"It isn't," said Randy. "He wants a bunk with a hard mattress. He won't use the acceleration chair except for take-off."
McCauley stared.
"But didn't you tell him?..."
"I," said Randy wryly, "am polishing apples. I want to go on this shoot even if he does, which means I want to go very badly. No. I didn't tell him that in free-fall flight with no gravity a steel plate is as comfortable as a down pillow. Why start an argument with a man in a blue funk?... He showed me the reference library he insists he has to take with him. It weighs eight hundred pounds."
"There," said McCauley, "he has to lose! We can't take eight hundred pounds of excess weight. We simply can't do it!"
Randy grinned.
"I showed him a moon-base microfilm reader and offered him the equivalent of four tons of books on half a dozen reels. He couldn't refuse to buy. He only named half a dozen book titles not already on film, and they're being filmed now."
"Anything else?"
"Not so far," said Randy. "He's scared and ashamed of being scared. I don't think he'll actually get up nerve enough to back out, but I'm sure he'll never get the nerve to go. When he finds out the actual take-off time I look for trouble."
"What kind?"