There was a of angry, strained, voices in Joe's headphones. Then the Chief for silence. It fell, save for Sanford's quiet, chuckling. Joe himself that Sanford was not actually insane, as any man may be who only in his own cleverness. Sooner or later it is to fail him. On Earth, Sanford's in his own had been useful. He had been he every problem and every as a challenge. But with the Platform's hopeless, he'd been unable to the that he wasn't or or enough. If Joe's to the had been offered his collapse, he have it grandly, and in so doing have it his own. But it was too late for that now. He'd up and up a for the he not with. For Joe's to work would have him to Joe in his own view. And he couldn't have that! Even to die, with the that others would him, was an prospect. He had to be than else.
So he chuckled. The Chief into his transmitter: "Quiet! This fool's to suicide for all of us! How about it? Why can't we in? How many locks——"
Joe himself hard. He be angry later. Now there wasn't time. Thirty or minutes of breathing. No tools. A hull. The were naturally for the possible safety under normal conditions. In every it had naturally been so that the door to space and the door to the not be open at the same time. That was to save lives. To save air, it would naturally be that the door to space couldn't be opened until the lock was empty.
That in itself be an answer. Joe said sharply, "Hold it, Chief! Somebody watch Sanford! All we've got to do is which lock he came out of. He couldn't out until he it empty—and that the door!"
But Sanford laughed once more. He like someone in the of high good humor.
"Heroic again, eh? But I took a air bottle in the lock with me. When the door was open, I opened the and the door. The air bottle the lock me. Naturally I'd the door after I came out! One must be intelligent!"
Joe Brent muttering, "Yes, he'd do that!"
"Somebody check it!" Joe. "Make sure! It might him to watch us die while he we in if we were as as he is."
There were on the hull. Men moved, the lines which them to the to of movement, but not the which them to each other. Joe saw Haney go to the of away the that they had out for the purpose. Then Mike's voice, and cagey: "Haney! Quit it!"
Sanford's voice again, amused. "By all means! Don't away our garbage! We may need it!"
A voice snapped, "This lock's fastened." Another voice: "And this...." Other voices, with desperation, that every was sealed fast by the presence of air pressure the lock itself.
Time was passing. Joe had noticed, before, the minute of the air pressure to his back. His to a pump that it through a which at once and dioxide. The same pump a of equal to the CO2 and added it to the air it released. The pump very small indeed, and the were almost noiseless, but Joe their clickings.
Something him. He had been perfectly still while trying to on a way out. Sunshine had on one of his space for as long as five minutes. Despite the inside, that was too long. He to another part of himself to the sunlight. He that the metal would that touched it. A yards away, in the shadow, the metal of the would be cold to freeze hydrogen. But here it was hot. It would melt solder. It might—
Mike was out of the from which Haney had been them away. He was a small figure, on steel, looking at one can after another and them aside.
He one that to him. It was a large can. He with it, pressing a part of it to the metal of the satellite's hull. A moment later he was it apart. The had softened. He a of cylinder, then again, using the surface to the sunshine.
Joe his at the implication. Concentrated can be hot. Starting with unshielded, empty-space sunshine, any temperature is possible with a large mirror. Mike didn't have a mirror. He had only a one. He couldn't light to a point, but only to a line. Mike couldn't to do more than or the temperature of a spot. But what he on his back—!
Joe his way to the spot where Mike now to Haney, trying to his meaning by since Sanford would any spoken word.
"I it, Mike," said Joe. "I'll help." He added: "Chief! You watch Sanford. The of you try to out some or some with ends!"
He the spot where Mike over the plating. His hand moved to a where the light had played.
"I need more reflectors," Mike said brusquely, "but we can do it!"
Joe beckoned. There were more, clankings. Space-suited about.
The Platform rolled on through space. Where it was it was very, very bright, and where it was dark it was blackness. Off in the many-colored of Earth hugely, past. Innumerable looked on. The sun malevolently. The moon away.
Mike was above a small door. He had a half-cylinder of his space-gloved hands. It a line of to the of the seal. Haney at other cans. Joe another of metal. It crudely—very crudely—on top of Mike's line of sunshine. Someone else the end of a can to more sunshine. Someone else had a larger of tin.
They still. It looked foolish. There were six men in attitudes, trying to to a single blindingly-bright spot on an door. They tense. They the of the firmament. They were in trying to make a spot of more still.
Mike moved his hand to a shadow. The was a little more than red-hot for the space of an inch. It would not melt, of course. It not. And they had no to or the metal. But Mike said fiercely:
"Keep it hot!"
He squirmed. His space was fabric, like the rest, but it had been cut to permit him to use it. It was on him than the of the others. He his pack. The valve-nipple by which the was filled....
He a of in place. He pressed fiercely. A of fierce, scintillating, up from the spot where the metal brightly. A in the metal plate appeared. The metal in of light....
White-hot iron in pure to be inflammable. Iron is not at all. Powdered steel, ground enough, will if to air. Really will make an excellent if a match is touched to it. White-hot iron, with a of played upon it, to sparks. Technically, Mike had used the perfectly well-known of an to the door, let the air out of the lock, and so allow the door to be opened.
There was a of vapor. The door was through. Haney Mike up bodily, Joe the door open, and Haney into it, Mike by the of the neck. Joe panted, "Plug the from the inside. Sit on it if you have to!" and the door shut.
They waited. Sanford's voice came in the ear-phones. It was higher in than it had been.
"You fools!" he raged. "It's useless! It's to do things! It's to do anything at all—"
There were clankings. Joe about. The Chief and Sanford were struggling. Sanford his arms about, trying to the Chief's while he about futility.
The Chief got the he wanted. He Sanford from the metal deck. He have him away to emptiness, then, but he did not.
He set Sanford in mid-space as if upon a shelf. The man in the an exact man-height above the Platform's surface. The Chief and left him there, Sanford there for a century the Platform's him down.
"Huh!" said the Chief wrathfully. "How's Haney and Mike making out?"
Almost on the instant, twenty yards away, a door out from the surface of metal, and and appeared.
"You can come in now," said Haney's voice in Joe's headphones. "It's all okay. Mike's out the other too, so you can come in at any of 'em."
The space-suited to doors. There were a dozen or more small in parts of the hull, the great door to admit supply ships. The Chief and moved toward Sanford now like the his him.
"No," said Joe shortly. "He'd again. Go inside. That's an order, Chief."
The Chief and obeyed. Joe to the nearest and entered the great hull.
Sanford in emptiness, two yards from the Space Platform he would have into a derelict. He did not move away. He did not toward it. There was nobody to to him. He out in blood-curdling other men were than he was. Other men had solved problems he not solve. Other men were his superiors. He his rage.
Presently the Platform slowly him. It was turned, of course, by the which in turn were by the pilot Joe and Haney and the Chief and Mike had repaired when them.
The Platform sedately. A great appeared in it. The door of the supply ship lock moved until Sanford, helplessly, was opposite its mouth.
A with a object at its end appeared past the supply ship. It out and touched Sanford's helmet. It was the magnetic which space ships into their dock.
It Sanford, and streaming, into the great lock. The doors closed. Before air was to the inside, Sanford still.
When they took him out of his he was unconscious. He not be roused. Freed, he his up to his in the position in which their dead. He to sleep. Brent him carefully.
"Catatonia," he said distastefully. "He his life he was than else—smarter, probably, than all the universe. He it. He couldn't the that he was wrong. He couldn't and not know it. So he's out. He to be anything unless he can be smartest. We'll have to do and all that until we can him to Earth to a hospital." He shrugged.
"We'd report this to Earth," Joe said. "By the way, not our screen of on radio waves. Not microwaves. It might leak. And we want to see if it works."
Just forty-two hours later they out that it did work. A single came out from Earth. It came from the night-side, and they not see where it was launched, though they make excellent guesses. They got a single to crash it if necessary.
It wasn't necessary. The bomb from Earth 300 miles the satellite. Its fuse, sending out small radar-type waves, had them by an empty can away from the Platform by Mike Scandia forty-some hours ago. The can had been traveling in its own private since. The of Mike's had not been to send it to Earth, but to the center of the in which it floated. Sometimes it above the Platform—that was on one of Earth—and sometimes it. It was about 300 miles under the Platform when it urgent, to a in the rocket. The couldn't tell the a can and a Space Platform.
It with a blast of pure like that of the sun.
The Platform on its about the from which it had only before. Sanford was in a and through a tube, and on occasion and to keep him alive. The men on the Platform worked. They of Earth. They took magnified, long-exposure of Mars, pictures that not possibly be with such from the of Earth's of air.
There was a great of official to be done. Weather of the and of cloud were an matter. The Platform make much more of the than be below. The was for of the and size of the atmosphere. There was the project for and in good in up by Joe and his in the supply ship.
But sometimes Joe managed to talk to Sally.
It was very satisfying to see her on the television screen in personal conversation. Their talk couldn't be private, it be up elsewhere. It was. But she told Joe how she felt, and she wanted to read him the newspaper on the reports Brent had sent down. Brent was in of the Platform now that Sanford in a in his bunk. But Joe such waste of time.
"How's the food?" asked Sally. "Are you people any fresh vegetables from the garden?"
They were, and Joe told her so. The in which sun-lamps for a number of hours in each twenty-four produced vegetation. It the air of the ship breathable. It the of it from time to time, so that there was no of staleness.
"And the cooking system's good?" she wanted to know. Sally was for that, too. "And how about the bunks?"
"I sleep now," Joe admitted.
That had been difficult. It was possible to used to while awake. One would slip, sometimes, and himself and he'd noticed all over again that he was falling. But—and yet again Sally was responsible—the were designed to help in that difficulty. Each had an top blanket. One in and settled down, and the that the cover. Then it one but in place. It was possible to and to turn over, but the of being fast was very comforting. With a little about what one of going to sleep, one a eight hours' rest. The were luxury.
Sally said: "The date and time's a secret, of course, it might be overheard, but there'll be another ship up too long. It's landing for you to come with."
"That's good!" said Joe. It would good to set on solid ground again. He looked at Sally and said eagerly, "We've got a date the I back?"
"We've got a date," she said, nodding.
But it couldn't very well be a date. There were people with ideas that ran to plans for Joe to to Earth and a date with Sally Holt. The Space Platform was not by all the nations of Earth. The United States had it the United Nations couldn't, and one of the of the idea had been that once it got out to space and was armed, peace must upon Earth it who war.
The trouble was that it wasn't well enough. Six couldn't it indefinitely. It looked as as Berlin did the proved what men and do in the way of transport. And the Platform's didn't for it to be saved by a rocketlift. They would try to it such a started.
A week after Joe got to it with the missiles, three attacked. They up from in the middle of the Pacific. One up 250 miles the Platform. Another 190 miles away. For safety's the third was crashed—at the cost of one missile—when it had come 50 miles.
The screen of worked, but it wasn't thick enough. The of the Platform about for metal that be spared. They out minor here and there, and out on the surface and away thousands of small of metal in all directions.
Two later, there was another attack. It be calculated that Joe couldn't have up more than six missiles. There might be as as two of them left. So eight came up together—and the of them off 400 miles from the Platform. Only one got as close as 200 miles. No were in defense.
The Platform's once more. This time the up above the Platform's and on the from above. There were two of them. They off at 180 and 270 miles from the Platform. Joe's trash screen would not work on Earth, but in space it was an defense against anything with fuses. It be that in a full-scale space-war nuts, bolts, and bottle would equipment.
Three days after this last attack, a second supply ship took off from Earth. Lieutenant Commander Brown was a passenger. Its start was just like the one Joe's ship had made. Pushpots it, it on, and then the furious, take-off it out toward the stars.
Joe's ship had been moved out of the landing lock and was against the Platform's hull. The second ship in two hours and seventeen minutes from take-off. It with its own landing intact, and it a set of forty-foot metal for Joe's ship to to Earth with. But those landing and Lieutenant Commander Brown all its payload. It couldn't up anything else.
And Lieutenant Commander Brown called a very meeting in the space at the Platform's center. He up in full uniform—and had to his around a chair leg to keep from in mid-air. This from the of his stance, but not from the official voice with which he read two documents aloud.
The paper Lieutenant Commander Brown from his regular and him pro to service with the Space Exploration Project. The second was an order him to take and assume direction of the Space Platform.
Having read his orders, he his and said cordially, "I am to here with you. Frankly, I to learn much from you and to have very orders to give. I to such authority as at sea has me is necessary for a tight and happy ship. I trust this will be one."
He beamed. Nobody was impressed. It was perfectly that he'd been sent up to in space for later use, and that he'd been in it was that he under anyone without official rank and authority. And he that his coming, with in command, was a to the Platform. In fact, there was no that this of the Platform would up under as Sanford had.
But it was too that he hadn't some long-range with him.
Joe's ship had up twenty of and twenty of landing rockets. The second ship up twenty of landing for Joe, and twenty of landing for itself. That was all. The second out to the Space Platform was a mission and nothing else. Arithmetic wouldn't let it be anything else. And there couldn't be any idea of self-sacrifice and out at the Platform, either, only four ships like Joe's had been begun, and only two were near completion. Joe's had taken off the it was finished. The second had done the same. The second pair of wouldn't be for two months or more. The ships that be used had to be used.
So, only thirty-six hours after the of the second at the Platform, the two of them took off together to return to Earth. Joe's ship left the first. Sanford was in the of the other ship as cargo. Lieutenant Commander Brown out at the Platform to replace him.
Obviously, in order to to Earth they away from it in formation. They pointed their toward the Milky Way.
The was an of the that the screen of and about the Platform. Each of those small objects had had the Platform's own and orbit. Thrown away from it, the of their changed. In theory, the center of the Platform's was the center of Earth. But the of the of the thrown-away objects were pushed a miles—twenty—fifty—a hundred—away from the center of Earth.
The returning space ships also had the and speed of the Platform. They wanted to shift the of their by very nearly 4,000 miles, so that at one point they would just Earth's atmosphere, some speed to it, and then out to empty space again they melted. Cooled off, they'd make another bounce. After eight such they'd in the air, and the would give them a of and controllability, while the landing would let them to solid ground. Or so it was hoped.
Meanwhile they out of in toward Earth. They out on their steering-rockets only, using the liquid fuel that had not been needed for on the way out. At 4,000 miles up, the of is just one-fourth of that at the Earth's surface. It still exists; it is out in an orbit. The ships move at less cost in fuel than they move in.
So they out and out on courses, and the Platform them. Night until the of the against a of nothingness.
The zone of Earth's the Platform. It redly, crimson, the possible color that be seen, and out. The ships on, using their rockets.
Nothing happened. The ships away from each other for safety. They were 50, then 60 miles apart. One red and in the of the Earth. The other was in the same way. Then they through the of the night of Earth. Microwaves from the ground played upon them—radar used by friend and alike—and the tight-beam to them with that their joint and and speed were the calculated optimum. But they not be at all.
When they appeared again they were still out from Earth than the Platform's orbit, but no from each other. And they were descending. The of their had been very, very indeed.
Going out, naturally, the ships had speed as they in height. Descending, they in as they height. They were not 30 miles as they with increasing, speed and toward the of the world's disk. When they were only 2,000 miles high, the Earth's surface under them moved much than it had on the way up. When they were only 1,000 miles high, the and to past like a river. At 500 miles, and were just as they past underneath. At 200 miles there was a churning, surface on which one not focus one's of the speed of its movement.
They missed the solid surface of Earth by 40 miles. They were moving at a speed. The energy of their position 4,000 miles high had been into energy of motion. And at 40 miles there is something very close to a vacuum, to sea-level. But to true emptiness, and at the speed of meteors, the thin air had a effect.
A thin began. It louder. The of the ship was to the impact of the thin air upon it. The rose to a roar, to a bellow, to a tumult. The ship and trembled. It shook. A set up and more and more savage. The whole ship with a persistence, each more monstrous, more straining, more than before.
The four in the space ship torture. Weight returned to them, weight more than the six they had for a fourteen at take-off. But that, at least, had been applied. This was at a higher yet, and by the of which seven times as much as before—and bodies, too, which for past had been to no weight at all.
They endured. Nothing at all be done. At so many miles second no possible action be upon and in time to have any upon the of the ship. Joe see out a port. The ground 40 miles was a blur. There was a black sky overhead, which did not to stir. But cloud-masses at express-train speed him, and his more than a ton, and the ship the of and shook, and and shook....
And then, when it that it must to pieces, the to a bellow, and the to a roar, and the roaring.... And the weight him less.
The Earth was away and moving still. They were 100 miles high. They were 200 miles high....
There was no longer any at all, their for breath. Their had to their at all the most of the period.
Presently Joe a question. He looked at the hull-temperature indicators. They were very, very high. He that he was where he had himself in. The places where each had his against the ship's were black-and-blue.
The Chief said thickly: "Joe, somehow I don't think this is going to work. When do we again?"
"Three hours plus or something," said Joe, dry-throated. "We'll from the ground."
Mike said in a voice: "Radar reports we a little too low. They think we weren't up enough. We didn't as soon as we should."
Joe himself.
"How about the other ship?"
"It did than we did," said Mike. "It's a good 200 miles ahead. Down at the Shed, they're for us. We'll have to land with six of eight. We too much speed."
Joe staggering, again weightless, to look out a port for the other ship. He should have better. One not spot an eighty-foot space ship with the when it is 200 miles away.
But he saw something, though for he didn't know what it was.
Now the little ship was 300 miles high and still rising. Joe was and by the of the ship in the just past. The sister space ship hadn't speed so fast. It would be traveling faster. It would be him every second. It was more sharply. It would higher.
Joe out of a port, that his would be red on its surface, though the had been so fast that the of the might still be cold. He saw the area which was the of the of the world. He saw the upon clouds and of the surface of the Earth itself.
And he saw something out of the at the horizon. It was a of white vapor. The other was a speck, a mote, of its size and distance. This of was already 100 miles long, and it to a of a mile across it to dissipate. It rose and rose, as if something which upward. It was a trail. The of its proved the with which the climbed.
It was on its way to meet the other space ship.
It did. Joe saw the of and until it was higher than he was. He saw the other ship, which was too small. But he saw the of flame, as the sun itself, which was the of a bomb. He knew, then, that nothing but incandescent, of the other ship and its crew.
Then he saw the of the second rocket. It was to meet him.
