Ballad to a Spaceman

Born in the belly of a rocket ship,
 As from Terra it did fly.
 His first cries drowned by the engines' roar,
 In no cradle did he lie.
 He'd hit Santarra by the time he was four,
 GalHydin when he was nine.
 Born as a spaceman in a spaceman's bed,
 And as a spaceman he would die.
 He learned every course that a ship could take,
 Found a few more on the side.
 He learned new tricks every stop they'd make;
 With the engines he would ride.
 A spacer's pride was his swagger stick,
 And his pride knew that he could survive.
 He lived as a spaceman since the day he was born
 And as a spaceman he would die.
 They headed for Diversa in his trading years
 When he'd just turned thirty-four.
 The captain planned on a mighty pay
 After running a load of ore.
 The engine room gave him all they had,
 But the captain ordered more.
 They pumped 'em up to their hottest gain
 Just to hear the rockets roar.
 Five hundred miles 'bove the planet's ground,
 The engines died away.
 The captain called, "We need power now
 Or we'll all die today!"
 The spaceman said, "All the boys are dead
 And I'm not far behind.
 We've pulled much more than she's meant to take,
 And the baffles have blown wide."
 The captain said, "Well, do something man!"
 And the Spaceman smiled wide/
 "'cept hold the plates down with my bare hands,
 We can't do nothing but enjoy the ride."
 But the ground flew up with destructive speed,
 And the Spaceman knew his mind
 He couldn't sit in the engine room
 And wait for his friends to die
 So he turned and he put his hand inside
 Where the engines used to glow
 He found the plates and he held 'em fast:
 "To quit's no way to go!"
 And the rocket shook with a mighty roar
 And the engines they did cry.
 And the Spaceman smiled in the engine's glow.
 For as a spaceman he would die.
 They found the boys in the engine room;
 By their stations they did lie.
 The spaceman with his hands on a baffle plate
 Was still sitting where he'd died.
 They took them out, gave them to the stars;
 Not a single spaceman cried.
 For spacemen in the stars do live,
 And in the stars they long to die
 The Spaceman's life for his men did give,
 And the stars would let him lie
 He lived as a spaceman from the day he was born,
 And as a spaceman, he did die.