This essay begins in part 1
Jeff is smitten
Now things start to go south for Holly.
Jeff's eyes widened and I felt uneasy … I knew she was exceptionally decorative, but it was unthinkable that Jeff could be captivated by any groundhog, no matter how well designed. They don't speak our language!
I am not romantic about Jeff; we are simply partners. But anything that affects Jones & Hardesty affects me.
When we joined him at West Lock he almost stepped on his tongue in a disgusting display of adolescent rut. I was ashamed of him and, for the first time, apprehensive. Why are males so childish?
This all seems right to me. As long as the story is focused on people, it works. It's only the auxiliary hardware that causes problems.
Holly helps Miss Brentwood get into a pressure suit.
Those rental suits take careful adjusting or they will pinch you in tender places once out in vacuum . . . besides there are things about them that one girl ought to explain to another.
Jeff and "the platinum menace" go out without asking Holly to come along.
The days that followed were the longest in my life. I saw Jeff only once . . . on the slidebelt in Diana Boulevard, going the other way. She was with him.
She knows (by some unspecified means) that Jeff is cutting classes and taking Miss Brentwood to night clubs.
Starship Prometheus fading...
At last we get a good look at Holly's obsession, the starship that she and Jeff are designing in their spare time.
Jones & Hardesty had a tremendous backlog because we were designing Starship Prometheus. This project we had been slaving over for a year, flying not more than twice a week to devote time to it -- and that's a sacrifice.
Again with the "flying". Wonder what that means?
Of course you can't build a starship today, because of the power plant. But Daddy thinks that there will soon be a technological break-through and mass-conversion power plants will be built -- which means starships. …
Jones & Hardesty plans to be ready with a finished proposal while other designers are still floundering … We had been working every possible chance … checking each other's computations, fighting bitterly over details, and having a wonderful time. But the very day I introduced him to Ariel Brentwood, he failed to appear.
Days go by; no Jeff. Holly tries to come to terms with it.
I looked at the name plate of the sheet I was revising. "Jones & Hardesty" it read, like all the rest. I said to myself, "Holly Jones, quit bluffing; this may be The End. You knew someday Jeff would fall for somebody." … I erased "Jones & Hardesty and lettered "Jones & Company" and stared at it. Then I started to erase that, too -- but it smeared; I had dripped a tear on it. Which was ridiculous!
Awwww! This is such a great moment; I love it.
Too bad I have to nit-pick it. Dear millenial reader: once upon a time, engineers drew their designs by hand on big sheets of paper. Every official design sheet had a signature block, a box, usually in the lower left corner, with the name of the company, the date, revision number and so forth. This, like all the text on the sheet, was hand-lettered. So picture Holly bent over a table piled with many big sheets of paper, each a section of the design of the Prometheus, and each sheet with its neat name plate hand-lettered in the lower corner. That's what we're talking about here.
If we rewrote the story for this century, she'd be working on a table-top display screen maybe. But the falling tear wouldn't be as effective.
Holly's parents are concerned; she's been "moping" and not eating much, her father says. With their encouragement she decides to go flying. She mopes her way to the Bat Cave, fighting her own emotions.
… Jeff had been my partner and pal, and under my guidance he could have become a great spaceship designer, but our relationship was straightforward . . . a mutual respect for each other's abilities, with never any of that lovey-dovey stuff. …
No, I couldn't be jealous; I was simply worried sick because my partner had become involved with a groundhog.
continue in part 6
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