Norfolk’s Birthday By Richard McLawhorn In the year 2839 the inhabitants of Earth launch a starship bound for the Delta Pavonis solar system, a destination almost twenty light years away. Estimated time of arrival is 143 years after departure. By the seventy-first year of the voyage, the crew’s population has grown to more than five thousand. Their daily activities include athletics, the arts, sex, and gossip. Suicide among the elderly is a weekly occurrence. Young people gather for nightly unrestrained saturnalia at a night club called the Black Hole. Some turn to religion, an activity forbidden by the ship’s charter. Others join an organization that calls for a course reversal and a return to Earth. And, as some warned at the inception of the mission, the anger and resentment of this generation smolders and threatens to erupt into violence when triggered by some catastrophe. Starship captain Harry Jasinowski feels besieged by his enemies and depressed by the weight of the responsibility of his position. He restricts entry into the Navigation Pod of the ship and overreacts in emergency situations. The captain does not trust the ship’s Master-at-Arms security force, and he looks to his personal guard to protect the Navigation Pod and oppose the MAA’s forces if necessary. When the captain’s spy is murdered after infiltrating the MAA Corps, Harry overreacts but soon regrets his actions. The incident triggers a series of events that forces the Captain and Master-at-Arms Robert Payne to unite in the struggle to maintain order and to preserve the mission.