
In June of 1995, Ben and Mickey are sitting together during their graduation ceremony from the first class of the U. S. Academy of Interplanetary Flight, looking at out at the audience for their guests. Mickey is cheerful and generally accepts the world with a smile. Ben’s invited guest, Charlie Taggart, is a pioneering spaceman of 25 years who he thinks of as a parental figure since his parents died in a strato-jet crash when he was four. Ben and Mickey both spot their guests, and there is a contrasting moment between Ben’s orphaned upbringing and Mickey’s family.
Charlie looks different from the other guests, with scars on his face, and a missing button on his suit - known for doing things his own way. Charlie is a veteran of the explorer Everson's first trip to the Moon, and he had spent his life in space. Mickey introduces Ben to his sister, Laura, after the ceremony. Since Mickey has invited Ben to spend the weekend with them, Laura goes a step further to also invite Charlie, which they both accept. Charlie leaves after one night, gifting Ben a tin box of “souvenirs” from his life, foreshadowing his imminent passing.
Although Ben and Mickey both graduated from the school of interplanetary flight, they have both been offered terrestrial jobs. Ben was offered a job teaching Astrogation at the Academy by Dean Dawson. No doubt very prestigious, but Ben dreams of being the first to visit new planets with Mickey. Mickey awkwardly reveals he had a change of heart, citing that spacemen have short lives because of the demands and danger. Mickey was offered a Cargo Supervisor role at the White Sands Port that he accepted because he will “live a lot longer” there.
Ben is deeply uncertain about his future, accepting Mickey’s offer to stay until he figures it out. During the forty days and forty nights he spends with them he falls in love with Laura and contemplates a family life on Earth with her - even proposing marriage to her - but his desire to be a spaceman remains a barrier to them being together. After Ben learns of Charlie’s death (at “home” on Mars), he remembers the box Charlie gave him. At first he thinks it’s pitiful that there are trinkets in place of the family Charlie might have had on Earth, and makes a decision to take the teaching job and remain on Earth in a safe life with Laura.
Processing the contents of the box further, seeing a wedding ring Charlie left for the marriage he couldn’t have due to his life in space, Ben is inspired to again chase his dream in space. He leaves behind the wedding ring and a note (the story) for Laura to find in the morning when he is gone.

Answer: This story is a letter from Ben to Laura, and starts with Ben's retelling of his graduation day from the U.S. Academy of Interplanetary Flight, with inspiring quotes from the guest speaker about how important spacemen are to society. Ben and his friend Mickey looked around for the one person Ben had invited: Charlie Taggart, aka "Spaceman Charlie". They spotted him, and Ben was relieved; the three of them went out afterwards to celebrate along with Mickey's sister, Laura. Ben explained that he'd been offered a teaching job at The Academy but wanted to join an exploratory crew. After getting to the helicopter, Ben eventually met Laura and Charlie's parents--simple people who were happy to live on Earth and not be going anywhere any time soon. Charlie did his best to interact with these new people, even though he told some disturbing stories. Laura and Ben headed to the terrace to look for rockets and talked about Charlie; Laura had a lot of questions about his past. They shared a quiet moment, appreciating each other, before Laura made a comment about the desire to go to the stars might be a disappointment: if they weren't what they seemed, maybe they would never be enough. She asked Ben if he really wanted to give up everything he could have, making Ben sad. The next morning, Charlie returned to work and left a box of belongings with Ben; it was only then when Ben became worried about the coughing he'd noticed over the past day, and his glassy eyes and stiff movements. Before they could talk, Charlie was gone. Later, in Mickey's room, Ben reflected on how his childhood was different from that of other children, after his parents died in a rocket crash. It was after this that he realized he wasn't sure if he wanted to stay or to go, and agreed to stay with Mickey's family until he made a decision about what to do. He spent most of the time with Laura, and after forty days of this he proposed to her, prompting her to ask what he wanted to do for his job. She didn't want to marry someone who would be absent, or someone in such a dangerous profession, but would feel better if he stayed and worked as a teacher, because she loved him too.  It was the next day that Ben got the news that Charlie had died from lung-rot. Shocked, he looked through the box of belongings that Charlie had left him, and after seeing what little Charlie had left behind in terms of meaningful connections, he called The Academy to accept the teaching job. In the end, though, Ben recognized that he would never be happy without trying to explore the stars, so he tells Laura he will not be around when she wakes up because he has to see what's out there, and takes Laura's wedding ring and that of Charlie's wife with him, as mementos.


Question: What is people's perception of spacemen in a story about a young man's dreams of exploring the stars and the fears that accompany such aspirations?

Answer:
Ben experiences a lot of anxiety at his graduation from the U.S. Academy of Interplanetary Flight because of the high expectations he perceives that the audience has of the 25 men who are graduating. The students have spent the last six years of their lives dedicating themselves to learning about minerals, metals, colonization, and space travel for the sake of helping the people on Earth. The class of 1995 is the first of its kind, and the family members and friends who attend the graduation understandably have very high hopes for the graduates. The graduation speaker is Robert Chandler, a spaceman who landed a rocket on Mars and created the first colony there. He has also traveled to Venus twice. For most laymen, accomplishing something as adventurous as landing on other planets is unthinkable, and the men graduating are the next in line to make such unthinkable journeys.

Ben looks out over the crowds of people and thinks to himself that these strangers are looking at him as if he’s some sort of god. He knows that they expect the world from him and his fellow graduates, and he worries that he won’t be able to deliver on such incredible promises.

Answer: Spacemen are highly valued and, in some ways, superior members of society. Only a very small group of people were selected to attend the U.S. Academy of Interplanetary Flight, which shows how selective and exclusive these members of society are. Although their work is valued and fawned over, those who work in space are often killed early on in their careers. The mortality rate is extremely high in this job and increases with every trip taken. With such a dangerous reputation, the family members of spacemen see the darker side of it: solitude, fear, and sadness.

Answer:
Ben reflects on the pressures of being a spaceman during graduation, that there is a lot expected from them; such as making “a new kind of civilization and a better place out of Earth.”
As Ben and Mickey talk about their futures, Mickey reveals he is no longer going to become a spaceman because their lives are short. Mickey reveals for the first time in the story the dangers of the job, the exposure to uncertainty and hazards, and the demands it places on a human body.
Although it is a high pressure, dangerous job, being a spaceman is romanticized through Ben’s childhood dream while he ultimately commits to see through at the end of the story. The allure of adventure in space and seeing the unknown for himself is a stronger draw than a safe life of certainty on Earth.

Answer: In the speech that Robert Chandler gave to the first graduating class of the U.S. Academy of Interplanetary Flight, he reminded the students that the six years of training would pay off for society, and that these spacemen would retrieve metals and minerals that the people of Earth needed, find new land, and inspire others, all of which were necessary things for the society. However, Ben and Mickey know it can be a dangerous profession: Mickey explains that on the more dangerous missions, where one is one of the first on a planet, you're lucky to live five to ten years. This is important because Laura has this knowledge when she talks to Ben about their possible future together. She knows that he could die, their children could be exposed to dangerous radiation, and he would likely always be looking for the next adventure instead of coming home to her. In general, the spacemen are appreciated for their services to the society but there is some understanding of the limitations on the types of meaningful personal connections they are able to make.


Question: What role does a character named Charlie Taggart play in the story about the challenges and choices faced by individuals striving to explore the cosmos?

Answer:
Charlie Taggart, also known as Stardust Charlie, is a very important character in the story. Ben is orphaned at the age of four when his parents perished in a strato-jet crash. Within a few years, he meets Charlie, a successful spaceman, at the Long Island Spaceport. He follows him around, eager to learn everything he can about space, and Charlie eventually becomes the closest thing Ben has to a family member.

Although Ben doesn’t know if Charlie will show up at his graduation, he is happy to see he has taken 24 hours off of work to come and celebrate with him. He worries, however, that Charlie looks very ill. He becomes even more concerned when Charlie leaves a small tin for Ben to look through after he leaves. Charlie admits that he has cheated death many times, and he knows he won’t be able to escape it forever. Ben remains hopeful that they will see each other again when Charlie tells him to meet him at the Space Rat, a cafe on Mars.

After Ben receives word that Charlie died from lung-rot, he takes it as a sign that he should stay on earth and live an ordinary life with Laura as his wife. The trinkets in Charlie’s tin do not impress Ben or symbolize a life well-lived. Yet, hours later, Ben finds Charlie’s wedding ring and changes his mind about his entire life’s path. He knows that Charlie wanted to talk to him alone before he died, and he never gave him the chance to tell him about the same difficult decisions he had to make. Ben realizes that Charlie’s life may not be one that’s suitable for everyone, but it was certainly a life worth living. Charlie returned to space knowing that he was about to die because the planets and moons and stars were his reason for living. To Charlie, the sacrifices he made to be a spaceman were worth it, and Ben sees that he wants that for himself as well.

Answer:
Charlie Taggart or Charlie Stardust acts as a father figure and caregiver for Ben, one of the graduates of the U.S. Academy for Interplanetary Flight. Stardust Charlie has worked as a spaceman for nearly 25 years, one of the longest careers ever seen. His presence in Ben’s life furthered his love of space, and Charlie’s recommendation allowed Ben to attend the U.S. Academy for Interplanetary Flight.
In the end, Charlie dies of lung-rot right where he wanted to: in a stone cafe on Mars. Space was his home, not Earth. Charlie’s death causes a slight crisis for Ben when he has to decide if he should stay on Earth or take to the skies. At first, he decides to stay so he can marry Laura and live a long and happy life with her. He didn’t want to die alone like Charlie. However, after discovering a wedding ring hidden in Charlie’s possessions, he realizes that despite Charlie’s solitary lifestyle he was never truly alone. Space was his true home, and Ben decides that space truly can’t be that lonely if men like Charlie are out there flying around. He decides to leave Laura and all his domestic dreams behind on Earth and follow his mentor to Mars, so he can meet in the place where he took his last breath: the Space Rat on Mars. Ben realizes that no matter where he goes, he will always carry Charlie and Laura with him. Charlie’s presence and death acts as a catalyst in two of Ben’s major life decisions.

Answer:
Charlie Taggart represents the childhood dream Ben has been working towards of becoming a spaceman and being the first to explore a new planet. Ben thinks of Charlie as the example of what future him would be like if he were to take the berth on the Odyssey. Charlie is also actively helping him to achieve that dream, as Ben remembers Charlie’s recommendation finally getting him in as a cadet to become a spaceman.
Charlie acts as a guide in the story, made possible because Ben trusts him so deeply. Ben treats Charlie as family, even inviting him to his graduating ceremony as part of the first class of the US Academy of Interplanetary Flight. Ben thinks of him as a parent and a friend, since both of his parents are deceased.
Charlie avoids being sentimental, and Ben doesn’t realize he is dying when he gives him a small metal box after his graduation. Ben doesn’t open it until after he learns of Charlie’s death - a shocking realization that immediately causes him to drop his dream of becoming a spaceman and choose a life on Earth with Laura. However, the sentimental items in Charlie’s box make Ben reconsider that decision. Thereby, guiding Ben’s life in a different direction.
Charlie is an inspiration to Ben and he ultimately chooses to become a spaceman and leave the safe life with Laura on Earth (even though it pains him) because he has to see the moon and other planets for himself.

Answer: Charlie Taggart, aka "Spaceman Charlie", was a seasoned spaceman who had been to the moon and on a regular shuttle mission between the moon and New Mexico. Because Ben did not have family left alive, Charlie was the one person who Ben invited to his graduation; he had met him as a child, they got to know one another, and it was Charlie's recommendation that got Ben into the U.S. Academy of Interplanetary Flight. He had aged much in the year before Ben's graduation, but did show up to the ceremony, ready to celebrate with Ben. After a day of celebration, Charlie left a box of belongings with Ben as he went back to work. It was then that Ben started to worry about Charlie's health. After spending forty days with Mickey's family trying to decide what he wants, Ben got the news that Charlie had died from lung-rot. When Ben looked through Charlie's possessions, he realized that there was a lack of evidence of real human connection, and this pushed Ben to call The Academy and accept the teaching job so that he could be with Laura and not run away to the stars. At the same time, Ben reflected on the stories he had been told and the life Charlie had lived. Charlie had been married, but learned the hard way that he could not have both a family and the stars. Eventually, Ben decided to go into space instead of staying with Laura, but the only context he had for the decision was Charlie's stories.


Question: How does Ben's childhood, marked by loss and a longing for adventure, affect him later in life?

Answer: Ben becomes an orphan when he is just 4 years old. The first person he finds that he can trust and look up to is Charlie Taggart, who also happens to be a spaceman. From this point forward, Ben’s life revolves around reaching his dream of going to the stars. When he sits in his best friend Mickey’s childhood bedroom, he realizes that he never got to experience a “normal” childhood, and this probably impacted his life’s goals. The bedroom contains trophies, books, videos, and other treasures from typical childhoods. Ben sees that his life, filled with dorms, rules, and routines, completely lacked a warmth that he would have experienced if he had grown up with parents who loved him. All he had to rely on were his dreams for his future. He never got to experience the little moments of pleasure and togetherness that families have. Ben put all of his energy into becoming a spaceman because it would make him special, and it was something supremely important to work towards. He has no idea who he would be if his parents hadn’t died.

Answer:
When Ben was a child, his parents were tragically killed in a rocket crash, leaving him orphaned and alone. Although the story doesn’t reveal the exact circumstances or series of events, Ben eventually winds up in the hands of Charlie Taggert who looks after him as a father, mother, and brother. Charlie’s devotion to space inspires a love for it in Ben and sets him on the path to interplanetary flight. Without Ben’s parents dying, he may never have met Charlie or attended the U.S. Academy for Interplanetary Flight.
As well, his childhood prepared him for a life of solitude. He was not a family man by nature or by nurture, which made his ascent into space much easier.

Answer:
Ben’s parents both died in a strato-jet crash when he was four, leaving him with no mother and father. He realizes while he is an invited guest staying with Mickey and Laura at their parent’s house after his graduation that they had a childhood different from his. Their childhood bedrooms and their upbringing was something that he all of a sudden felt he was lacking due to his experience growing up in dormitories with rules and regulations. He cites that his singular focus on his dream to be a spaceman didn’t allow him to stop and notice the things that he felt he missed in his childhood.
This childhood of separation from family, and attaching himself to a pioneering lone-wolf spaceman (Charlie) after pestering him while he was a child in a spaceport, led Ben to romanticize and want a life of opportunity to be the first to see new planets. That dream, and the independence he had known since childhood ultimately led him to choose a life in space instead of settle into a family on Earth with Laura.

Answer: One major event in Ben's childhood changed his life in a large number of ways. His parents died in a rocket crash when he was young, which caused two immediate effects: Ben's lack of parental figures in his life, which spurred his interest in Charlie and causes his childhood to be irregular in other ways, and Ben's general interest in rockets. In this way, rockets have affected him at various stages in life: he would have lived a very different life if they didn't exist, because his parents would not have died, but he would not have had them to attach his big dreams to either, which means that maybe he would have been perfectly happy staying on Earth with Laura in another version of events. He had to clutch onto his dreams as he was growing up because everything he saw was structure. As he put it, it was a "cold, automatic kind of life, the life of dormitories and routines and rules". His dreams of going to the stars, then, were his way of escaping this structure. He would never have applied to the U.S. Academy of Interplanetary Flight otherwise.


Question: How does Ben's relationship with Laura evolve as he grapples with his dreams of exploration and the realities of life on Earth?

Answer:
When Ben meets Laura, Mickey’s sister, at his spaceman graduation, he feels an instant connection with her. He enjoys talking to her and wants to learn everything there is to know about her. Although he’s happy to see Charlie Taggart, the closest thing he has to a family member, he chooses spending time with Laura and her family over spending time with Charlie alone. He can’t help feeling drawn to her.

At first, Ben is completely oblivious to the feelings that Laura has for him, but after a walk under the stars together, he sees that she also sees a future with him. He has never before considered living on earth, getting married, owning a house, and settling for a “boring” life, but after she suggests that visiting the stars might just be like her trip to England, he wonders if she’s right. Maybe he has hyped up space travel so much and it will end up being a disappointment. Maybe Mickey is onto something, and sacrificing a normal life on earth where living to old age is expected is not a choice he should give up so easily. Ben desperately wants to be with Laura. He loves her just as much as he loves the stars.

He spends forty incredible days with the woman of his dreams, but in the end, it’s not enough to convince him to give up his lifelong dream of being a spaceman. Sure, he’s uncomfortable with the amount of pressure that’s put on him, and he recognizes that he will be risking his life every single day, but he can see that Charlie does not regret giving up the quiet homelife for the incredible adventures that await in space. Ben wants to be the first man to visit a planet or find a helpful mineral or create a useful colony, and his love for Laura cannot change his dreams.

Answer: At first, Ben is infatuated with Laura and the dark flecks in her eyes. They grow closer and closer together as Ben’s stay in their house continues on. Between stargazing, conversing, swimming, and dancing, Ben and Laura quickly fell in love. When he asks her to marry him, however, things start to change. She says that she will marry Ben the teacher, but not Ben the spaceman. She does not want to be resigned to a life of solitude, fear, and separation. Ben is forced to make a choice then: Laura or his dreams of being an explorer. Although at first he decides to stay with Laura and become a teacher, he quickly changes his mind. In some ways, he has already married space and is as devoted to it as he was to Laura. He says in the end that he will always carry Laura and Charlie with him wherever he goes, though they may not be there with him physically. Although there was the potential for marriage, it seems that it was not meant to be.

Answer:
Ben and Laura’s relationship moves quickly from the time they meet at Ben’s graduation until he decides to become a spaceman (about forty days later).
Ben meets Laura at his graduation ceremony as part of the first class of the US Academy of Interplanetary Flight. Laura is the sister of his fellow spaceman, Mickey, whom he has become close with during training. Laura learns about Ben before she meets him from the stories told to her by her brother Mickey. When they have Ben and Charlie to their parents house for the weekend, Ben and Laura spend an evening after dinner watching for crimson-tailed continental rockets taking off from White Sands port. It was then that Ben knew Laura liked him.
Mickey invites Ben to stay with them until he decides what to take as his next opportunity - a berth on the Odyssey spaceship with the potential to go to Pluto or a safe job teaching astrogation at the academy. He stays forty days and forty nights. During this time, he falls in love with Laura and proposes to her.
Their relationship changes when Laura questions what a life would be like married to Ben as a spaceman. She has fears about bearing children with a spaceman since there was an example of one family having a “monster” child after the father was exposed to radiation in space. She is worried about not seeing her husband for months or years at a time. Ben is torn between the woman he loves and the life he has been dreaming of since childhood to become a spaceman.
Ultimately Ben decides to be a spaceman and leaves Laura the wedding ring in Charlie’s tin box (that was from Charlie’s broken marriage after choosing life in space) as a token of his affection, and of the bittersweetness of having to leave behind a potentially happy life for his love of space. Perhaps Ben one day hopes to return and have Laura still waiting to marry him.

Answer: Laura is the sister of Ben's friend Mickey, whom he met at their graduation from The Academy. She invited Ben and Charlie to celebrate with her and Mickey after the ceremony, and gives away the fact that Mickey is no longer planning on signing up to be on a rocket with Ben, and wants a safer job. Ben realizes later that night that he and Laura have feelings for each other, so this is motivation for him to stay with Mickey's family while he sorts out what he wants to do. The two spend forty days together before Ben proposes to Laura, who has been trying to figure out what Ben wants for the entirety of their relationship. This is the entirety of their relationship as of the time of the story, starting with their realization of an attraction and an interest in each other and ending in a proposal (that was presumably accepted) and then a breaking-off of the relationship. They both want to be with one another, and Ben wants to get married no matter what, but Laura knows that he cannot live as a spaceman and as a caring and attentive husband to her, so he must choose. In this sense, Laura's outlook is very steady for their entire relationship, as she asked Ben on the first night they met if he really wanted to become a spaceman if it meant giving up everything he could have. A lot changes in the last day or so of Ben's stay with the family, as he receives news that Charlie passed away. It looking through Charlie's belongings that he recognizes that he can't have the space life and the meaningful personal connections he might want (at least of the sort he had with Laura at the time), which makes him come to a snap realization that he should accept the teaching job and stay on Earth. However, his eventually falls to his gut which tells him he would never be happy if he never tried to see the stars, and that his relationship with Laura has to end. Without Charlie's stories and belongings, Ben may not have realized that he would not be able to have the best of both worlds at the same time.


Question: What is the plot of the story that involves a character managing a unique recruitment process on a distant planet, facing various challenges with alien beings?

Answer:
Sometime after the year 2903, the narrator of the story, Mr. Corrigan, is having a recruiting day on the planet of Ghryne, which he privately calls MacTavish IV. Mr. Corrigan owns a popular zoo on Earth called the Corrigan Institute - the only place where humans can see other species of the universe. He recruits alien life forms to exhibit at the zoo, and relatively quickly signs eleven new specimens onto his current 690 that are under contract at the institute on earth. This is a viable business because the World Congress declared Earth off-bounds to aliens in 2903, and the only way aliens can now go to Earth is as exhibits in this zoo.

Aliens make great sacrifices to come interview with Mr. Corrigan, as it seems he offers them a good deal. Those under contract are required to remain on exhibit for less than one-third of each day and get paid $50 Galactic a week, with expenses and transportation included.

He interviews many different creatures through the day, with some being noteworthy and some not as much, being ushered away quickly by Mr. Corrigan’s assistant Stebbins.

A Stortulian who claims his wife ran away to the Corrigan Institute, leaving him alone and unable to remarry due to his customs, pleads with Corrigan to let him go to Earth or at the very least to send her back. Mr. Corrigan is slightly frazzled by the story, but ultimately asks the Stortulian to leave, feeling sad and that he may commit suicide upon leaving and losing hope for his wife to return.
Vallo Heraal, Freeman of Kaller IV, was another notable interview. He stormed in and demanded to be signed to contract - and Mr. Corrigan preferred to make his own decisions. Herald felt insulted that the only four Kallerians at the institute were from the Clan Verdrokh, with no representation at all from his Clan Gursdrinn. Corrigan insisted he was unable to take another Kallerian, and apologized for insulting Clan Gursdrinn. This was enough to de-escalate physical violence, but Heraal was not pleased, and had to be escorted out of the room by Auchinleck and Ludlow who were summoned when Corrigan pushed a panic button under his desk.
In a surprise twist from what Corrigan had expected - the Stortulian to kill himself, and for Heraal to try to kill him - the opposite happens. Heraal storms in and stabs himself with his own sword, killing him instantly. The Stortulian returns and attempts to murder Mr. Corrigan, who is narrowly saved by being tackled by Gorb. The Ghrynian cops attempt to place a $100,000 fine on Corrigan for causing the death of a being (Heraal, who killed himself after being refused a contract). Gorb offers to get Corrigan out of the situation for $5000 and a contract to the institute, which is accepted.

Answer:
Mr. Corrigan, of the Corrigan Institute of Morphological Science, is visiting MacTavish IV (Ghryne) in the Caledonia Cluster for a few days to hold interviews for new specimens to be featured in his zoo. All life forms, aside from Terra, were banned from ever visiting Earth since 2903, so the only way to get in is to be viewed for science, hence the zoo. The Institute has 690 specimens currently, encompassing 298 life-forms. He brings his men with him, Auchinleck, Stebbins, and Ludlow, to help calm the masses. His first applicant of the day walks in: a round creature with five eyed-arms and two legs. He introduces himself as Lawrence R. Fitzgerald of Regulus II, showing himself to be a Terraphile. Corrigan signs him on for half the normal pay and sends him on his way. A urisinoid from Aldebaran IX is next, but Corrigan has no need for another one. He signs a creature from Donovan’s Planet, since they are such crowd-pleasers, and nine more. He also turns down at least 87 other life-forms, only of which, a Vegan, he feels remorse about.
His last specimen before lunch seems to be an Earthman pulling a con. He calls himself Ildwar Gorb and claims he’s from Wazzenaxx XIII. Corrigan doesn’t believe his tale and sends him out, though Gorb promises he’ll change his mind before long.
After lunch, trouble starts to arise. A Kallerian comes in and demands a place in his zoo, even though they already have four. Vallo Heraal of Clan Gursdrinn feels Corrigan has insulted his clan by only hiring members of Clan Verdrokh. Corrigan tries to calm him, but nothing can assuage his anger. He presses his trouble button, and his men come in and take Heraal away.
A small alien runs into the room, sneaking past Stebbins, and begs to be brought to Earth so he can reunite with his soulmate, a previously hired Stortulian. She ran away from him when she got the opportunity to live on Earth, and, per Stortulian customs, the Stortulian was not allowed to remarry.
Corrigan turns him down and continues on with his day until Gorb arrives again. He snuck past his men and offers himself as staff. Corrigan says no, but just then the Kallerian comes crashing in and commits hara-kiri, killing himself in front of the crowd. The police enter and claim Corrigan was the cause of his death since he had just filed a complaint against him. He can either be arrested or fined $100K. Next, the Stortulian walks back in and claims there is no reason to keep living. Unlike the Kallerian, he attempts to murder Corrigan by shooting his gun. However, Corrigan is shoved out of the way by Gorb. The Stortulian is arrested, and his actions are explained by Gorb.
Corrigan decides to call his lawyer, but Gorb offers him a deal he can’t refuse. Five thousand dollars as well as a contract, and he’ll get Corrigan out of trouble. Corrigan agrees.

Answer: J.F. Corrigan is the proprietor of the Corrigan Institute of Morphological Science, a glorified Terran zoo that offers spectators a glimpse at several hundred species of non-terrestrial life forms from all over the galaxy. Corrigan prides himself on actually employing his exhibits rather than hunting them down. Because Earth had closed its borders in the 29th century to non-terrestrial visitors, getting a job at Corrigan's zoo is a popular way for non-terrestrials to visit the planet and make a decent living at the same time. Corrigan offers good pay, short hours, and cover transportation costs and other expenses. Although he is generous, he is also thrifty and not above conning the public in the name of advancing his business. Corrigan arrives at the planet Ghryne to interview potential new non-terrestrials for his exhibition assisted by his employees Stebbins, Auchinleck, and Ludlow. He interviews dozens of non-terrestrials from planets all over the galaxy, including Mr. Lawrence R. Fitzgerald, a self-described Terraphile from Regulus II who wants to go to Earth so badly he is willing to work for less pay. Next, Corrigan meets Ildwar Gorb, a non-terrestrial from Wazzenazz XIII who looks remarkably like a human and claims to communicate through telepathic projection. Because of this similarity, Corrigan suspects him of actually being an Earthman attempting to con him for a free ride back to Earth. He dismisses Gorb, who implores him to reconsider and promises to return. After Gorb leaves, a Kallerian named Vallo Heraal enters and demands Corrigan hire him immediately or he will cause trouble. Wary of the Kallerian's size and threats, Corrigan fingers the meshgun trigger hidden under his desk in case he needs to protect himself. After Auchinleck and Ludlow escort Heraal out of the room, a small Stortulian enters Corrigan's office and tells him he doesn't want to work for him necessarily, but he is seeking passage to Earth so he can be reunited with his wife, who is currently under Corrigan's employ at the Institute.  When Corrigan refuses, the Stortulian leaves, and Corrigan process several dozen more applicants. When Gorb reenters and offers to replace Stebbins due to his incompetent handling of the non-terrestrials waiting in line, Corrigan threatens to have him thrown out. At that moment, Heraal returns, brandishing a large sword, which he uses to kill himself in front of everyone. As Corrigan processes this turn of events, the Ghrynian police enter and charge Corrigan with Heraal's death which includes a $100,000 Galactic fine. Next, the Stortulian reenters and attempts to shoot Corrigan, who is saved by Gorb. Gorb offers to solve Corrigan's legal liability for the death of Heraal in exchange for $5,000 Galactic and a contract with the Corrigan Institute. Corrigan agrees to the arrangement, so long as Gorb upholds his end of the bargain first.

Answer:
J. F. Corrigan of Earth’s Corrigan Institute of Morphological Science is on the planet MacTavish IV (aka Ghryne by its natives) to recruit alien life forms as specimens for display in what is effectively a zoo. This is the only way aliens can visit Earth because in 2903 the World Congress declared Earth off-limits for non-terrestrials. Throughout the day, Corrigan interviews many colorful, interesting alien life forms, ultimately hiring about two dozen. His goal is to have a collection of at least one member of 500 different races and currently has 298. He rejects some applicants simply because he already has specimens of their type. One applicant, Gorb, looks and sounds like a human but claims to be from a plant named Wazzenazz XIII. Corrigan is convinced he is just a human and sends him on his way, but Gorb says he will be back to give Corrigan another chance.
Later in the day, Corrigan has two troublesome interviews, the first with a distraught Kallerian named Vallo Heraal who wants to be hired because four other Kallerians have been hired from a different clan than his, and he feels his clan has been insulted. Corrigan apologizes for having unintentionally insulted Heraal’s clan but explains that he doesn’t need any more Kallerians now; he offers to give preference to Heraal’s clan when there is a vacancy. Unappeased, Heraal warns Corrigan that he will be sorry, and Corrigan sends for members of his team to escort him out. Next, a squirrely-looking Stortulian slips in, exclaiming that he must speak with Corrigan. The Stortulian explains that he is there because his wife is on Earth in Corrigan’s display. She left him because she wanted to go to Earth, and now he is lonely but forbidden by his customs to remarry. He doesn’t want to be hired but just wants passage to Earth to persuade his wife to return home. Corrigan patiently tells the Stortulian he can’t take him because it would be illegal. The Stortullian accepts defeat, saying he has no hope at all, and Corrigan has the distinct impression that the fellow is going to commit suicide.
At the end of the day, Gorb returns, asking Corrigan to hire him to work with his company. Heraal crashes in and tells Corrigan he has contacted the authorities and accused him of causing the death of a life-form before he kills himself. The police arrive to arrest Corrigan, but the Stortulian returns, again claiming his life isn’t worth living and fires a shot at Corrigan who is saved by the swift action of Gorb who pushes him out of the way.


Question: Who is Mr. Fitzgerald and what fate befalls him in this tale about a recruiting effort for an interstellar zoo?

Answer:
Lawrence Raymond Fitzgerald is a being of Regulus II, who is a self-procclaimed Terrophile, who changed his name to a famous human’s which pleases Mr. Corrigan.
Mr. Fitzgerald had a very deep voice, and was a yellow-green spherical shape the size of a basketball, with two double-kneed legs and five double-elbowed arms. He had size eyes, one with no eyelid right at the top of his head, and a mouth with no teeth.
He was fortunate to be in-demand for the zoo - Mr. Corrigan saying that he needed a Regulan - and is signed extremely quickly onto contract with Mr. Corrigan during his interview. He’ll be paid $50 Galactic per week on Earth, which is very pleasing for him.

Answer:
Mr. Fitzgerald is a Regulan, an alien with two legs, five arms covered with eyes and two elbows, and of a chartreuse-y color. His shape is similar to a basketball, and his face features one eyeball and a large toothless mouth. He introduces himself as Lawrence R. Fitzgerald, the R standing for Raymond, and says he came from Regulus II. He chose a Terra name to show how dedicated he is to Earth. He calls himself a Terraphile.
Mr. Fitzgerald wants to be a member of Corrigan’s Institute so he can live on Earth, and Mr. Corrigan can see that clear as day. He offers him half the pay that everyone else normally receives, and Mr. Fitzgerald accepts it happily. He will be able to see Earth after all, but he was scammed.

Answer: Lawrence R. Fitzgerald is a Regulan from the planet Regulus II in the Caledonia Cluster. He is a round, yellowish-green creature about the size of a big basketball. He stands on two spindly double-kneed legs and has five double-elbowed arms spaced around his body. Fitzgerald has a large, toothless mouth and five eyes above each arm. At the top of his head is an eye without an eyelid. He is a little bit shy and nervous and speaks in a deep, respectful voice when Mr. Corrigan interviews him for an exhibition position with his zoo. Fitzgerald demonstrates his knowledge of the requirements and benefits of the position and accepts the lower pay of $50 Galactic per week purely because he considers himself a Terraphile and wants nothing more than to see Earth. In fact, he loves Earth so much that he shed his Regulan name and took on the name of Lawrence Raymond Fitzgerald. The Regulan gesture for an apologetic smile involves closing the eyes and turning around 360-degrees, which Fitzgerald does when he reveals the truth about his name to Mr. Corrigan. Corrigan is so pleased with Mr. Fitzgerald that he hires him immediately for the show, and Fitzgerald claps his many hands in celebration.

Answer: Lawrence Raymond Fitzgerald is the first alien that Corrigan interviews. He is a creature from Regulus II, a basketball-sized, yellow-green globular being with five double-elbowed arms, two double-kneed legs, five eyes, and a gaping, toothless mouth. Fitzgerald boldly declares that he is a Terraphile and has changed his name for that reason. He also states that he needs no special care and is not a fugitive from any world law, showing that he would not be a burden if he is hired. He says he understands the terms, which involve being placed on exhibition for a maximum of one-third of each sidereal Terran day in exchange for transportation and expenses, terms that he is happy to accept. Corrigan hires him on the spot for $50 Galactic per week, which is half their usual rate. Fitz, of course, doesn’t know this, but is thrilled to be hired and accepts the offer immediately.


Question: Who is Gorb and what occurs to him throughout the events of the story involving interstellar recruitment and the challenges faced by the protagonist?

Answer:
Ildwar Gorb is a human-looking alien of the planet Wazzenazz XIII in the Crab Nebula. He claims to have never been within “a dozen parsecs of Earth,” but to look so human-like due to an evolutionary fluke. As he is interviewing with Mr. Corrigan, he says he is not actually speaking, but is a telepathic that communicates in symbols that are translated into the colloquial speech of the person he is interacting with.
He appeals to Mr. Corrigan to be exhibited as a specimen, but when Corrigan in unconvinced Gorb isn’t just a regular human trying to fool him, he also tries to appeal to him to hire him as a member of his human staff. This is also a no, since Mr. Corrigan would be breaking the law to do so if he was an alien.
Gorb throws himself at Mr. Corrigan to tackle him and save his life from a murder attempt by the Stortulian. This gesture buys him enough goodwill for Corrigan to accept his offer to get him out of the trouble with the Ghrynian cops. He will do the job for $5000 and a contract to the Corrigan Institute - ultimately getting him what he wanted in the first place.

Answer:
Gorb is a tall, thin humanoid or man with blue eyes and sandy hair. Despite being well-dressed and clean, Mr. Corrigan still claims he was shabby-looking. He introduces himself as Ildwar Gorb and claims he’s from the planet Wazzenazz XIII. Mr. Corrigan immediately believes he is simply an Earthman who ran out of money and is trying to find passage home. However, Gorb continues on, claiming Wazzenazz XIII is home to a race of people similar to that of Earth, and that he doesn’t speak English, he’s in fact telepathic. He asks to be a specimen in Corrigan’s zoo, but he refuses and sends him away.
Later in the story, Gorb arrives again, having sneaked back his guard, and asks to join his staff if he can’t be a specimen. Corrigan admits Stebbins is lack-luster, but still turns him down. After the Kallerian kills himself and Mr. Corrigan is charged guilty, Gorb bides his time and waits for his moment to step in. When the Stortulian arrives and attempts to murder Mr. Corrigan, Gorb saves his life by pushing him out of the way of the blast. Gorb explains the difference between Kallerian and Stortulian cultures to a wide-eyed Mr. Corrigan and once again offers his services. He claims he can get Mr. Corrigan out of the legal mess for only a $5,000 fee and a contract to be a specimen in his zoo. Mr. Corrigan hesitantly agrees.

Answer: Ildwar Gorb is a non-terrestrial from the planet Wazzenazz XIII, a small planet in the Crab Nebula. He is tall and thin with pale blue eyes, dirty-blond hair, and he strongly resembles an Earthman; he even speaks in Terran accents and has human-like teeth. When he first meets Corrigan, he is clean and well-dressed, but Corrigan notes he looks a bit shabby. Although he has never been anywhere close to Earth, he tells Corrigan his race is identical to the human race and speaks through telepathic projection, and he is looking for a job with Corrigan's zoo, which he calls a "circus." Corrigan is attracted to his glib personality, but he denies him a job because he believes he is an Earthman attempting to con him for a free trip back to Earth. When Gorb leaves, he implores Corrigan to reconsider and tells him he will be back. After several dozen interviews pass, Gorb returns and asks if Corrigan will give him Stebbins' job considering his incompetence in handling bothersome aliens throughout the day. When Corrigan again refuses, Gorb stays in his office as Heraal kills himself in front of them, the Ghrynian policemen enter and charge Corrigan with his death, and the Stortulian comes back and tries to shoot Corrigan. However, Gorb tackles Corrigan to the floor to prevent him from being shot. He predicted the Stortulian's action as he is familiar with their species, and he offers to help Corrigan out of his liability for the death of Heraal in exchange for $5,000 Galactic and a contract with the Institute.

Answer:
Gorb is a human who wants to return to Earth but seemingly can’t afford to do so. He knows how to take advantage of situations, so he tries three approaches to get Corrigan to hire him and take him to Earth. First, he poses as an alien species from a planet called Wazzenazz XIII in the Crab Nebula. Gord is tall and slender with blue eyes and dirty blond hair. He is neat and clean, but his appearance is somewhat shabby, suggesting he might be down on his luck. He claims his name is Ildwar Gorb and that he represents the only humanlike race in the galaxy beyond Earth. He tries to con Corrigan, explaining his humanlike appearance as an evolutionary fluke and his English as telepathic symbols that Corrigan translates into English. Corrigan sees through the ruse, though, and refuses to hire Gorb. Gorb leaves Corrigan’s office saying he’ll give Corrigan another chance.
	That afternoon, Gorb returns to Corrigan’s office, this time setting aside his alien story and presenting himself as a human applying for a place on Corrigan’s staff. He points out that he is familiar with alien life-forms, having lived in the outworlds for half of his life. Gorb says that he would have been able to stop the aliens who unexpectedly entered Corrigan’s office and suggests Corrigan fire Stebbins and hire him in his place.
	Gorb is present when Heraal returns and commits suicide in Corrigan’s office, and when the police arrive telling Corrigan that they are arresting him for contributing to the untimely death of an intelligent life-form, he hears the police pronounce Corrigan’s penalty of either two years in prison or a fine of $100,000 Galactic. When the Stortulian arrives and tries to shoot Corrigan, Gorb anticipates his action and tackles Corrigan, knocking him to the floor, so that the Stortulian’s shot misses. Afterward, Gorb demonstrates his knowledge of alien life when he explains that Stortulians despise suicide, and when a Stortulian believes someone has caused him trouble, he kills the person who caused the trouble. Gorb also tells Corrigan that he can help him get out of his situation for only $5,000 Galactic and a specimen contract. Corrigan decides that Gorb might be able to help him better than the Terran Consulate, so he accepts Gorb’s offer contingent on Gorb’s success of getting him out of his arrest and fine.


Question: Who is Mr. Corrigan and what is his personality like in the context of a story involving a peculiar interstellar zoo and a variety of alien life-forms seeking employment?

Answer:
Mr. Corrigan was an impoverished carnival man in the Betelgeuse system prior to the year 2903, when the World Congress made it illegal for aliens to travel to the planet Earth. He seized a business opportunity to open Corrigan’s Institute and collect aliens as scientific specimens, charging humans money to see them on Earth. This turned out to be a very lucrative business, and the zoo was very popular.

Mr. Corrigan tries to be fair to those he is interviewing, but is having an exceptionally hard day that is straining his patience. He does not allow himself to be swayed or pushed around by the sad stories (the Stortulian) or the demands (Heraal) of those in the interviews. He is resolved in his assumptions, and is truly shocked when the outcome of who would commit suicide and who would attempt to kill him is revealed.

Answer: Mr. Corrigan is an Earthman and the presumed founder of the Corrigan Institute of Morphological Science. He travels between planets in order to find rare specimens and bring them back to Earth to showcase in his zoo. He is a businessman at heart and does not feel much or any remorse when turning desperate aliens down. He is also a conman and easily scams Mr. Fitzgerald out of half of his pay after seeing how eager he was to experience Earth. Mr. Corrigan is always looking for the easy way out, but he’s still aware of the dangers he faces. He keeps an array of weapons hidden beneath his desk in case of a violent specimen as well as a distress button if things were to go south.

Answer: Mr. J.F. Corrigan is the proprietor of Corrigan's Institute of Morphological Science, a Terran zoo exhibiting non-terrestrial beings from around the universe. Starting out as an impoverished carnival man working in the Betelgeuse system, Corrigan had taken advantage of the isolationism of the late 29th century to establish his zoo and become a successful businessman. Corrigan claims to not want to exploit the non-terrestrials he employs as displays in his zoo, but he also doesn't want to pay them top dollar for their services. He prides himself on not hunting non-terrestrial and instead prefers to attract them by offering good pay, short hours, expenses, and transportation costs; in addition, he calls himself a "man of principles" and advertises about the thrill of show business and romance of life on Earth. Because Corrigan is willing to con the public--he calls himself "a straightforward double-dealer"--he believes he understands a con when he sees one, which is why he initially rejects Gorb's interview for a job. Corrigan is used to dealing with species from all over the galaxy, and he is prepared for trouble, so he has a meshgun trigger concealed below his desk and never allows himself to be bullied. In case he needs back up, he also employs Stebbins, who manages the line of non-terrestrials for Corrigan to interview, as well as Auchinleck and Ludlow. One of Corrigan's driving principles in dealing with non-terrestrials is to never make a business decision based upon sentiment as demonstrated by his dealings with the Stortulian. However, this interaction shows that he does feel empathy for those affected by his decisions.

Answer:
J.F. Corrigan is a businessman and owner of the Corrigan Institute of Morphological Science. An astute businessman who also manipulates and uses others, he has built a lucrative “institute” that is really just a zoo that exhibits odd-looking aliens. Before his current position, Corrigan was a lowly carnival man in the Betelgeuse system. After the World Congress ruled Terra off-limits for aliens in 2903, Corrigan concocted his business plan. His goal is to display representatives of 500 extraterrestrial species. Corrigan can “read” his interviewees and take advantage of them for his own benefit. For example, when he realizes how eager Mr. Fitzgerald is to see Earth, he hires him for half of what he usually pays, knowing that Fitzgerald’s eagerness will prevent him from realizing the offer takes advantage of him.
	Throughout the day of interviews, Corrigan assesses the applicants in terms of their value to him. While he doesn’t mind taking advantage of them, he doesn’t go so far as to cheat them. He is a bit of a con-man himself, hiring Mr. Fitz for half his going rate and placating Heraal with a less-than-heartfelt apology and promise to give members of his clan preference the next time they need to hire a Kallerian. Yet he won’t do anything that blatantly breaks the law such as transporting a Stortulian to Earth when the alien isn’t one of his hirees. He has a limited conscience; when he fears that the Stortulian will commit suicide, he feels bad about it, but he also doesn’t do anything to prevent it. His pragmatism and business acumen override his emotions, preventing him from caving to the creature’s requests, even if it means the creature will commit suicide. Corrigan is also sharp enough to spot a con; he recognizes Gorb for what he is: an Earthman using any means possible to obtain a paid trip to Earth. When Gorb comes across as glib and appealing despite his preposterous story, Corrigan recognizes the man’s similarity to himself. Corrigan acknowledges that he is a double-dealer yets describes himself as a man of principles. Because he is a con man, he is cynical of others. Corrigan is also a manipulator who says what others want to hear (such as calling the planet Ghryne by its native name) because he knows this is a way to win their trust.
	Corrigan likes to think of himself as a man who has principles, but some of those principles are the ones that ensure good business decisions rather than the values regarding what is right or wrong. He also thinks of himself as a man with a conscience who doesn’t exploit beings, but that is exactly what he does. He believes that because he pays his employees and they are volunteering to be placed on exhibit, he isn’t exploiting them.


Question: Describe the settings in which the story unfolds, involving a protagonist engaged in a unique recruitment process on an alien planet.

Answer:
The story takes place during a single day in Mr. Corrigan’s rented office on the planet Ghryne some time after the year 2903. His office has a desk, chairs for his interviewees to sit in, and a sign advertising that extraterrestrials are wanted. There is a waiting room outside the office, and applicants are buzzed in by Corrigan’s assistant.

On this planet, there is a strong desire for aliens to want to go on exhibit on Earth. Mr. Corrigan profits from having them on display, and is willing to go through long and stressful interview days to hand select his specimens. His desire is to have at least 500 different alien races in his collection.

There is frequent reference to the location of the Corrigan Institute on Earth, though it is never visited in the story. The Institute is very popular with humans, and has 690 specimens, representing 298 different types of aliens.

Answer: Birds of a Feather by Robert Silverberg takes place on what is commonly called Ghryne, or it’s more formal name MacTavish IV. This planet is in the Caledonia cluster and currently the home of Mr. Corrigan’s interviews. The Caledonia cluster is one of the many crossroads of interstellar travel, so it features many specimens from a variety of planets. The story mostly takes place in Mr. Corrigan’s office, featuring a desk and a few chairs for his specimens to sit in. He hides weapons beneath his desk in case of a scary situation, as well as a distress button.

Answer: The story takes place in the 30th century primarily on Ghryne, whose official Terran name is MacTavish IV, a planet in the Caledonia Cluster, which includes other planets such as Aldebaran IX, Regulus II, Donovan's Planet, Stortul XII, and more. Ghryne is in the heart of the Caledonia Cluster, where the interstellar crossroads meet, and Mr. Corrigan holds his interviews here for his Corrigan Institute from Thirdday to Fifthday of Tenthmonth. Having been declared off-limits for non-terrestrial beings by the World Congress in 2903, Earth is now an exclusive place to be, which heightens the appeal and romance of working and visiting there. The Corrigan Institute of Morphological Science is a Terran zoo that exhibits non-terrestrial beings from all over the universe. With 690 specimens representing 298 different intelligent life-forms, the ultimate goal of the zoo is to present at least one member of at least 500 different races. Corrigan has a desk equipped with a meshgun trigger that keeps him safe in the event a non-terrestrial becomes hostile towards him.

Answer: The story takes place sometime in the early 30th century as Corrigan’s ad announces this recruiting trip is his last in the Caledonia Cluster until 2937. Days and months are named by their sequence in the week or year, hence, Thirdday, Fifthday, and Tenmonth. In 2903, the World Congress ruled that aliens were forbidden on Earth unless they were there as a specimen of a scientific collection. This exception is what allows Corrigan to conduct his lucrative business. Most of the story is set In the rented Corrigan office on the planet MacTavis (IV), or Ghryne according to its residents. All of the action takes place on this planet, although there are a few references to Earth. MacTavis (IV) is an ideal planet for Corrgan’s interviews since this planet is at the interstellar crossroads, making it easily accessible for aliens from across the Caledonia Cluster to respond to Corrigan’s ad for alien species to be transported to Earth for display. The planet has the features of a civilization, including city districts organized into blocks, office buildings, and hotels. There is a police department that quickly responds to emergencies and has set penalties for infractions against the law. Ghryne uses the Galactic monetary system. Corrigan’s office has a modern executive set-up where he works in an inner office while his assistants manage his appointments. He has a button he can push to alert his team that they need to escort someone away from his office. Corrigan also has a meshgun mounted under his desk that he can fire in the event of an emergency.