
According to this document, you can-t quit. Ever. Therefore I have a little job I know you-ll enjoy. Repair job. The Centauri beacon has shut down. It-s a Mark III beacon.— What kind of beacon? Mark III - The Old Man repeated, practically chortling. - ...This was the earliest type of beacon ever built-by Earth, no less. Considering its location on one of the Proxima Centauri planets, it might very well be the first beacon.
Author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. Harry Harrison (born Henry Maxwell Dempsey) was an American science fiction author best known for his character the The Stainless Steel Rat and the novel Make Room! Make Room! (1966), the basis for the film Soylent Green (1973). He was also (with Brian W. Aldiss) co-president of the Birmingham Science Fiction Group. Excerpted from Wikipedia.