Space Pilots In Two Timelines

Harvest The Fire, CHAPTER 2.

In On The Moon, we listed Robert Heinlein's Future History stories which are set on the Moon but did not mention "Space Jockey" which is about a rocket pilot who regularly flies between Earth and Moon and, at the end of the story, accepts a job that will involve flying only between the Moon and Lunar orbit provided, of course, that he and his wife move house and live permanently in Luna City. This is the daily life of the future as depicted in the Future History.

This parallels Jesse Nicol's work. Nicol flies between points on the Lunar surface or between Luna and the orbiting Habitat. He is employed by Lunarians although some of his flights:

"...demanded higher accelerations than Lunarians could readily tolerate...." (p. 50)

Alienated from the period he lives in, Nicol is lucky to work among alien-like Lunarians and even has a relationship with a colleague, Falaire, who is of Selenarchic descent.

Again, reading Anderson, we remember Heinlein.