The Project Gutenberg EBook of Marley's Chain, by Alan Edward Nourse

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Title: Marley's Chain

Author: Alan Edward Nourse

Release Date: April 26, 2010 [EBook #32142]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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Transcriber's Note:

This etext was produced from If Worlds of Science Fiction September
1952. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S.
copyright on this publication was renewed.

MARLEY'S CHAIN

By Alan E. Nourse

_Tam's problem was simple. He lived in a world that belonged
to someone else._

* * * * *

They saw Tam's shabby clothing and the small, weather-beaten bag he
carried, and they ordered him aside from the flow of passengers, and
checked his packet of passports and visas with extreme care. Then they
ordered him to wait. Tam waited, a chilly apprehension rising in his
throat. For fifteen minutes he watched them, helplessly.

Finally, the Spaceport was empty, and the huge liner from the outer
Asteroid Rings was being lifted and rolled by the giant hooks and
cranes back into its berth for drydock and repair, her curved,
meteor-dented hull gleaming dully in the harsh arc lights. Tam watched
the creaking cranes, and shivered in the cold night air, feeling
hunger and dread gnawing at his stomach. There was none of the elation
left, none of the great, expansive, soothing joy at returning to Earth
after eight long years of hard work and bitterness. Only the cold,
corroding uncertainty, the growing apprehension. Times had changed
since that night back in '87--just how much he hardly dared to guess.
All he knew was the rumors he had heard, the whispered tales, the
frightened eyes and the scarred backs and faces. Tam hadn't believed
them then, so remote from Earth. He had just laughed and told himself
that the stories weren't true. And now they all welled back into his
mind, tightening his t