Minimum Sentence
by Theodore R. Cogswell
Flip Danielson and his partner-in-crime Potsy are facing a minimum of four years hard
time for their deeds, so they hijack a spaceship to Alpha Centauri, thinking (as the rest
of humanity) that the ship is faster-than-light, but as the buglike Quang Dal keeps
telling them, it is a sub-light ship that’s has only a few time conveniences that
won’t help the humans shorten the journey at all.
“Are explaining many times before,” said Quang Dal patiently. “Is no such thing as
faster-than-light drive. As your good man Einstein show you long time ago, is theoretical
impossibility.”
“Minimum Sentence” by Theodore R. Cogswell, in
Galaxy, August 1953.