Subspace Survivors

"All passengers, will you[1] pay attention, please?" All the high–fidelity speakers of the starship Procyon spoke as one, in the skillfully–modulated voice of the trained announcer. "This is the fourth and last cautionary announcement. Any who are not seated will seat themselves at once. Prepare for take–off acceleration of one and one–half gravities; that is, everyone will weigh one–half again as much as his normal Earth weight for about fifteen minutes. We lift in twenty seconds; I will count down the final five seconds… Five… Four… Three… Two… One… Lift!