Yeah, it's pulp space warfare. Larry Niven's reaction (or lack thereof) at Bayfilk III caused me to go out into the hall to ask about it, thus meeting Brenda (whom I had known online for a while) in person for the first time. So, yes, it IS all Larry Niven's fault.
lyrics
He couldn't see the moons or suns,
He couldn't see the stars.
He couldn't see the docking lights
So he hangs around the bars.
Though in the life he left behind
He lived beyond the sky ...
He's grounded, useless, hopeless for
A blind man cannot fly.
The man who flies a starship's drive
Is a god to other men.
No faults has he that they perceive,
No flaws that they may ken.
But should his body fail him or
His senses let him down,
They all ignore his time at war,
Alone he stalks the town.
So the blind man sits and dreams of ships
In the foam of another beer.
A pilot sneers, the blind man hears,
And he sheds a ductless tear.
For once he was a soldier in
A war to save his race --
'Til laser knives wiped out his eyes
And left him half a face.
The star fleet's free with liberty
Except in times of war.
So comes the day the blind man's bay
Rings loud with space no more.
The fleet is called, the ships lift out,
The battle cry is blown!
Left behind to drink his wiine
The blind man sits alone.
Suddenly close fire breaks free
Among the spaceport bars.
Enemy signs behind the lines
Destroying home fleet stars.
The blind man leaps to safety as
The laser heat burns through..
He alone may save his home;
He knows what he must do.
Through sounds of war that blast him o'er
His memory is true.
He finds a ship, a shuttle slip
Abandoned by its crew.
He waits until the scanners sound
That battle is above,
And with a prayer to gods of air
He gives the jets a shove.
They said it was a stroke of luck
That shuttle's engines blew.
They said it was the hand of God
That aimed it straight and true.
They said it was the fates of war
That saved their world that day,.
That downed the rebel leader
And so chased his force away.
They never found the blind man
In the rubble of the bar.
They made a cave an empty grave
For a soldier of the stars.
They then forgot the blind man
But I won't forget that night --
I was a child alone who saw
My father's final flight.
He couldn't see the moons or suns,
He couldn't see the stars.
He couldn't see the docking lights
So he hangs around the bars.
Though in the life he left behind
He lived beyond the sky ...
He's grounded, useless, hopeless for
A blind man cannot fly.
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