"The Cold Equations" by Tom Godwin

[estradling75]

Remember this story is set before we had robotics and automation so...  So while sending a drone makes a lot of sense now... It wasn't an option then.

As for the pilot training her and then killing himself... remember we are kind of talking about rocket science here.  Chances are her inexperience would have simply been to great to over come in the little time and lack of training gear...  And in that case if I had to stand before God and explained why I killed myself and let her die in a ball of fire and all the other die from the disease...  When I could have saved all but her...  well I would not want to do that either.

 

 

[unixknight]

17 hours ago, Carborendum said:

What I'd wonder is that any trip between star systems would take a while.  How long did this child sit somewhere and never make a sound or require food or a bathroom?

I don't know about the original story but the Twilight Zone adaptation implied that the trip was between a couple of moons of Jupiter that were in relatively close proximity, and the applied phlebotinum that powered the ship allowed it to make the trip in only a matter of a few hours.

I think it's an aside to talk about the pilot sacrificing himself to save the girl and it was lampshaded in the story.  I remember the Twilight Zone adaptation the pilot had the thought of sacrificing himself but it just wasn't plausible to have the inexperienced and untrained young girl attempt to pilot and land the spacecraft, especially with the mission being so critical.

[estradling75]

17 hours ago, Carborendum said:

What I'd wonder is that any trip between star systems would take a while.  How long did this child sit somewhere and never make a sound or require food or a bathroom?

 

In the story (linked in the OP)...  Big interstellar cruisers handled the between the stars travel and keep the planets linked, but they have to keep a tight schedule to hold everything together.  When an unplanned emergency happens (like the sickness) they can drop off the limited use emergency boat to run the needed supplies... (Think well stocked ocean cruse liner sending a small row boat to a deserted island).  The girl was on board the liner going to another world, and over heard about the ship going to the world her brother was on and decided she wanted to go there instead.  She knew it was wrong and illegal but figured the penalty would be in the form of a fine of some kind (not her life) so she sneaks about the emergency craft.

So the cruiser jumped into the system. (Presumably near enough to the planet make it happen) dropped off the lifeboat/emergency craft and then jumped out.  The lifeboat then begins the process of deceleration to safely land and in short over realities that they have a problem.

All in all she was only probably hidden for long enough to sneak aboard before launch.

 

 

Edited February 29, 2016 by estradling75