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Shock Absorber, by E.G. von Wald
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Title: Shock Absorber
Author: E.G. von Wald
Release Date: January 21, 2008 [EBook #24380]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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SHOCK ABSORBER
BY E. G. VON WALD
Illustrated by van Dongen
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Astounding Science Fiction June 1955. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
A man acts on what he believes the facts are, not on the facts. He lives or dies by what the facts are. Now sometimes you don't have time to correct a man's beliefs, yet he must act correctly....
The aging little psychologist looked down at the captain's insignia on his sleeve and scowled.
"I know it's a lousy, fouled-up situation, commander," he said with evident irony. "You speak of discipline. Well, it's bad enough here on Mars, where a junior officer like you feels free to argue with a full captain like me, but out there with the fleet, discipline is now virtually nonexistent."
He looked up again and quickly added, "Oh, of course there is a discipline of a sort, and in its own way it is quite