Explore "Critical Difference" by Murray Leinster on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Massy waked that morning when the only partly-opened port of his / sleeping-cabin closed of itself and the room-warmer began to whir. He / found himself burrowed deep under his covering, and when he got his / head out of it the already-bright room was bitterly cold and his breath / made a fog about him.
He thought uneasily, _It's colder than yesterday! _ But a Colonial / Survey officer is not supposed to let himself seem disturbed, in / public, and the only way to follow that rule is to follow it in / private, too. So Massy composed his features, while gloom filled him. / When one has just received senior service rating and is on one's very / first independent survey of a new colonial installation, the unexpected / can be appalling. The unexpected was definitely here, on Lani III.