A good of that landing in Joe's mind. While it was going on he was much too to be impressions. When he landed, he was as as wants to be. It was only the next day that he to out his recollections.
Then he up suddenly, with a going on all about him. He his open and listened. Presently he what the noise was, and that he hadn't before. It was the of the of a multi-engined plane. He knew, without the at the moment, that he and the other three were on a plane across the Pacific for America. He was in a bunk—and he heavy. He to move, and it was an to move his arm. He to turn over, and his down.
He at them. They had clasps, and he them easily. After a he to upright. He was or weak. He couldn't tell which. And each in his whole ached. Twinges of pain every movement. He sat up, a little with the slow movements of the plane, and gradually, came back.
The landing in the ribbon-chute. They'd come on the west of India, not too from the sea. He into the of a thin and the Chief, and the two of them out Haney and to open ground. After out a for air searchers, they off into worn-out while they waited.
He that there'd been a of American in the Arabian Sea, as under the of the Platform. Their had reported the of one space ship and the of the other, its into two parts, and then the objects, which out from the smaller section, which had as only ejection-seat possibly have done. Two those specks, to them up when they should come down. But the other had other in hand.
The two Goa hours of the landing of the four from space. A the three of them hours after that. They were twenty miles and thirty south from Goa. Mike wasn't until the next day. He'd been out of the ship's and higher; he was lighter, and he'd farther.
But things—satisfying things—had in the interval. Sitting almost on the in the plane while blood to through his body, Joe the gleeful, news passed around on the destroyers. They waited for Mike to be in. But they vengefully.
The report was true, but it the newspapers. Nobody would admit it, but the at the returning space ships had been by Navy as they up from the Arabian Sea. And the ships of the couldn't do anything about the rockets, but they and did upon the places from which they had been launched. Planes out to spot and bomb. Destroyers arrived.
Somewhere there was a that off two modern with rocket-launching equipment, last from west of India. American men would of any such event, but there were of fish on the where depth-bombs had and killed two much too big to be fish, which didn't when they were killed and which would report how they'd two space ships. There'd be over that area, and there'd be about the in the of Hadhramaut. But nobody would admit anything for certain.
But Joe knew. He got to his feet, a little in the plane. He everywhere. His the of him erect. He fast, strength. Before his little ship up he'd been intolerably, and his had a ton. Where his safety-belt had him, his was one wide bruise. There'd been that killing when the ship in two. The others—except Mike—were in as a case or worse. Haney and the Chief were like men who'd been rolled Mount Everest in a barrel. All of them had slept for fourteen hours they up for food. Even now, Joe didn't this plane or into the bunk. He'd been in.
Joe up, doggedly, until came to him to his again. He to dress. It was how many places about his were to the touch. It was how his arms and felt, and how much of an was. But he to Mike's adventure, and managed to feebly. It was the only thing a in all the that had happened.
Because Mike's landing had been the others. Joe and the Chief near the of a jungle. Haney in a canebrake. But Mike came from the sky, splendidly, into the of a minor godling.
He was by the shaking-up he'd had. The of on their cross-section, but their weight on their volume. The of a man on the square of his size, but his weight on the cube. So Mike had taken the and the almost in his stride. He longer and more than the rest.
Joe at the memory of Mike's tale. He'd come on the in a towering, rage. When his ribbon-parachute let him out of the sky, it deposited him on not from a small and Hindu village. He'd been to from the heavens. He was a midget—not as other men—and he was in a space with metal harness.
The him with rapture.
When the searching-party Mike, they were just in time to prevent a massacre—by Mike. Adoring had upon him, him in high to a red temple, to him with of their and at his arrival, and dark-skinned were trying to win his of their dancing. But the rescue-party him with a in his hand and blood in his eye, setting out to the of his reception.
Joe still didn't know all the details, but he to on what he did know as he put his on again. He didn't want to think how little it meant, now. The space ship didn't a thing, any more. There weren't any more space ships. The Platform wasn't a ship, but a satellite. There'd been but two ships. Both had to exist.
Joe walked in the huge, plane. The a constant, in his ears. It was not easy to walk. He on to as he moved. But he past the space. And there was Mike, at a table and himself with good food. There was a port him, and Joe a of with cloud and sky and sea.
Mike nodded. He didn't offer to help Joe walk. That wouldn't have been practical. He waited until Joe into a seat opposite.
"Good sleep?" asked Mike.
"I so," said Joe. He added ruefully, "It to nod, and I think it would to shake my head. What's the with me, Mike? I didn't up in the landing!"
"You got up you landed," said Mike. "Worse than that, you than six out of gravity, where in an day you took less than a guy in with two legs!"
Joe himself into his chair. He about 600 years old. Somebody a into view and it. Joe his arm and it.
"Weighty! I you're right, Mike."
"I know I'm right!" said Mike. "If you six in you'd to when you to walk. Up on the Platform you didn't use energy to up! We didn't it, but we were like invalids! We'll our back, but next time we'll take measures. Huh! Take a to Mars in free fall, and by the time a guy got there his muscles'd be so he couldn't up in half-gravity! Something's got to be done about that, Joe!"
Joe said sombrely, "Something's got to be done about space ships that comes up again!"
Somebody appeared with a tray. There was food on it. Smoking food. Joe looked at it and that his appetite, anyhow, was to Earth normal.
"Thanks!" he appreciatively, and the food.
Mike his coffee. Then he said, "Joe, do you know anything about metallurgy?"
Joe shrugged. It hurt. "Powder metallurgy? Yes, I've it used, at my father's plant. They've small parts with it. Why?"
"D'you know if a with it?" asked Mike.
Joe chewed. Then he said:
"I think so. Yes. At the plant they did. They had trouble the properly for welding. But they managed it. Why?"
"One more question," said Mike tensely. "How much Portland is used to make a of concrete?"
"I wouldn't know," Joe. "Why? What's all this about?"
"Haney and the Chief. Those two big have been me—as long as they awake—for what to me when I landed. Those savages—" Mike seethed. "They got my off and they had me all over with and forty-'leven around my and flowers in my hair! They I was some of god! Hanuman, somebody told me. The Hindu monkey-god!" He raged. "And those two big think it's funny! Joe, I I all the for the I gave those our me! And Haney and the Chief will drive me if I can't 'em down! Powder the trick, from what you told me. That's okay, then."
He up and toward the of the plane. Joe himself with an effort. He to look about him. Haney in a chair, on the other of the plane cabin. His were closed. The Chief in another chair. He at Joe, but he didn't try to talk. He was too tired. The return to normal him, as it did Joe.
Joe looked out the window. In neat, on either of the transport there were jets. There was another above and away. Joe saw, suddenly, a peeling-off of from the formation. They through the clouds. He what they to look for or what they found. He to his in a and weakness.
He when the plane landed. He didn't know where it might be. It was, he knew, an island. He see the wide, sun-baked white of the runways. He see sea-birds in clouds over at the edge. The plane and slowly to a stop. A service-truck came up, and somebody from it up into the engines. Somebody dials, and a hand.
There was silence. There was stillness. Joe voices and footsteps. Presently he the of surf.
The plane to wait for a very long time. Then there was a faint, of jets, and a plane came from the east. It was a and then a shape, and then an dark object which and at the other end of the strip. It came up alongside the transport ship and stopped.
An officer in out, his hand, and walked over to the transport. He up the and the pilot and co-pilot him. They took their places. The door closed. One by one, the chugged, then to life.
The officer talked to the pilot and co-pilot for a moment. He came the toward Joe. Mike the him suspiciously.
The plane stirred. The newly officer said pleasantly, "The Navy Department's sent me out here, Kenmore, to be on what you know and to do a little in turn."
The transport plane and to taxi the runway. It and over the tarmac, then lifted, and Joe saw that the was nearly all airfield. There were a small and distance-dwarfed hangars. Beyond the proper there was a ring of white surf. That was all. The was ocean.
"I haven't much to do," Joe.
Then he looked at the the other man opened. It had and of paper in it—hundreds, it seemed. They were with questions. He'd be called on to for most of them, and to admit he didn't know the to the rest. When he was through with this questioning, every possible useful he would be on file for use. And now he that this was part payment for the and speed with which the Navy had them on their landing, and for the use of a transport plane to take them to the United States.
"I'll try to answer what I can," he said cautiously. "But what're you to me about?"
"That you're not on Earth yet," said the officer curtly, out the of questions. "Officially you haven't started back. Ostensibly you're still on the Platform."
Joe at him.
"If your return were known," the lieutenant, "the public would want to make of you. First space travelers, and so on. They'd want you on television—all of you—telling about your and your return. Inevitably, what to your ship would out. And if the public you'd been and there'd be that the government take action to the attack. It'd be something like the over the of the Maine, or the Lusitania—or Pearl Harbor. It's much for your return to be a for now."
Joe said wrily: "I don't think any of us want to be around to have ticker-tape on us. That part's all right. I'm sure the others will agree."
"Good! One more difficulty. We had two space ships. Now we have none. Our most likely haven't only been rockets, they've got a space along. Intelligence just out they're nearly for trial trips. They've been to high that we were a space to the world. We weren't. They were. And it looks very much as if they may have us."
The got out the of papers, to call for every or Joe might have in space. It was the of the from after a raid, and it was necessary, but Joe was very tired.
Wearily, he said, "Start your questions. I'll try to answer them."
They in Bootstrap some forty-six hours after the of their ship. Joe, at least, had slept nearly thirty of those hours. So while he was still on his and would be for days to come, his was improved.
There was nobody waiting on the by the town of Bootstrap, but as they a black car came out and stopped close by the transport. Joe got and into it. Sally Holt was inside. She took his hands and cried, and he was embarrassed when the Chief came into the car after him. But the Chief growled, "If he didn't you, Sally, I'm going to his for him."
"He—he did," said Sally, gulping. "And I'm you're back, Chief. And Haney. And Mike."
Mike as he in the too. Haney in after him. They the of the car entirely. It started off across the field, to the that to the out of Bootstrap to the Shed. It out that long white ribbon, and the was all around them. Far ahead, the great half-dome of the Shed looked like a cherry-pit on the horizon.
"It's good to be back!" said the Chief warmly. "I like I a ton, but it's good to be back! Mike's the only one who was out yonder. He he there. I got a to tell you, Sally——"
"Chief!" said Mike fiercely. "Shut up!"
"Won't," said the Chief amiably. "Sally, this guy Mike——"
Mike pale. "You're too big to kill," he said bitterly, "but I'll try it!"
The Chief at him. "Quit being modest. Sally——"
Mike himself at the Chief, snarling. His small the Chief's face—and Mike was small but he was not puny. The "crack" of the impact was loud in the car. Haney grabbed. There was a moment's struggling. Then Mike was in Haney's arms, with and shame.
"Crazy fool!" the Chief, his jaw. "What's the with you? Don't you good?"
He was angry, but he was more concerned. Mike was white and raging.
"You tell that," he shrilly, "and so help me——"
"What's got into you?" Haney anxiously. "I'd be bragging, I would, if I'd got a like you did! That guy Sanford us all out——"
The Chief said angrily, and puzzlement:
"I you to go off your nut like this before! What's got into you, anyway?"
Mike suddenly. Haney still him firmly, but Haney and the Chief were looking at him with eyes. And Mike said desperately: "You were going to tell Sally——"
The Chief snorted.
"Huh! You little runt! No! I was going to tell her about you opening up that when Sanford locked us out! Sure I you about what you're talking about! Sure! I'm going to do it again! But that's us! I don't tell that outside!"
Haney an exclamation. He understood, and he was relieved. But he looked disgusted. He Mike abruptly, to himself. He out the window. And Mike upright, an small figure. His a little.
"Okay," said Mike, with a little difficulty. "I was dumb. Only, Chief, you me a sock on the when you like it. I'll take it."
He swallowed. Sally was wide-eyed.
"Sally," said Mike bitterly, "I'm a than I look. I the Chief was going to tell you what when I landed. I—I in a village over there in India, and those savages'd a parachute, and they to and make gestures, and thing I they had a of and were me in it, and flowers all over me, and there was a procession——"
Sally blankly. Mike told the of his with the very of resentment. When he got to his in a red-painted temple, and the and of his so he be with butter, Sally's to twitch. At the picture of Mike in a red loincloth, while brown-skinned sang his praises, his while they some of in of his arrival, Sally and laughed helplessly.
Mike at her, aghast. He that he'd the Chief when he the Chief was going to tell the on him as a joke. He'd told it on himself as a penance, in the place of the he'd the Chief and which the Chief wouldn't return. To Mike it was still tragedy. It was still an to his dignity. But Sally was laughing. She and next to Joe, with mirth.
"Oh, Mike!" she gasped. "It's beautiful! They must have been saying such lovely, things, while you were calling them names and wanting to kill them! They'd have been to each other about how you were—visiting them they'd been such good people, and—this was the of well-spent lives, and you—you——"
She against Joe and shook. The car on. The Chief chuckled. Haney grinned. Joe Mike as this new of his got into his consciousness. It hadn't to Mike, before, that but himself had been ridiculous. It hadn't to him, until he his temper, that Haney and the Chief would him among themselves, but would not of the do so.
Presently Mike managed to a little. It was a grin, and not mirthful.
"Yeah," he said wrily. "I see it. They were too. I should've had more than to mad." Then his a twistier. "I didn't tell you that the thing that me was when they wanted to put on me. I a then and—uh—persuaded them I didn't like the idea."
Sally chortled. The picture of the small, Mike in with a against the idea of being with jewelry.... Mike to the two big men and at them imperiously.
"Move over!" he growled. "If you two big had in on those of me, they'd've you were and set you to work logs!"
He to a seat them. He still looked ashamed, but it was of a different sort. Now he looked as if he he hadn't his friends for a moment. And he Sally.
"Anyhow," he said in a different tone, "maybe it did do some good for me to all up! I got of frantic. I somebody'd a of me, and I was going to put something over on you."
"Mike!" said Sally reproachfully.
"Not like you think, Sally," said Mike, a little. "I up my mind to these at their own game. I asked Joe about my in the plane. He didn't know what I was at, but he said what I was so. So I'm telling you—and," he added fiercely, "if it's any good for it, all of us four—even two big who try kidding—are for it!"
He at them. Joe asked. "What is it, Mike?"
"I think," said Mike, "I think I've got a to make space ships than of. Joe says you can make a with metallurgy. And I think we can use that to make one-piece ships—lighter and and tighter—and fast to make your swim! And you are in on it!"
The black car by the entrance to the Security offices the Shed. It looked deserted. There was only a here since the Platform had been three months before. There was almost nobody to be seen, but Mike pressed his together as they got out of the car and inside.
The four of them, with Sally, along the empty to the major's office. He was waiting for them. He hands all around. But it was not possible for Major Holt to give an of cordiality.
"I'm very to see all of you back," he said curtly. "It didn't look like you'd make it. Joe, you will be able to your father by long-distance telephone as soon as you here. I—ah—thought it would not be to tell him you had safely, though I did ask him to keep the to himself."
"Thank you, sir," said Joe.
"You answered most of the questions you needed to answer on the plane," added the major, grimly, "and now you may want to ask some. You know there is no ship for you. You know that the of the Platform our fuel. You know they've with it. You've met them! And Intelligence says they're a of space ships—not for space exploration, but to the Platform and set for an to the United States to or be from space."
Mike said crisply: "How long they can do it?"
Major Holt upon him. "It's anybody's guess. Why?"
"We've been something out," said Mike, but in part untruthfully. He the major's desk, which he topped. "The four of us have been it out. Joe says they've done welds, at his father's plant. Joe and Haney and the Chief and me, we've been out an idea."
Major Holt waited. His hands moved on his desk. Joe looked at Mike. Haney and the Chief him warily. The Chief his on one side.
"It'll take a minute to it across," said Mike. "You have to think of first. When you want to make a of concrete, you take a of gravel. Then you add some sand—just to in the the gravel. Then you put in some cement. It goes in the the of sand. A little of makes a of concrete. See?"
Major Holt frowned. But he these four. "I see, but I don't understand."
"You can together with powder-metallurgy at less than red heat. You can take for and for and for cement—"
Joe erect. He looked at Haney and the Chief. And Haney's mouth was open. A great, light to be upon him. The Chief Mike with very eyes. And Mike sturdily, forcefully, coldly, a of speech in his small and voice.
Things be of solid steel, he said sharply, without or or die-casting the metal, and without or arc-welding the parts together. The was metallurgy. Very metal, packed and to a low temperature—"sintered" is the word—becomes a solid mass. Even can be by mixing metals. The had been used only for small objects, but—there was the to concrete. A very little much metal, in the of and smaller bits. And the result would be solid steel!
Then Mike impassioned. There was a of a space ship in the Shed, he said. It was an replica, in wood, of the ships that had been destroyed. But one take of it, and use them for molds, and them with and and turnings, and them not red-hot and there would be in one piece. Solid hulls! Needing no anything else—and one do it fast! While the was out a second be molded——
The Chief roared: "You little runt!" he bellowed. "Tryin' to give us for that! You got more than any of us! You that out in your own head——"
Haney his hands together. He said softly, "I like that! I do like that!"
Major Holt his to Joe. "What's your opinion?"
"I think it's the of thing, sir, that a professional would say was a good idea but not practical. He'd it would be a of trouble to working. But I'd like to ask my father. They have done at the plant home, sir."
Major Holt nodded. "Call your father. If it looks promising, I'll what I can."
Joe out, with the others. Mike was sweating. All unconsciously, he his hands one the other. He had had many he was small, but he had himself by not in his friends. Now he needed to do something that would on them as well as himself.
Joe the phone call. As he closed the door of the booth, he the Chief Mike blandly.
"Hey, Einstein," said the Chief. "How about that brain of yours to work on a faster-than-light drive?"
But then he to with the long operator. It took minutes to the plant, and then it took time to to the point, his father on how he was and if he was in any way. Personal stuff. But Joe managed to that this call with the need to do something about a space fleet.
His father said grimly, "Yes. The doesn't look too good right now, Joe."
"Try this on for size, sir," said Joe. He Mike's scheme. His father only to ask questions about the of the tender, already in though of wood. Then he said, "Go on, son!"
Joe finished. He his father speaking to someone away from the phone. Questions and answers, and then orders. His father spoke to him direct.
"It looks promising, Joe," said his father. "Right here at the plant we've got the that can do it if can. I'm a plane and out there, fast! Get Major Holt to clear for me. This is no time for red tape! If he has trouble, I'll some myself!"
"Then I can tell Mike it's good stuff?"
"It's not good stuff," said his father. "There are about forty-seven with it at glance, but I know how to take of one or two, and we'll the rest. You tell your friend Mike I want to shake him by the hand. I to do it tonight!"
He up, and Joe out of the phone booth. Mike looked at him with eyes. Joe a little, Mike it.
"My father's on the way here to help make it work," he told Mike. Then he added untruthfully: "He said he he all the big men in his line, and where've you been that he hasn't of you?"
He away as the Chief with glee. He to Major Holt as the Chief and Haney to Mike in of his genius.
The major up his hand as Joe entered. He was using the phone. Joe waited. When he up, Joe reported. The major unsurprised.
"Yes, I had Washington on the wire," he said detachedly. "I talked to a personal friend who's a three-star general. There will be action started at the Pentagon. When you came in I was with the largest of powder-metallurgy in the country to send their best men here by plane. They will start at once. Now I have to in touch with some other people."
Joe at him. The major moved impatiently, waiting for Joe to leave. Joe gulped. "Excuse me, sir, but—my father didn't say it was certain. He just thinks it can be to work. He's not sure."
"I didn't wait for that, something has to turn up to take of this situation!" said the Major with asperity. "It has to! This particular may not work, but if it doesn't, something will come out of the work on it! You should look at a twenty-five piece occasionally, Joe!"
He moved impatiently, and Joe out. Sally was in the office. There were in the beyond. The Chief and Haney were Mike's with indignity, if they didn't make a joke of it he might with joy.
"Things look better?"
"They do," said Joe. "If it only works...."
Then he in his pocket. He a and it curiously. On one he nothing the major have to. On the other side, though, just by George Washington's chin——
He put the away and took Sally's arm.
"It'll be all right," he said slowly.
But there were times when it in doubt. Joe's father by plane at of that same day, and he and three men from the Kenmore Precision Tool Company themselves with Mike in Major Holt's quarters. The men up an hour later, and a three-star from Washington. They joined the discussion.
Joe waited around outside, left out of things. He sat on the with Sally while the moon rose over the and down. Inside, of high were being over with the and with which practical men settled. But Joe wasn't in on it. He said annoyedly, "You'd think my father'd have something to say to me, in all this mess! After all, I have been—well, I have been places! But all he said was, 'How are you, Son? Where's this Mike you talked about?'"
Sally said calmly, "I know just how you feel. You've me that way." She looked up at the moon. "I about you all the time you were gone, and I—prayed for you, Joe. And now you're and not busy! But you don't—— It would be for you to think about me for a while!"
"I am about you!" said Joe indignantly.
"Now what," said Sally interestedly, "in the world you be about me?"
He wanted to at her. But he instead.
