There was at the Shed, not a single cloud in all the sky. The the roof—they almost small with its vastness—wavered and and quivered. Completely of upward. Atop the Shed, in the room, there was the of intentness. Signals came and were into visible records which into computers. Then the and and performed integrations, and out of their slot-mouths of printed tape. Men read those and talked into microphones, and their again.
Down by the open door of the Shed at the desert's edge, Sally Holt and Joe's father waited together, the sky. Sally was white and scared. Joe's father her reassuringly.
"He'll make it, all right," said Sally, dry-throated.
Joe's father nodded. "Of he will!" But his voice was not steady.
"Nothing to him now!" said Sally fiercely.
"Of not," said Joe's father.
A close to them said abruptly: "Nineteen miles."
There was a tiny, of white visible in the now. It out to nothingness, but its nearest part out and out and out. It larger, came closer with a speed.
"Twelve miles," said the harshly. "Rockets firing."
The downward-hurtling of was like a plane from the sky, that no plane so fast.
At seven miles the white-hot of the was visible in daylight. At three miles the light was bright. At two, the light out. Sally saw something which come toward the ground, unsupported.
It almost a mile out again. Then it checked. Visibly, its was slowed. It more slowly, and more slowly, and more slowly still....
It in mid-air a quarter-mile up. Then there was a fresh of fumes, more than ever, and it downward, touched the ground, and there terrible for seconds. Then the out. An later there were no more at all.
Sally to toward the ship. She stopped. A of rumbling, clanking, earth-moving moved out of the Shed and toward the space tug. Prosaically, a its wide some fifty yards from the ship. It pushed a of earth it, over the and about the rocket's landing place. Other to circle around and around, the earth and the surface stuff. Water trucks sprayed, and thin steam arose.
But also an exit-port opened and Joe in the opening.
Then Sally to again.
Joe sat at dinner in the major's quarters. Major Holt was there, and Joe's father, and Sally.
"It good," said Joe warmly, "to use a knife and again, and to food up from a plate where it until it's up!"
"The of the Platform——" Major Holt began.
"They're all right," said Joe, with his mouth full. "They're harness. Brent's got his up to three-quarters gravity. They tired, the harness. They sleep better. Everything's fine! They can the space we left and they've got to spare! They're all right!"
Joe's father said unsteadily, "You'll on Earth a while now, son?"
Sally moved quickly. She looked up, tense. But Joe said, "They're going to the Moonship up, sir. We came back—my and me—to help train the crew. We only have a week to do it in, but we've got some to them on the in the Shed." He added anxiously, "And, sir—they'll have to take the Moonship off in a orbit. She can't go up! That means she's got to pass over enemy territory, and—we've got to have a for her. A escort. It's planned for the space to take off a minutes after the Moonship and blast along underneath. We'll out—like drones—and if anything comes along we can start their and our way through. And we four have had more than else. We're needed!"
"You've done enough, surely!" Sally cried.
"The United States," said Joe awkwardly, "is going to take over the Moon. I—can't miss having a hand in that! Not if it's at all possible!"
"I'm you will miss it, Joe," Major Holt said detachedly. "The of the Moon will be a Navy enterprise. Space Exploration Project are being used to prepare for it, but the Navy the latest of the Pentagon. The Navy takes over the Moon."
Joe looked startled. "But——"
"You're Space Exploration personnel," said the major with the same coolness. "You will be used to personnel, and your space will be asked to go along to the Platform as an vessel. For purposes of in the landing of the Moonship at the Platform, you understand. You'll her away from the Platform when she's and supplied, so she can start off for the Moon. But the of the Moon will be Navy."
Joe's unreadable. "I think," he said evenly, "I'd not comment."
Major Holt nodded. "Very wise—not that we'd repeat anything you did say. But the point is, Joe, that just one day the Moonship take off, the United Nations will be that it is a United States vessel. The of the of space—like the of the seas—will be promulgated. And the United States will say that a United States is starting off into space on an official mission. To attack a Space Exploration ship is one thing. That's like a scientific expedition. But to fire on an American on official is a of war. Especially since that ship can shoot back—and will."
Joe listened. He said, "It's somebody to try another Pearl Harbor?"
"Exactly," said the major. "It's time for us to be firm—now that we can it up. I don't think the Moonship will be on."
"But they'll need me and my just the same," said Joe slowly, "for work at the Platform?"
"Exactly," said the major.
"Then," Joe said doggedly, "they us. My will about being out of the trip. They won't like it. But they'd like out still less. We'll play it the way it's dealt—but we won't to like it."
Major Holt's did not at all, but Joe had an odd that the major of him.
"Yes. That's right, Joe," his father added. "You—you'll have to go once more, son. After that, we'll talk it over."
Sally hadn't said a word the discussion, but she'd Joe every second. Later, out on the of the major's quarters, she had a great to say. But that couldn't affect the facts.
The world at large, of course, no of the events in preparation. The Shed and the town of Bootstrap and all the for a hundred-mile circle about, were to all visitors. Anybody who came into that circle in. Most people were out. All that anyone was that of material had and still were into the Shed. But this time security was tight. Educated be made, and they were made; but nobody the closed-in area save a very top-ranking officials had any knowledge. The world only that something and was in prospect.
Mike, though, was able to a to the girl who'd him. Major Holt it. Mike his on paper by Security, with by Security, and while by Security officers. His was by Major Holt himself, and it did not that Mike was on Earth. But it did a reply—and Mike as he waited for one.
The others had to about. Joe and Haney and the Chief were acting as to the Moonship's crew. They practical space navigation. At they they hadn't much to pass on, but they out otherwise. They had to pass on data on from how to walk to how to drink coffee, how to eat, sleep, why one should wear harness, and the manners and of ships in space. They had to why in space a ship might send on it, but would to do with those it left behind. They had to of the of sunshine, and the equal of in for more than five minutes, and——
They had material for six months of courses, but there was a week to pass it on. Joe was ragged, but in of he managed to talk at some length with Sally. He himself to discuss any number of with his father, too, who appeared to be much more than Joe had noticed before.
He was almost when it was that the Moonship would take off for space on the day. He talked about it with Sally the night take-off.
"Look," he said awkwardly. "As as I'm this has out a business. But when we have got a on the Moon, it'll be a good job done. There will be one thing that nobody can stop! Everybody's been in terror of war. If we the Moon the cold will be ended. You can't on my wanting to help end that!"
Sally at him in the moonlight.
"And—meanwhile," said Joe clumsily, "well—when I come we can do some talking about—well—careers and such things. Until then—no use. Right?"
Sally's wavered. "Very sensible," she wrily. "And silly, Joe. I know what of a career I want! What other do you know to talk about, Joe?"
"I don't know of any. Oh, yes! Mike got a from his girl. I don't know what she said, but he's walking on air."
"But it isn't funny!" said Sally indignantly. "Mike's a person! A person! If he'll let me, I'll to his girl myself and—try to make friends with her so when you come I—maybe I can be a of match-maker."
"That, I like!" Joe said warmly. "You're sometimes, Sally!"
Sally looked at him in the moonlight.
"There are times when it to your attention," she observed.
The next she a little when he left her, to climb in the space which was so small a part of today's activity. Joe and his were the only men who had a to the Platform and back. But now there was the Moonship to go than they'd been allowed. It was in design than the Platform, though it was smaller. But it wasn't designed to in space. It was to on the of a ring-mountain's plain.
Let it off into space, and somehow to the Platform to reload. Then let it replace the it would in this take-off and it go on out to emptiness. It would make history as the attempt by beings to the Moon.
Joe and his would go along to if it came to a fight, and to the Moonship to its wharf—the Platform—and out into again when it its journey. And that was all.
The Moonship from the of the Shed to the of hundreds of engines.
Then the space skyward. Her take-off here for the pushpots. Her second-stage were also of the variety, she them at a 60,000 feet. They were for the the carried.
She was out in space when the third-stage her hull.
When the Moonship the west of Africa, the space was 400 miles and 500 miles behind. When the Moonship Arabia, the was 200 miles and less than 100 in line.
Then the Moonship small objects, by and away by of air. The small objects spread out. Haney and Mike and the Chief had the from the ship, and now were upon and radar. They pressed buttons. One by one, little of appeared in space. They had the little space missiles, setting off which had no to prove that each was for use.
By the time the two space toward India, above an area from which had been to rise, there were more little with them. One screen of on the space tug, and another behind. Anything that came up from Earth would be by of ships upon suicide.
Radar the space formation, but of the and the Platform very did no more than probe. The Moonship and its across the Pacific, still rising. Above the of Washington, the space left its post and climbed, the Moonship this way and that. And from behind, the Platform came splendidly.
Tiny in space the lines which were plastic with air. Very, very indeed, the great, Platform and the squat, Moonship came together and touched. They in contact.
And then the small that had below, all the way up, simultaneously. Their smoke. In alignment, they through emptiness, with a precision, and out for the Platform's orbit. Their had been to protect the Moonship on its way out. That was performed. There were too many of them to recover, so they out toward the stars.
When their out they vanished. But a good hour later, when it was that they were as out as they were likely to go, they to up. Specks of flame, like the of new stars, against the of space.
But Joe and the others were in the Platform by then. They'd up for the crew. And they were on duty.
The Platform with the Moonship's aboard. It had been a world with very inhabitants. With twenty-five about, plus the four of its regular crew, plus the space tug's complement, it crowded.
And it was busy. There were twenty-five new men to be as they what they'd been about life in space. It was three full Earthdays the stores for the to the Moon and the of a there to move. The and the space had to be and only by space through small airlocks.
And there was the of discipline. Lieutenant Commander Brown had been put in of the Platform for in space. He was to be prepared for of the Moonship by that experience. So now he over of the Platform to Brent—he a of it—and took over the ship that would go out to the Moon. He another out of that.
In of the Moonship, his manner to Joe was correct. He to the letter—to a that left Joe uncomprehending. But he wouldn't have along in the Navy if he hadn't. He'd to do the same thing in the Platform, and it wasn't practical. But he all Joe and himself. He no of friendship, but that was natural. Unintentionally, Joe had him. He now all that, and Joe of him—within limits.
But Mike and Haney and the Chief did not. They for him. And they that they got him. When he took over the Moonship, Lieutenant Commander Brown naturally and snappy, official on all occasions, in the Platform. And Joe's privately off the of the Moonship. Thereafter, no man Lieutenant Brown without his magnet-soled shoes from the floor. When a man was free, a gave a result. The man's to meet his arm, the was one-sided, and every man who Brown a which left him at overhead with his to Lieutenant Brown. With a little practice, it was possible to add a to the other features. On one occasion, Brown walked into a where a dozen men were preparing for transfer to the Moonship. A voice cried, "Shun!" And twelve men about the storeroom, somersaults, all at salute, and all faces.
An order in after.
It took four days to the transfer of properly started. It took eight to the job. Affixing fresh to the of the Moonship's alone called for long hours in space suits. During this time Mike in a space wagon. One of the Navy men was a overcourageous. He to safety lines. Completing the hook-on of a landing rocket, he up too and off toward the Milky Way.
Mike him back. After that there was less trouble.
Even so, the Moonship and the Platform were together for thirteen full days, which the Platform crowded. On the day the two ships sealed off and separated. Joe and his in the space the Moonship a good five miles from the Platform.
The space returned to the Platform. A came across the five-mile interval. It was a very crisp, formal, Navy-like message.
Then the newly-affixed on the Moonship's their fumes. The big ship to move. Not from Earth, of course. That was where it was going. But it had the Platform's 12,000 miles hour of speed. If the of have been at just the proper instant, that speed alone would have the Moonship all the way to its destination. But they couldn't. So the Moonship to its speed. It would out and out, and as the Earth's with the same weight of would move the same and toward the Moon. The Moonship's would be a of slowly curve, from Earth and almost a line where Earth's and the Moon's each other.
From there, the Moonship would have only to its against a one-sixth that of Earth, and out a distance.
Joe and the others the of as the ship to small.
"We should've been in that ship," said Haney when the no longer it out. "We could've her to the Moon!"
Joe said nothing. He a little inside. But he that the men who'd the Platform to its had been by himself and Haney and the Chief and Mike. A later always makes an one look small. Now the four of them would be forgotten. History would the of the Moonship.
Forgotten? Yes, perhaps. But the names of the four of them, Joe and Haney and the Chief and Mike, would still be in a language Joe couldn't speak, in a small village he couldn't name, on those occasions when the Mohawk met in council.
The Chief grumbled. Mike out the port with envy.
"It was a dirty trick," the Chief. "We been part of the to land on the Moon!"
Joe grimaced. His needed to be of the same way he did.
"I wouldn't say this of our gang," said Joe carefully, "but if it hadn't been for us four that ship wouldn't be on the way at all. Haney the that got us to Earth the time, or else we'd have been killed. If we had been killed, Mike wouldn't have out the metal-concrete business. But for him, that Moonship wouldn't be a in anybody's eye. And if the Chief hadn't up that we in the space wagons, there wouldn't be any Platform up here to and the Moonship. So they left us behind! But just among the four of us I think we can that if it hadn't been for us they couldn't have it!"
Haney slowly at Joe. The Chief him with irony. Mike said, "Yeah. Haney, and me, and the Chief. We did it all."
"Uh-huh," said the Chief sardonically. "Us three. Just us three. Joe didn't do anything. Just a bum, he is. We tell Sally he's no good and she herself out a guy that'll amount to something some day." He Joe the shoulders. "Sure! Just a bum, Joe! That's all! But we got a for you. We'll let you around with us just the same! Come on, guys! Let's something to eat!"
The four of them a steel-floored corridor, their magnetic-soled shoes on the plates. Their progress was and and undignified. Suddenly the Chief to a song to the that the of the of Siam were to wash their dishes. Haney in, and Mike. They were all very close together, and they were not at all impressive. But it Joe very hard, this knowledge that the others didn't care. It was the time it had to him that Haney and Mike and the Chief would be left with him, as a gang, than go on to high in a landing on the Moon.
It good. It good.
But that, and all other of satisfaction, was out by news that came from the Moonship a six hours later.
The Moonship was in trouble. The and of its were out on Earth, and by and observation. The were done by the Moonship not possibly have carried. And out. The ship was on and its were on schedule.
But then the happened. It was an error which no machine have predicted, for which and have compensated. It was a error. At the for the final blast, the pilot of the Moonship had the set of rockets.
Inexperience, stupidity, negligence, excitement—the didn't matter. After years of and and dreaming, one had a mistake. And the mistake was fatal!
When the mistake was realized, they'd had to cut the still-firing rockets. But the had been done. The ship was still on. It would the Moon. But it wouldn't land in Aristarchus as planned. It would crash. If every on the were to be at the best possible instant, the Moonship would near Copernicus, and it would land with a of 800 second—540 miles an hour.
It be calculated that when the Moonship landed, the ought to be visible from Earth with a good telescope. It was to take place in thirty-two hours plus or a minutes.