Hard Choices In The Cold Equation By Tom Godwin

“We all make choices, the hard thing is to live with them, and there ain't nobody that can help you with that”-unknown. This inspiring quote can be the very definition of making a hard choice and living with the consequences. In the short story The Cold Equation by Tom Godwin, people have to make hard choices every day. When society lives in a interstellar universe it can be difficult. The hard choices people make, can change their life; We all have to make hard decisions, and sometimes the right thing is the wrong thing. Marilyn Cross a young teenage girl stowaway, was caught on an EDS ship not knowing the consequences. The pilot did not want to tell Marilyn the consequences, but he had no choice. There is no way the fuel is gonna last

till Woden and for a safe landing. There was six men on Woden that were dying of kala fever that if the EDS pilot wasn't on schedule all those men would die.
Hard choices can describe how people think about their personality, and how people handle the choices other humans make.

Even though, fuel seems like an easy thing, it is much more complicated than people think. “There could be no alternative, additional fuel would be used to compensate for the added weight”(11). Fuel is one example of a hard choice, fuel is important, but fuel is limited in space. The pilot had a choice whether to let the teenage girl live, but risk his life, or risk the life of six other men on Woden; He also had the hard choice to kill Madilyn and save fuel. Since, fuel is limited, the pilot tries to save fuel by going fast to try to save fuel. Madilyn said in a questionable voice “‘We're going faster now aren't we?’ She asked, ‘why are we doing that?’ He told her the truth, ‘to save fuel’”(12). This statement in the book describes the confusion of the stowaway and the hardest decision the EDS pilot has to make. Fuel is limited, and to save fuel the EDS pilot must do everything he can to give the stowaway more time to live. Therefore, the pilot needs to make the hard choice whether to give the girl more time to live but use fuel, or killing her to save

fuel
The EDS pilot has six people on woden who are counting on him to save them.

Although, he has the kala fever serum; he also has to worry about Marilyn's life, and trying to save her. “The six men will die unless this ship reaches them on schedule”(15). The six men on woden are sick and dying from kala fever. The EDS pilot had the kala fever serum on the ship that Madilyn stowaways on. If the EDS pilot doesn't kill the teenage girl then he risks: his life, her life, and the six men's lives. Since, the EDS ship is carrying the serum, it has to be the most important ship out there. “This ship is carrying kala fever serum to group one on Woden”(15). The situation on the EDS ship, and with Madilyn is a hard decision. The pilot risks killing the six men, himself, and Madilyn. If the pilot doesn't make the right choice he risks everything. Consequently, the pilot can't get away from any hard choices, he can't beat the laws of

physics.
To conclude, the EDS pilot made a hard choice. Everyone sometime in there life, will have to make a life or death hard choice. Once the pilot realized there was no way to save her, and fuel wasn't going to last till Woden; he decided to save him and the kala fever serum for the six men. Madilyn accepted her fate and at 18:00 hours she would have to die. Space is a scary thing, the environment is harsh, and dangerous. In the 1980s space was such a wonderful and exciting thing because people were thinking about average people going into space. The realization of people going into space, and not astronauts made the nation excited. Like Madilyn, people wanted to experience space, and help other people in space. When you travel in interstellar space everything pilots do is dangerous. Madilyn, didn't know the consequences about going into space. For example, in the 80s a teacher had the amazing privilege to go up into space, not thinking about what could happen. Unfortunately, when they were launching the spacecraft blew up, and everyone died. The whole nation watched in horror has the ship burned. After this event no one wanted to make the hard decision of trying to launch another mission. The laws of physics are a complicated, and hard subject to understand. With the help of physicists we can understand these cold equations.