Em               D                    G              D
Now I met Sam Jones on dock-side night in a rundown Viking bar,
  Em            Am                   Em     D       Em
A kid of maybe fifteen years at that purely nowhere star
    G           D                 C           D
He had no ship, he had no skills, No name or family,
    Em                     Am                Em        D     Em
And he looked at me like a thirsty soul at a boundless salty sea


[Chorus]
    G                 D                     Em
For Space is wide and good friends are too few
    G                 D                     Em


[Verse 2]
 Em              D         G                     D
"Captain take me with you Captain I'll work for free,
  Em                   Am            Em          D       Em
I was spacer born and stranded here, dock-side’s not for me"
    G                    D        C     D
Now that tale sure is an old one. Some stationer unwise,
    Em              Am              Em  D            Em
Had slept with some spacer love and got herself this prize


[Chorus]
    G                 D                     Em
For Space is wide and good friends are too few
    G                 D                     Em


[Verse 3]
    Em                    D            G                 D
And the kid grows up all restless and dreams of fairing free,
    Em                    Am               Em           D     Em
The stars and worlds and foreign docks and things he'll never see
   G                  D                   C             D
"A Spacer's more than born" I said, "He's trained from infancy
    Em                    Am              Em        D      Em
And you, you've grown up station-side boy you're no use to me"


[Chorus]
    G                 D                     Em
For Space is wide and good friends are too few
    G                 D                     Em


[Verse 4]
       Em                D               G             D
Well I saw him take that hope of his and turn his face away,
    Em               Am              Em          D        Em
Not give up, no he'd never quit just try further down the way
     G                     D               C                   D
"Hey kid," I said "you're stubborn, If you work with half that will,
         Em             Am               Em    D        Em
Well our engineer could use a hand we've got a berth to fill"


[Chorus]
    G                 D                     Em
For Space is wide and good friends are too few
    G                 D                     Em


[Verse 5]
   Em                    D                G            D
He stood there with that scowling look as if he hadn't heard,
    Em                 Am                   Em     D     Em
And then the tears ran down his face but he didn't say a word
       G                  D             C              D
Now he never was much for talkin' after we took him on board,
    Em                 Am               Em         D    Em
Yes Sir, yes Ma'am, no Sir were all the words that he'd afford


[Chorus]
    G                 D                     Em
For Space is wide and good friends are too few
    G                 D                     Em


[Verse 6]
        Em            D                 G               D
Now the engineer Kate Meachum, well her eyes were going bad
    Em                   Am               Em       D      Em
She knew I knew and that kid I sent drove old Kate raving mad,
      G              D            C                  D
"Out" she'd yell and he'd lie low until old Kate got cool,
     Em                    Am                 Em         D          Em
Then back he'd go and he'd do the skut, while Kate would call him a fool


[Chorus]
    G                 D                     Em
For Space is wide and good friends are too few
    G                 D                     Em


[Verse 7]
   Em               D                   G              D
In time Kate's eyes got much worse, and every crewman knew,
    Em                     Am                   Em      D         Em
But Kate herself, well her heart would stop the day she left that crew
     G                       D                   C              D
That close-mouthed kid would never talk, He just covered Kate's mistakes
Em                Am                         Em          D           Em
"Kate," He'd say "Check the number four" or "Kate that's nine-point-eight"


[Chorus]
    G                 D                     Em
For Space is wide and good friends are too few
    G                 D                     Em


[Verse 8]
       Em                     D                  G          D
Now we made our rounds on the ports we used from Haleys to Almar,
    Em                  Am                Em     D        Em
And one jump all of our luck ran out at a little K-class star
G       D       C       D
We hit a rock, a vane went down the ship went kiting through,
Em      Am      Em      D       Em
No way to stop and no damn thing that a rescue ship could do


[Chorus]
    G                 D                     Em
For Space is wide and good friends are too few
    G                 D                     Em


[Verse 9]
          Em                      D                    G              D
"It's the number three bar" Kate Meachum said, "That's broken on that vane"
       Em               Am               Em       D        Em
"I'll send a man up," I said then, first hope I'd entertained
    G                     D                C                   D
"No way," said Kate "It's outside work, we can't fix that from here,
        Em                    Am                   Em       D   Em
And to pull that thing with a high-V charge is the job for the engineer"


[Chorus]
    G                 D                     Em
For Space is wide and good friends are too few
    G                 D                     Em


[Verse 10]
        Em              D                           G                    D
Now we rode in dust at three quarters sea with our shields all down and null,
Em                   Am                      Em      D     Em
"Kate" I said "It's hell out there, dust is chewing up our hull"
        G                D                C                      D
"It'll chew a hard suit faster still, Ten minutes is all you'll last,"
     Em            Am                        Em     D      Em
"Die now or later" Old Kate said, "I'll just work a little fast"


[Chorus]
    G                 D                     Em
For Space is wide and good friends are too few
    G                 D                     Em


[Verse 11]
     Em                D                      G                  D
Well Old Kate put that hard suit on, she went out in the driving hail
   Em               Am                         Em           D       Em
Of High V gas that scoured our hull, with the shriek like a banshee wail
     G                  D                 C                D
Her voice came back so thin and weak that we could hardly hear,
     Em         Am                     Em       D     Em
"I'm on it now, I'm at the vane," I've got the cover clear


[Chorus]
    G                 D                     Em
For Space is wide and good friends are too few
    G                 D                     Em


[Verse 12]
    Em              D                   G                D
And silence then a long long while all drowned in static hiss,
 Em                   Am                     Em          D      Em
"Damn this thing, my face plate's fogged my sight's gone all to mist"
G                  D            C                 D
"Kate" I said "Get back inside someone else will go,"
     Em                Am               Em      D    Em
But then I heard that aft-lock work two levels down below


[Chorus]
    G                 D                     Em
For Space is wide and good friends are too few
    G                 D                     Em


[Verse 12]
Em                      D                    G                  D
"Steady, Kate" said the kid's low voice then while the minutes ran,
Em              Am                   Em      D        Em
"Easy Kate, my suit's brand new keep low as ever you can
      G                  D                    C                D
I'll find the pins, you tell me how and I'll get this bastard free,"
Em                     Am                Em        D       Em
Kate's voice then, we listened hard but about one word in three


[Chorus]
    G                 D                     Em
For Space is wide and good friends are too few
    G                 D                     Em


[Verse 13]
     Em                D                       G                     D
"Ten minutes gone," we heard Kate say, then we heard the kid's hard breath,
   Em                  Am       Em          D        Em
"I got her, shove the other in hold on for life and death"
G                             D                  C                      D
Said the kid, "My arm's gone numb, Oh that's it now there, Kate, she's in"
      Em               Am             Em      D      Em
"Get inside fast, get outta here" he went to static then


[Chorus]
    G                 D                     Em
For Space is wide and good friends are too few
    G                 D                     Em


[Verse 14]
Em               D                        G                  D
"Boy hang on" we heard Kate say, then we heard Kate Meachum swear
     Em                   Am                  Em        D      Em
And quiet then, just the static hiss and the stillness in the air
    G                   D                  C                   D
Ten minutes more "Power up" I said for we heard no sound back there,
       Em                  Am                Em     D          Em
It was my hand shoved the lever home and the power surged and flared


[Chorus]
    G                 D                     Em
For Space is wide and good friends are too few
    G                 D                     Em
    G                 D                     Em


[Verse 15]
     Em                   D                  G                       D
Our speed ebbed down and ebbed again, as we turned for that K-class sun
     Em                   Am                  Em          D    Em
But Kate and the kid went on together on the trip they'd both begun,
    G                    D                      C           D
Old half blind Kate and young Sam Jones made a hell of an engineer
    Em                           Am                   Em         D       Em
So turn down a glass for such as they … … … and thank god we're sitting here


[Chorus]
    G                 D                     Em
For Space is wide and good friends are too few
    G                 D                     Em
For Space is wide and good friends are too few