Dimension X: Requiem (Robert A. Heinlein, adapted by Ernest Kinoy)

[james_davis_nicoll]

Requiem

You know how I said "the regulation that nearly screws over/saves Rhysling at the end of his career, the one intended to keep him from joy-riding in space, is "The Harriman Code", named after Delos Harriman. There's a certain amount of irony to that, given the issues Harriman had getting into space"? Well, this is the story of the man the Harriman Code is named after, a visionary tycoon who developed crewed space flight at the cost of pretty much everything of value in his life but was himself denied the chance to go to space.

Do last minute injunctions turn up a lot in Heinlein?

Comments

[chrysostom476.livejournal.com]

Well, it's the very end of Harriman's story. The bigger part was told in "The Man Who Sold the Moon."

[(Anonymous)]

Though "Requiem" was written earlier.

-- Paul Clarke

[doc-lemming.livejournal.com]

I can only remember two, though there are people who are much better read in Heinlein than I am.

It might be that, like Zelazny and the amnesiac protagonist, he felt that it was a fiction technique with a limited per-writer shelf life. You could haul it out two times or three times, but then it was put away.

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

Do last minute injunctions turn up a lot in Heinlein?

In Destination Moon, the movie.

OFFICIOUS MAN addresses GUARD at launch site gate. Two TECHNICIANS in a Jeep overhear.

OFFICIOUS MAN: Hey, wait a minute. I've gotta get through.

GUARD: Sorry, nobody passes here.

OFFICIOUS MAN:But I tell you you have to take me through! I've got a court order here forbidding them to take off!

GUARD examines papers. TECHNICIANS speed off to warn BARNES.
[...]
At the rocket, TECHNICIANS enter honking, interrupting tender goodbyes.

TECHNICIAN: Mister Barnes! There's a joker trying to crash the gate! He has a court order that says you can't take off!

BARNES hustles crew onto gantry elevator. They elevate. A police cruiser zooms into view, bearing OFFICIOUS MAN.

OFFICIOUS MAN: Barnes! Cargraves! Stop! Come back here!

BARNES: Can't hear a word you say!

The crew launches immediately.

In Destination Moon, the story:

Reaction Associates, Inc.
Mojave, California.

Gentlemen:

Your request to test the engine of your atomic-powered rocket ship at the site of its construction is regretfully denied. Although it is conceded that no real danger of atomic explosion exists, a belief in such danger does exist in the public mind. It is the policy of the Commission—Corley skipped down to the last paragraph:—therefore, test is authorized at the Special Weapons Testing Center, South Pacific Pacific. Arrangements may be —

He stopped and shoved the letter at Barnes. "If we've got to test at Eniwetok, we've got to find the money to do it."

The crew launches immediately. Not an injunction, strictly speaking.

In Rocket Ship Galileo:

"It's a court order."

"Eh? What sort?"

"Temporary injunction against flying this ship. Order to appear
and show cause why a permanent injunction should not be issued to
restrain him from willfully endangering the lives of minors."

Cargraves stared. It felt to him as if the world were collapsing
around him.

The crew launches immediately.

Do last minute injunctions turn up a lot in Heinlein? They do.

In none of these stories are we told what consequences, if any, the protagonists experience from defying the due process of law.

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

Oops, I overlooked the court-order scene in the prose "Destination Moon."

While we're rummaging in that volume, here's the court-order scene in the prose version of "Requiem."

[death4breakfast.livejournal.com]

Actually, in Rocket Ship Galileo, the crew doesn't launch immediately.Instead, he looks at the paper he'd been given, and calls for a discussion with Buchanan, the Law Enforcement Officer in charge.

"It seems to be in order," Buchanan admitted.

"Maybe. This says it's the order of a state court. This is federal territory, isn't it? As a matter of fact, Captain Taylor and his men are here only by your invitation and consent. Isn't that right?"

"Hmmm...yes. That's so." Buchanan suddenly jammed the paper in his pocket. "I'll fix his clock!"

"Just a minute." Cargraves told him rapidly about the phony inspector, and the prowlers, matters which he had kept to himself, save for a letter to the Washington CAB office. "This guy may be a phony, or a stooge of a phony. Don't let him ger away until you check with the court that supposedly issued this order."

"I won't!"

So, not ignoring an injunction and taking off legally with the consent and assistance of local law enforcement.