Delilah and the Space Rigger

1949 short story by Robert Heinlein

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"Delilah and the Space Rigger" is a science fiction short story by American writer Robert A. Heinlein. One of his Future History stories, it originally appeared in Blue Book in December 1949 and was reprinted in his collection, The Green Hills of Earth (and subsequently The Past Through Tomorrow).

"Delilah and the Space Rigger" is one of Heinlein's stories with a typically strong, smart, capable (for the American science fiction market of the time) female protagonist.

Plot summary

Brooks McNye, a communications engineer, wangles a job as a radio technician (concealing her first name, Gloria) and joins the all-male crew of construction workers building a space station. On arrival, she is immediately confronted by "Tiny" Larsen, the hard-boiled construction superintendent, who had not realized she was female. He does not want women "sniffing around my boys" and orders her returned on the next shuttle, only to be forced by circumstances to keep her. Larsen is constantly putting his foot in his mouth with remarks like, "Mind what tells you. He's a good man," only to hear a brisk, "I know, I trained him." In the end, he is forced to admit that having a woman on the team has improved morale and efficiency, and he decides to stop discriminating on the basis of sex. He also asks that a chaplain be assigned to the station, reasoning, "under the new policy we may need one anytime."

References

Roberts, Garyn (2015). "Early Genius: Robert A. Heinlein's Stories from 1939 to 1949". Critical Insights: Robert A. Heinlein: 101.

External links

"Delilah and the Space Rigger" title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
Full text of story at Baen Ebooks

v t e Robert A. Heinlein's Future History
Collections	The Man Who Sold the Moon (1950) The Green Hills of Earth (1951) Revolt in 2100 (1953) Orphans of the Sky (1963) The Past Through Tomorrow (1967)
Novels	Methuselah's Children (1958) The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress (1966) Time Enough for Love (1973) The Number of the Beast (1980) The Cat Who Walks Through Walls (1985) To Sail Beyond the Sunset (1987) The Pursuit of the Pankera (2020)
Short stories	"Life-Line" "Let There Be Light" "The Roads Must Roll" "Blowups Happen" "The Man Who Sold the Moon" "Delilah and the Space Rigger" "Space Jockey" "Requiem" "The Long Watch" "Gentlemen, Be Seated!" "The Black Pits of Luna" "It's Great to Be Back!" "—We Also Walk Dogs" "Searchlight" "Ordeal in Space" "The Green Hills of Earth" "Logic of Empire" "The Menace from Earth" "'If This Goes On—'" "Coventry" "Misfit" "Universe" "Common Sense"
Characters	Lazarus Long The Notebooks of Lazarus Long Delos D. Harriman Jubal Harshaw Competent man Maureen Johnson Andrew Jackson Libby Hazel Stone
Related	The Worlds of Robert A. Heinlein (1966) Expanded Universe (1980)

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