...so They Baked a Cake by Winston K. Marks

A bitter human-interest columnist, worn down by bureaucracy, artificiality, and the worst habits of civilization, is unexpectedly drafted into humanity's first starship expedition aboard the Albert E. Instead of excitement, he carries resentment, a hidden bottle of rye, and a determination to ignore his official duty as ship's chronicler, setting the tone for a sardonic tale of deep-space ambition and personal disillusionment. As the ship pushes beyond the solar system on the revolutionary Larson Drive, he confronts the absurdity of a journey measured in decades by Earth time, the cramped realities of life aboard, and his skepticism toward the scientists' faith in theory. His first conversation with Commander Larson turns practical and profound: can they find a habitable world before supplies fail? Larson answers that the mission has already succeeded, since the drive has carried humanity past the solar frontier, and he reveals a time-shrinkage miscalculation that means the crew will arrive far sooner than feared. Against this hard-won triumph, the narrator notices Larson's grief for the wife he left behind, sharpening the story's contrast between human progress, sacrifice, loneliness, and the stubborn endurance of love. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.