（外文电子版资料）A. Bertram Chandler - Fall of Knight.pdf

A. BERTRAM CHANDLER FALL OF KNIGHT Weve all been guilty of the tendency to ascribe to British SF a sobriety of outlook and a pessimistic approach to the World of Tomorrow natural to a people as close to the historical realities as they are. Here is proof that this is an unwise generalization. It is customary for the spacemen serving in the Federations star ships to sneer at the titles bestowed, with a lavish hand, by the Kingdom of Waverley upon its spacefaring subjects. An officer who rises to become Master of one of the Empress Class vessels鈥攅quivalent to the Federations Alpha Class鈥攊s invariably, after a short period of probation, dubbed Knight. His Chief Engineers 鈥擱eaction and Interstellar Drives鈥攗sually are given the title of Esquire, as is the First Mate. There are quite a few Dames among the senior Pursers and Catering Officers. A spaceman is a spaceman, however, no matter what fancy handle he has to his name. He has to know his stuff, otherwise he would not be where he is. He has to be efficient, otherwise he would never wear upon his shoulders the four gold stripes of captaincy. So it was with Captain Sir Ian MacLachlan Stuart, Master of the interstellar liner Empress of Skye. When things went wrong he coped, and nobly, and saw to it that his officers coped. It was Sir Ian who had the gas turbine and the tractor wheels broken out of the cargo and with them rigged a makeshift, but effective governor for the racing, almost uncontrollable Mannschen Drive unit. It was Sir Ian who caught James Murdoch, the ships BioChemist, in the act of introducing poisons into the hydroponics tanks that would have destroyed every plant aboard the ship鈥攁nd with them her air purifying and regenerating plant. (Murdoch later confessed to other acts of sabotage, including the damage done to the Interstellar Drive unit, claiming that