Sky-Pirate of the Two-Slack Cargo-Sling — a rope-captain of a folding aerodock whose one great loading-sling, a canvas cradle strung between the ship's boom above and the loading-deck below, holds in the same weave in the same instant two incompatible tensions: the sling paid fully OUT and slack, its cargo already lowered and resting on the deck, and that same sling hauled fully TAUT and swinging with a full load still aloft — so the emptied slack ahead is the loaded strain behind, and the sling has no lower and no lift, only the seam where the loosed rope is the straining rope; and this Sky-Pirate has learned the sling cannot be hauled or slackened, only INHABITED — she has stopped working the winch and settled into the cradle itself at the fold, seated in the canvas bight, one bare palm laid flat on the rope where it runs slack and cool and the load is already down, the other palm gripped where the same line runs hot and singing under a full aloft weight, holding both truths of the one sling open, choosing to remain suspended at the seam rather than trust the load to either deck before the two-slack sling decides which way the dockside wind will spend her