



Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net









                        The Upside-Down Captain

                             By JIM HARMON

               _He knew the captain would be a monster.
               He knew the crew would be rough. He knew
              all about space travel--except the truth!_

           [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
               Worlds of If Science Fiction, March 1960.
         Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
         the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]


                                   I

"Excuse me, please," Ben Starbuck said, tapping the junior officer on
the epaulet.

"Get away from me, scum," the lieutenant said conversationally, his
eyes on the clipboard in his hands.

Starbuck rocked back on his heels and set his spacebag down on
the loading platform. He angled his head up at the spire of the
inter-atmosphere ship,