"He...stepped off toward the nearest entry lock with that flowing spaceman's pace which always keeps one foot on the ground. Even so, he didn't unshackle his inward-reeling lifeline till he was inside the chamber."
-Anderson, NESFA Vol 2, p. 51.
On an asteroid whose rotation counteracts its minimal gravity, Mike Blades wears grip-soled boots, keeps one foot on the ground and uses a life-line. Anderson writes as though he and his readers were familiar with that flowing spaceman's pace.
I distinguished between social and political stories when discussing Anderson's Psychotechnic History. Mike Blades' story in the Flying Mountains future history contains both of these elements, details of daily life in an asteroid but also political tension after a change of government back on Earth. I know from experience that members of armed services avoid political argument with civilians. They are probably warned against this. Yet a visiting Navy man blurts out that Belt companies are:
"...only using natural resources that rightly belong to the people, and the accumulated skills and wealth of an entire society." (p. 58)
This insensitivity plus intelligence-gathering questions from other Naval personnel indicate that trouble is brewing.
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