Space Tug. Murray Leinster
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harshly, “I have very bad news. A message came from Central Intelligence within minutes of your take-off. I—ah—with Sally I had been following your progress. I did not decode the message until now. But Central Intelligence has definite information that more than ten days ago the—ah—enemies of our Space Exploration Project—“ even on a tight beam to the small spaceship, Major Holt did not name the nation everybody knew was most desperately resolved to smash space exploration by anybody but itself—“completed at least one rocket capable of reaching the Platform’s orbit with a pay-load that could be an atomic bomb. It is believed that more than one rocket was completed. All were shipped to an unknown launching station.”
“Not so good,” said Joe.
Mike had left his post when Joe took over. Now he made a swooping dart through the air of the cabin. The midget showed no signs of the fumbling uncertainty the others had displayed—but he’d been a member of a midget acrobatic team before he went to work at the Shed. He brought himself to a stop precisely at a hand-hold, grinning triumphantly at the nearly helpless Chief and Haney.
Major Holt said in the headphones: “It’s worse than that. Radar may have told the country in question that you are on the way up. In that case, if it’s even faintly possible to blast the Platform before your arrival with weapons for its defense, they’ll blast.”
“I don’t like that idea,” said Joe dourly. “Anything we can do?”
Major Holt laughed bitterly. “Hardly!” he said. “And do you realize that if you can’t unload your cargo you can’t get back to Earth?”
“Yes,” said Joe. “Naturally!”
It was true. The purpose of the pushpots and the jatos and the ship’s own take-off rockets had been to give it a speed at which it would inevitably rise to a height of 4,000 miles—the orbit of the Space Platform—and stay there. It would need no power to remain 4,000 miles out from Earth. But it would take power to come down. The take-off rockets had been built to drive the ship with all its contents until it attained that needed orbital velocity. There were landing rockets fastened to the hull now to slow it so that it could land. But just as the take-off rockets had been designed to lift a loaded ship, the landing-rockets had been designed to land an empty one.
The more weight the ship carried, the more power it needed to get out to the Platform. And the more power it needed to come down again.
If Joe and his companions couldn’t get rid of their cargo—and they could only unload in the ship-lock of the Platform—they’d stay out in emptiness.
The Major said bitterly: “This is all most irregular, but—here’s Sally.”
Then Sally’s voice sounded in the headphones Joe wore. He was relieved that Mike wasn’t acting as communications officer at the moment to overhear. But Mike was zestfully spinning like a pin-wheel in the middle of the air of the control cabin. He was showing the others that even in the intramural pastimes a spaceship crew will indulge in, a midget was better than a full-sized man. Joe said:
“Yes, Sally?”
She said unsteadily. “I’m not going to waste your time talking to you, Joe. I think you’ve got to figure out something. I haven’t the faintest idea what it is, but I think you can do it. Try, will you?”
“I’m afraid we’re going to have to trust to luck,” admitted Joe ruefully. “We weren’t equipped for anything like this.”
“No!” said Sally fiercely. “If I were with you, you wouldn’t think of trusting to luck!”
“I wouldn’t want to,” admitted Joe. “I’d feel responsible. But just the same—“
”You’re responsible now!” said Sally, as fiercely as before. “If the Platform’s smashed, the rockets that can reach it will be duplicated to smash our cities in war! But if you can reach the Platform and arm it for defense, there won’t be any war! Half the world would be praying for you, Joe, if it knew! I can’t do anything else, so I’m going to start on that right now. But you try, Joe! You hear me?”
“I’ll try,” said Joe humbly. “Thanks, Sally.”
He heard a sound like a sob, and the headphones were silent. Joe himself swallowed very carefully. It can be alarming to be the object of an intended murder, but it can also be very thrilling. One can play up splendidly to a dramatic picture of doom. It is possible to be one’s own audience and admire one’s own fine disregard of danger. But when other lives depend on one, one has the irritating obligation not to strike poses but to do something practical.
Joe said somberly: “Mike, how long before we ought to contact the Platform?”
Mike reached out a small hand, caught a hand-hold, and flicked his eyes to the master chronometer.
“Forty minutes, fifty seconds. Why?”
Joe said wrily, “There are some rockets in enemy hands which can reach the Platform. They were shipped to launchers ten days ago. You figure what comes next.”
Mike’s wizened face became tense and angry. Haney growled, “They smash the Platform before we get to it.”
“Uh-uh!” said Mike instantly. “They smash the Platform when we get to it! They smash us both up together. Where’ll we be at contact-time, Joe?”
“Over the Indian Ocean, south of the Bay of Bengal, to be exact,” said Joe. “But we’ll be moving fast. The worst of it is that it’s going to take time to get in the airlock and unload our guided missiles and get them in the Platform’s launching-tubes. I’d guess an hour. One bomb should get both of us above the Bay of Bengal, but we won’t be set to launch a guided missile in defense until we’re nearly over America again.”
The Chief said sourly, “Yeah. Sitting ducks all the way across the Pacific!”
“We’ll check with the Platform,” said Joe. “See if you can get them direct, Mike, will you?”
Then something occurred to him. Mike scrambled back to his communication board. He began feverishly to work the computer which in turn would swing the tight-beam transmitter to the target the computer worked out, He threw a switch and said sharply, “Calling Space Platform! Pelican One calling Space Platform! Come in, Space Platform!...” He paused. “Calling Space Platform....”
Joe had a slide-rule going on another problem. He looked up, his expression peculiar.
“A solid-fuel rocket can start off at ten gravities acceleration,” he said quietly, “and as its rockets burn away it can go up a lot higher than that. But 4,000 miles is a long way to go straight up. If it isn’t launched yet—“
Mike snapped into a microphone: “Right!” To Joe he said, “Space Platform on the wire.”
Joe heard an acknowledgment in his headphones. “I’ve just had word from the Shed,” he explained carefully, “that there may be some guided missiles coming up from Earth to smash us as we meet. You’re still higher than we are, and they ought to be starting. Can you pick up anything with your radar?”
The voice from the Platform said: “We have picked something up. There are four rockets headed out from near the sunset-line in the Pacific. Assuming solid-fuel rockets like we used and you used, they are on a collision course.”
“Are you doing anything about them?” asked Joe absurdly.
The voice said caustically: “Unfortunately, we’ve nothing to do anything with.” It paused. “You, of course, can use the landing-rockets you still possess. If you fire them immediately, you will pass our scheduled meeting-place some hundreds of miles ahead of us. You will go on out to space. You may set up an orbit forty-five hundred or even five thousand miles out, and wait there for rescue.”
Joe said briefly: “We’ve air for only four days. That’s no good. It’ll be a month before the next ship can be finished and take off. There are four rockets coming up, you say?”
“Yes.”