Project Gutenberg 2020-08-25 Public domain in the USA. 178 Bradbury, Ray 1920 2012 Elliott, William Bradbury, Raymond Douglas Sterling, Brett Doolin, Joseph 1896 1967 Doolin, Joseph Patrick Morgue Ship Produced from Planet Stories Summer 1944 Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net "Morgue Ship" by Ray Bradbury is a science fiction short story written during the mid-20th century. Set in the vastness of space amidst the backdrop of an ongoing war, the narrative centers around the grim duty of retrieving the bodies of fallen warriors and preserving them for burial. It explores themes of loss, the futility of war, and the human desire to escape from a cycle of violence. The story follows Sam Burnett, a weary coroner aboard the morgue ship "Constellation", who has spent ten years collecting the bodies of dead soldiers in the aftermath of galactic battles. During a final mission, Burnett discovers that among the bodies is Lethla, the assistant to a powerful enemy commander, Kriere. As the story unfolds, Lethla reveals that Kriere is still alive but in danger, prompting a tense standoff aboard the ship. The climax arrives as Burnett must navigate the dichotomy of his grim duties against the weight of his burgeoning morality. In a decisive moment, he captures Kriere using the ship's retrieval claws, symbolically completing his duty but also shedding light on the impact of the war on humanity and the cycle of death it perpetuates. Ultimately, Burnett's journey ends in a poignant reflection on the cost of war and what it means to survive in its wake. (This is an automatically generated summary.) Reading ease score: 86.3 (6th grade). Easy to read. en Science fiction Short stories War stories Space ships -- Fiction Morgues -- Fiction PS Text Category: Short Stories Category: Science-Fiction & Fantasy 49748 2025-07-25T06:09:08.194571 text/html 26035 2024-10-18T05:29:13 text/html 502342 2025-07-25T06:09:10.007566 application/epub+zip 501190 2025-07-25T06:09:08.632639 application/epub+zip 81976 2025-07-25T06:09:08.371604 application/epub+zip 539024 2025-07-25T06:09:11.203566 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 531658 2025-07-25T06:09:09.801582 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 112744 2022-09-28T12:11:38.773278 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 43137 2025-07-25T06:09:08.092578 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 23400 2024-10-18T05:29:13 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 17864 2025-07-25T06:09:11.335551 application/rdf+xml 27640 2025-07-25T06:09:08.482575 image/jpeg 4686 2025-07-25T06:09:08.426577 image/jpeg 438693 2025-07-25T06:09:08.206601 application/octet-stream application/zip Archives containing the RDF files for *all* our books can be downloaded at https://book.klll.cc/wiki/Gutenberg:Feeds#The_Complete_Project_Gutenberg_Catalog en.wikipedia