The world over on its with regularity, and nights and nights according to well-established precedent. One man up in Bootstrap with burns, but he had not offered himself for check over at the hospital. He was in his lodging. Since nobody else appeared to have any at all, it was that he was the messenger who had the to Braun, who also had been by of the stuff, but who had the of by not it free into the air of the Shed. Under the circumstances, then, three-shift work on the Platform was resumed, and three times in each twenty-four hours of rolled out of Bootstrap men to work in the Shed, and rolled again with men who had just stopped there.
Trucks materials to the Shed, and swing-up doors opened in the great dome’s wall, and the trucks in and unloaded. Then the trucks out of the same doors and for more materials. In the Shed, plates of metal aloft, and in the of and pipes that still the shape. Each day it was a little more nearly complete. In a separate, by a sidewall, the Chief and Haney and Mike the to the preposterous. They and red-eyed from fatigue, and of and more fanatical—and security men moved about in but never-ceasing vigilance.
There were changes, though. The line of shorter, and the around the were near to completion. There came a day, indeed, when only five objects on that line, and they were in and needed only a touch. It was at this time that more and from the Kenmore Precision Tool plant, and Joe his in space for work of need. He and his twice around the clock to the replaced parts with the repaired of the pilot gyros. They from the need for speed and for accuracy, but they put the device together, and it, and the result through red-rimmed eyes, and were too to rejoice.
Then Joe a and the pilot to quietly, and the rose to a whine, and the up the until it to be at all. Presently a the impossible, and they at a device that to be doing nothing whatever. The appeared motionless. They with such that it was not possible to that they moved a hairbreadth. And the whole device looked very and useless.
But the four of them at it—now that it worked—with a satisfaction. Joe moved a control, and the of the device moved to a new place and there. He moved the again, and it moved to another position and there. And to another and another and another.
Then the Chief took Joe’s place, and under his hand the disks—which were actually at thousand minute—turned and without any of the spectacular. Then Haney the controls. And Mike put the device through its paces.
Mike left the so that the main pointed at the sun, the Shed’s roof. And then all four of them watched. It took minutes for this last small test to its results. But visibly and the pilot the sun, and they would have with a of very many any attempt to move them by so little as one-tenth of a second of arc, which would something like one three-hundred-thousandth of a right angle. And these pilot would the main with just this precision, and after the Platform was out in space the Platform itself with the needed for past from the surface of the Earth.
The pilot gyros, in a word, were for installation.
Joe and Haney and the Chief and Mike were not to look at. They were from to toe, and their were bloodshot, and they were to the point where they did not notice any longer that they were weary. And their were not at all normal, so that they were and and to the men with the flat-bed who came almost to move their work. They with the thing they had rebuilt, and they were to and and supervisors, and they at each other as it was up a that had been left in the Platform for its entrance, and they were very from as they with hot, as it was into place.
It would be later, but it was out. And it moved the main gyros! They many times what the pilot did, but when they were the pilot them. Of the main-gyro to the of the Shed had to be for this test, or the would have the upon its support and all the around it would have been and the men on it killed.
But the worked! They visibly and worked! They the that would the Platform in its take-off, and later would it to the up from Earth. The pilot worked! There was no vibration. In its the Platform was for space!
Then the Chief yawned, and his as he in the room. And Haney’s wobbled, and he sat and was asleep. Then Joe saw somebody—it was Major Holt—holding Mike in his arms as if Mike were a baby. Mike would have it if he had been awake. And then Joe didn’t know what was going on around him, either.
There was a in his consciousness. He came to very slowly. He was half-awake and half-asleep for a long time. He only that his job was finished. Then, slowly, he that he was in a in one of the Platform sleeping cabins, and the that was Sally’s to the Platform him very in place. Somehow it was soothing, and he had an of and and fulfillment. The pilot were and in position. His to them was ended. And he had slept the clock around three times. He’d slept for thirty-six hours. He was starving.
Sally had herself a watch over Joe as he slept, she him when he out of the to look for a place to wash. He was still with the of past labor, and he had been allowed to sleep with only his shoes removed. He was not an sight. But Sally him with an that her belied.
“You can a shower,” she told him firmly, “and then I’ll have some for you. Fresh are waiting, too.”
Joe said peacefully: “The are and they work!”
“Don’t I know?” Sally. “Go and come for breakfast. The Chief and Haney and Mike are already awake. And of the four of you, they’ve been able to the Platform’s take-off time—to just two days off! It out, and now it’s official. And you it possible!”
This was a exaggeration, but it was of Sally’s for Joe. He into the special in the Platform. In orbit, there would be no gravity, so a was unthinkable. The cabinet was a with on all four and into which one his feet. When Joe handles, at him from all sides, and a to run. When in space that out what would otherwise an mixture of air and water-drops. In space a man might in his own without the fan. The for the water again was complex, but Joe didn’t think about that at the moment. He that this might be out in the Platform’s orbit, it left something to be on Earth.
But there were clean waiting when he came out. He and new and peaceful and rested, and it to him very much like the way he had often on a new morning. It was very, very good!
Then he coffee and ravenous.
There were the others in the Platform’s kitchen, in the chairs that had on them so the needn’t about of weightlessness. There was an in progress. The Chief at Joe. Mike the looked absorbed. Haney was something out, painfully. Sally was at the Platform’s very special stove. She had and eggs and for Joe to eat.
“Gentlemen,” she said, “you are about to eat the in a space ship—and like it!”
She them and sat with them all. But her were very warm when she looked at Joe.
“Leavin’ what we were arguin’ about,” said the Chief blissfully, “Sally here—mind if I call you Sally, ma’am?—she says the slide-rule have our job the and they say it’s a job than they designed. Take a bow, Joe.”
Sally said firmly: “When the are through talking about the job you did, you’ll all four be famous for precision-machining and on practices.”
“Which,” said the Chief sarcastically, “is make us when we’re to and stuff!”
“No more welding,” Sally told him. “Not on this job. The Platform’s closed in. They’ve started to take the scaffolding.”
The Chief looked startled. Haney asked: “Laying off men yet?”
“Not you,” Sally him. “Definitely not you. You four have the very top super-special security there is! I think you’re the only four people in the world my father is sure can’t be reached, somehow, to make you the Platform.”
Mike said abruptly: “Yeah. The Major he had before. Now he’s got ’em!”
Mike hadn’t to be listening. He’d as if he were the of being the Platform—not as a it, but as a man proper it would become. But Joe that his was exact. There’d been of to prevent the Platform from completion. But now it was to take off in two days. If it was to be stopped, it would have to be stopped forty-eight hours by people with of resources, who for their own ends needed it to be stopped. These last two days would the last-ditch, most desperate, most stepped-up at that possibly be made. And Major Holt had to them.
But the four at table—five, with Sally—were relaxed. The they’d had been conspicuous, perhaps, but it was still only one of thousands that had to be the Platform take off. But they had the of a job well done.
“No more welding,” said Haney meditatively, “and our job on the finished. What are we do?”
The Chief said forcefully: “Me, I’m or something, but I’m sure around and watch the take-off!”
Joe said nothing. He looked at Sally. She very busy, making the others did not want more to eat. After a long time Joe said, with very casualness, “Come to think of it, I was up with when I had to stop and in on the gyros. How’s that member, Sally?”
“I—wouldn’t know,” answered Sally unconvincingly. “Have some more coffee?”
Joe his go expressionless. There was nothing else to do. Sally hadn’t said that his looked for making the of the Platform when it out to space. But Sally had of things. She would be sure to keep on a like that, she was Joe’s ring and it would have taken a great of to keep her from out good news to tell him. She didn’t have any good news. So it must be bad.
Joe his coffee, trying to make himself that he’d all along he wasn’t going to make the crew. He’d started late to learn the a ought to know. He’d stopped at the most part of his to work on the gyros, which were more still. He’d slept a day and a half. The would take off in forty-eight hours. He to that it was common to use a man who was from the for a place in the crew, than a like himself. But it wasn’t easy to take.
Mike the said suddenly: “I got a hunch.”
“Shoot it,” said the Chief, amiably.
“I got a I know what of will be next—and when,” said Mike.
The others looked at him—all but Joe, who at the wall.
“There hasn’t been one set of trying to the Platform,” said Mike excitedly. “There’s been four or five. Joe a the that didn’t think like the that Braun. And the that to kill us up at Red Canyon may be another. There be others: and and and of all kinds. And they all know they’ve got to work fast, if they have to help each other. Get it?”
Haney growled.
“I’ll what you’ve said so far,” said the Chief. “Sure! Those so-and-sos will all in they got at the last minute. They’ll together to the Platform—and then double-cross each other afterward. But what’ll they do, an’ when?”
“This time they’ll try violence,” said Mike coldly, “instead of sneaking. They’ll try something rough. For sneaking, one time’s as good as another, but for stuff, there’s just one time when the Platform hasn’t got of around to for it.”
The Chief softly.
“You change-shift time! Which one?”
“The one possible,” said Mike briefly. “After every shift, will tighter. So my is the next shift, if they can. And if one something, the others will have to jump right in. You see?”
That sense. One attempt at violence, defeated, would create a of defense that would make others impossible. If a successful attempt at was to be made, the of all groups would have to be to the first, or abandoned.
“I could—uh—set up a of screen,” said Mike. “We’ll we’re going to something—and let those it out. They’ll see it as a to do their with us to for them.—Sally, your father sure-enough trust us?”
Sally nodded.
“He doesn’t talk very cordially, but he you.”
“Okay,” said Mike. “You tell him, private, that I’m setting up something tricky. He can laugh off anything his security report that I’m mixed up in. Joe’ll see that he the whole picture beforehand. But he ain’t to tell anybody—not anybody—that something is up. Right?”
“I’ll ask him,” said Sally. “He is desperate. He’s sure some last-minute on the Platform will be made. But——”
“We’ll him in of time,” said Mike with authority. “In time for him to play along, but not for a to things. Okay?”
“I’ll make the bargain,” Sally him, “if it can be made.”
Mike nodded. He his coffee cup and from his chair.
“Come on, Chief! C’mon, Haney!”
He them out of the room.
Joe with his spoon a moment, and then said: “The I was to have for if he didn’t well—he did, didn’t he?”
Sally answered reluctantly: “Y-yes.”
Joe said measuredly: “Well, then—that’s that! I it will be all right for me to around and watch the take-off?”
Sally’s were misty.
“Of it will, Joe! I’m so sorry!”
Joe grinned, but to himself his like a mask.
“Into each life some rain must fall. Let’s go out and see what’s been since I to sleep. All right?”
They out of the Platform together. And as soon as they the of the Shed it was plain that the stage had been set for events.
The top five or six of had already been removed, and more of the and pipes were in on lines from cranes. There were some new-type trucks in view, too, of the that ready-mixed through city streets. They were a white paste into that it aloft, where it into the mouths of that to replace the along the Platform’s sides.
“Lining the rockets,” said Sally in a voice.
Joe watched. He about this, too. It had been for a time. After the and their had as the two of a multiple-rocket aggregation, the Platform fuel as the third stage. But the Platform was a special problem. It would take off almost horizontally—a great in matters. This was practical the Platform be air resistance, and already have speed its own flared.
Moreover, it was not a space ship in the of needing for landing purposes. It wouldn’t land. Not ever. And again there was the that men would be in it. That out the use of eight- and ten- and fifteen-gravity acceleration. It had to make use of a long period of slow than a of power. So its very special had been designed as the answer.
They were solid-fuel rockets, though solid had been long for long-range missiles. But they were other solid-fuel drives. The white being was a self-setting with which the would be lined, with the solid fuel the center. The themselves were thin steel—absurdly thin—but with wire under to provide against bursting, like old-fashioned cannon.
When the fuel was fired, it would be at the end of the tube, and the fuel would at so many second. The would the blast for a time and then away. Crumbling, the would be and so as mass. When the were exposed, they would melt and be additional mass.
In effect, as the fuel was exhausted, the that it into their own blast and added to the thrust, as they the amount of to be accelerated. Then the quantity of fuel diminish—the smaller—so the of speed would constant. Under the special of this particular occasion, there was a in over a liquid-fuel design. For one item, the Platform would have no use for fuel and fuel once it was in its orbit. In this way, it wouldn’t have them. Their in would have been used to velocity. And when the Platform in space, it would have every of the used to it there.
Now the were being and loaded. The time to take-off was indeed.
Joe a while and away. He very good he’d his job and up to the he’d had. But he very he’d had an to be one of the men to make a space journey—and now it was gone. He couldn’t the against him. If it had been put up to him, he’d have the same hard himself. But it to have had a taken away.
Sally said, trying hard to him, “These an of fuel, Joe! And it’s than scientists a chemical fuel be!”
“Yes,” said Joe.
“Fluorine-beryllium,” said Sally urgently. “It in with the pushpots’ having cockpits. Rockets like that couldn’t be used on the ground! The would be poisonous!”
But Joe only in agreement. He was apathetic. He was uninterested. He was still of that in space. He that Sally was his face.
“Joe,” she said unhappily, “I wish you wouldn’t look like that!”
“I’m all right,” he told her.
“You act as if you didn’t about anything,” she protested, “and you do!”
“I’m all right,” he repeated.
“I’d like to go somewhere,” she said abruptly, “but after what up at the lake, I mustn’t. Would you like to go up to the top of the Shed?”
“If you want to,” he without enthusiasm.
He when she to a doorway—with a security it—in the sidewall. She her pass and the let them through. They to walk up an inclined, endless, ramp. It was the and skins of the Shed. There had to be two skins the Shed was too big to be properly, and the on one would have “weather” inside. There’d have been a convection-current motion of the air in the space, and minor whirlwinds, and there be and lightning. Joe reading that such had in a for Zeppelins he was born.
They came upon an open gallery, and there was a security man looking at the and the Platform. He had a very good view of all that on.
They around another long of the gallery, with small electric bulbs. They came to a second gallery, and saw the Platform again. There was another here.
They were up the now, and were visibly over emptiness. The view of the Platform was impressive. There were an number of being to the of that object. Three cranes, together, a to the last level of scaffolding, and men on it and it to the hull. As soon as it was fast, other men into it with the white to line it from end to end. The would nearly the they were designed to propel. But they’d all be away when it its destination.
“Wonderful, isn’t it?” asked Sally hopefully.
Joe looked, and said without warmth, “It’s the most thing that to do.”
Which was true enough, but the of it had for Joe for the time being. His was new.
Halfway around again, Sally opened a door, and Joe was almost out of his lethargy. Here was a post on the of the half-globe. There were two here, with fifty-caliber machine under hoods. Their were but necessary. They the desert. From this it out for miles, and Bootstrap be as a series of white away with it.
Ultimately Sally and Joe came to the very top of the Shed into the open air. From here the and away in every direction. The was and shining, but there was a breeze. And here there was a in—almost an acre, it seemed. There were metal-walled small with of every possible shape for the of every length. There were three bowl to the horizon, and a fourth which and forth, revolving, to the sky itself. Sally told Joe that in the very middle—where there was a with a which wasn’t metal—there was a wave-guide that spot a plane three vertically, and at a of thirty miles, with in proportion.
There were in so their wouldn’t with the radar. There were non-recoil anti-aircraft to the Shed against anything one imagine.
“And there are overhead too,” said Sally. “Dad asked to have them reinforced, and two new of yesterday at a over yonder. There are of guards!”
The Platform was as no object in all history had been guarded. It was that it had to be protected so, it was actually the only of from war. But that was why some people the Platform, and their had it an item of national defense. Ironically that was the the money had been provided for its construction. But the of all was that its most usefulness would be the help it would give in making that weren’t safe to make on Earth.
That was pure irony. Because if those were successful, they should that in the world would in time rich envy.
But Joe couldn’t to the fact. He was and empty of his job was done and he’d a very to be one of the Platform’s crew.
He didn’t until late that night, when he that life was and life was earnest, a man was trying to Joe with his hands. Joe was in his self-defense a large number of over him and his together. They were the Platform, and Joe to be to any second.
