On the day of the take-off there were a number of side-effects from the of the Space Platform. There was a very small country on the other of the world which to its on the success of the Platform’s flight. It had to choose to a powerful neighbor, or the possibility of a in which its neighbor’s would take on the of citizens for street-fighting purposes. If the Platform got aloft, it its neighbor. And in a gamble, it did.
There was also a last-ditch in the United Nations, the Platform was and a of an ultimatum, to the organization if the Platform aloft. And again there had to be a gamble. If the Platform did not take to space and so a of peace, the United Nations would the of a for war, or something less than an society.
Of there were less results. There were already fourteen popular for broadcast, and with singers to the ears of the public. They from We’ve Got a Warship in the Sky, which was more or less jingoistic, to a boy-and-girl We’ll Have a Moon Just for Us Two. The had been from a of four years before, which in turn had been from a of six years that, and it had been from a still of Bach, so it was a melody.
And of there was a super-colossal motion picture in color and with numbers, in its for first-run in eight different key cities. It was To the Stars, and three had been filmed, of which the one would of be used in the eight world premières. One had the Platform fail to sabotage, and the hero—played by an actor who had his seventh to play the part—splendidly prepared to it all over again. The second closed with the Platform for Alpha Centaurus—which was the of of filmdom. The third was secret, but it was said that hard-boiled motion-picture had like when it was on screens.
These, of course, were sidelights. They were not very in the Shed. There, work on at a although there was no longer any work to be done. In theory, therefore, the members of and pipe-fitters and steel-construction and and other should have retired to Bootstrap. Members of building-maintenance and and and other should have been together in cities, screened by security, and to Bootstrap and paid to up wood-block and and out the proper of the Shed’s wall.
But if there had been anything of that tried, it would have produced bloodshed. The men who’d the Platform were going to see it this Earth or else. They’d have a second chance. It would work the time or it wouldn’t work at all.
So the Platform was for its take-off by the men who had it. A section—two full gores—of the Shed’s was in two pieces, and each piece at the top and bottom, so that they were from the of the half-globe. There were hundreds of at their which for the time touched the sixteen lines of rails with around the of the Shed. And then the were rolled aside. A opening resulted, and for the time mankind’s very space craft.
Joe saw the strike, and his was of disappointment. The normal shape of the Platform was ungainly, but now it was by the solid-fuel which would themselves in their firing. Also, the of the Shed looked strange. It was with the of pushpots, to this place in an all night long. A very from the up Joe and him that every of fuel in every pushpot’s had been twice—once in the tanks, and again in the pushpots. Joe thanked him very politely.
There was no longer any scaffolding. There were no trucks left two cranes, which the like so many toys. And the of into the Shed indeed.
Outside, there were upon a of timber. Most of the would have been with or torches, but it would have been to comment. As fast as a final was in place, somebody it with very bunting. Men were to the grandstand, and other men were setting up television and movie cameras. Two Security men by each camera a of microphones.
Joe was lucky. Or Sally wires. Anyhow, the two of them had a point for which many other people would have paid sums. They waited where the the two skins of the Shed was by the of the doorway. They were up the of the Shed’s roof, at the of the great opening, and they see everything, from the as they were into their contraptions, to the of the big at the below.
There was a from the Shed now. It might have been the of wind across its open section. Joe and Sally saw a of Security men four members to a of steps that up to a air-lock door—Joe had to that door—and them enter and close the air lock them. Then the security men away the stairs and them away. There were a very men making final of the Platform’s exterior. One of them was nearly on a level with Joe and Sally. Other men were already themselves on that they later free, but this last man on top did a very thing. When he’d his check-up to the last least detail, he something out of his pocket. It was a tobacco can full of black paint. There was a with it. He painted his name on the plates of the Platform, “C. J. Adams, Jr.,” and his to the ground. His name would go up with the Platform and be visible for generations—if all well. He the ground and walked away, contented.
The their task. Each one and up a pushpot. They the to positions and presented them to the Platform’s side. They there ridiculously. Magnetic grapples, of course. Joe and Sally, at the end of the in the wall, see the of the in their plastic domes.
Music from the grandstand. The seats were being filled. But naturally, the least were first. There were in to which they had thought—and nobody looked at them other women. There was khaki. There were suits—slide-rule men, these, who had done the brain-work the Platform’s design. Then black broadcloth. Politicians, past question. There is nothing less from a of two hundred than a pot-bellied man in black walking on the ground.
There were men in which were not of the United States forces. They ran to medals, which glittered. There were more arrivals, and more, and more. The and TV around.
The methodically. They dipped, and up a thing like the top of a of bread. They that metal thing to the Platform’s side. Each time it fast, like a or to the surface on which it crawls. Many to the tubes—the same that would presently away and vanish. So Joe and Sally saw the in a new aspect: metal with mouths which were their air scoops.
The music from cut off. Somebody an oration. The men who had the Platform were not in phrases, but this event was everywhere, and some people might possibly to the that the speakers and their than the that the huge, bleak, shape of the that was either for empty space or pure disaster.
The stopped, and another took his place. Then another. One man spoke for less than a minute, and the wild! But the one who gestures. He talked and talked and talked. The up the last of the waiting pushpots, and the Platform itself was invisible.
The off and away, clanking. The his voice. It small in the that was the Shed. Somebody the speaker’s arm. He ended and sat down, his with a handkerchief.
There was a roar. A had started its motor. Another roar. Another. One by one, the of objects added to the din. In the open a single was appalling. Here, the noise a which was no longer a sound. It a which by pure to be anything one’s ears understand. It a and there. Then, abruptly, all the in unison, and then more loudly. The group the Platform were being tested. Three—four—five times the to the and up to full again.
Joe Sally at his arm. He turned, and saw a plane’s underbelly, very close, and its swept-back wings. It was up. Then he saw another plane for the great dome’s open door. It moved with velocity. It and over the Shed’s and was gone. But there were others and others and others.
These were the ships of the jet-plane guard. For months on end they had above the Shed, protecting it. Now they were going to the present watchers. They were to spread out as an screen for hundreds of miles in every direction, in case somebody should be so as to try again the of the night before. They would not see the in the Shed again. So in a single line which to the horizon, they this for the one last which was their right. Joe saw come out of the sky to up for this view of the Platform it rose.
Suddenly they were gone, and Joe that of which comes from the of in power or or might, but is so when the touch magnificence.
And then the of the an volume. The whole of the Shed was now, but in the light.
And the Platform moved.
At it was a stirring. It so to one side, on the that had supported it building. It and to the other side. The thickened. From each a blast of blue-white down, and the in the earth was into steam and wood-blocks into smoke. The Platform and to its original position, and Joe’s in his throat, he that the had been done with the gyros, and they had been by the pilot for which he was responsible.
Then the Platform moved again. It by and forward. It checked, and again, and toward the great opening it. A part of its a in the floor.
The noise from the to the inconceivable. It as if all the since time had returned to the Platform moved.
And it and out of the Shed. It toward the east. Its was perhaps, at this point, as much as three above the ground, but the up clouds of and and those not be sure.
There was confusion. The and out in every possible direction. Joe saw movement, and he that the and the were to the fumes. The khaki-tinted which were men to run. The ran. The carefully-thought-out which were ran and from the smoke. One toppled, up, and for safety.
But the Platform was in motion now. It was a hundred yards the Shed wall. Two hundred. Three.... It slowly speed. A half-mile from the Shed it was definitely clear of the ground. It left a of scorched, behind....
It moved almost swiftly, now. Two miles from the Shed it was fifteen above the earth. Three miles, and a clear of it. And it was still accelerating. At four miles and five and six....
It was aloft, with slowness, with all the hundreds of straining, thrusting, to it and pushing it ahead and upward.
It toward the east. It to speed. It did not to toward the at all. It on and on, from a to a spot and then to a little dark in the sky that still on and on until Joe not to himself that he still saw it. Even then there was a noise in the air, but nobody who had the take-off possibly it.
Then Joe looked at Sally and she at him. And Joe was like an with and and which was at once his own and that of all his dreams. Sally’s were and exultant. She him in purest exuberance, that the Space Platform was up, was up, was up....
At they were waiting on the of the Major’s the Shed. The Major was there, and Haney and the Chief and Mike and Joe. The Major’s whole look had changed. He to have shrunk, and he looked more than any man should be allowed to get. But his job was done, and the was to everything. He sat in an easy chair with a him, and he looked as if nothing on earth make him move a finger. But he was waiting.
Sally came out with a tray. She passed around the and the that with them. Then she sat on the steps Joe. She looked at him and in fashion. And Joe was of Sally, but he at it too in her father’s presence.
Mike said defiantly: “But still it been to it up there if it’d been for like me!”
Nobody him. He was right. Anyhow every one of them too much and to enter into argument.
Haney said dreamily: “Everything right. Everything! They got in a like they expected, and it gave ’em three hundred miles east-speed. They were eight miles up when the their jatos, an’ twelve miles up when the let go—they near their pilots’ necks when they their again! And the Platform’s just right, makin’ a mile long, an’ they were goin’ then—what were they makin’?”
“Who cares?” asked the Chief peacefully. “Plenty!”
“Six hundred from the pushpots,” Haney, frowning, “an’ three hundred from the stream, and then there was the that all let go at once, an’ then there was eight hundred from the earth rotatin’——”
“They had ten of their when they got into their orbit,” said Mike authoritatively. “They were two thousand miles up when they passed over India and now they’re four thousand miles up and the orbit’s stable. This is their third round, isn’t it?”
“Will be,” said the Chief.
Joe and Sally sat the west. The Space Platform around the Earth from west to east, like Earth’s natural moon, but of its speed it would in the west and set in the east six times in every twenty-four hours.
Major Holt spoke suddenly. The had gone out of his manner with his energy. He said quietly: “You four—you gave me the I’ve had in my life. But do you that that attempt with the two truck-loads of explosive—do you that they’d have the Platform if it hadn’t been for that you four planned, and the we took of it?”
Joe said depreciatingly: “It was just luck that they to the same time, and that Haney was up there with those machine-gunners at the right moment. It was good luck, but it was luck.”
The Major said effortfully: “There are people called accident prones. Accidents all around them, and nobody why. You four—perhaps Joe especially—are not accident prones. You to be something to accidents. I would to your usefulness to your brains. Especially Joe’s brains. I have him too long. But—ah—Washington not look at it in the same way.”
Sally touched Joe warningly. But her was very and proud. Joe queer.
“Joe,” said the Major tiredly, “was an for membership in the Platform’s crew. But for penicillin, or something of the that a man well quickly, Joe would be up there in the Platform’s now. His—ah—record in the he did take was satisfactory. And—ah—all four of you were very useful in the last of the of the Platform. Again Joe especially. His—ah—co-operation with higher has produced—ah—very comments. So it is that he should have some recognition. All of you, of course, but Joe especially. So——”
Joe himself going white.
“Joe,” said the Major, “is to be offered an as of a rocket, and to the Platform. His will a of four, himself. His—ah—recommendations for membership in his will have weight.”
There was a in Joe’s ears. He wanted to and to dance, and right then he would have liked very much to Sally. It would have been the only way to his emotions.
Mike said in a fierce, voice: “Joe! I can do anything a big elephant of a guy can do, and I only use a of the and air! You’ve got to take me, Joe! You’ve got to!”
The Chief said benignly: “H’m.... I’m be in of the engine room, an’ Haney’ll be bos’n—let Joe try to take off without us!—an’ that don’t you a rating, Mike, unless you’re willin’ to be just plain crew!”
Slowly Sally her away from Joe and looked up.
Then they all saw it. A telescope, maybe, would have it as the thing they’d on and for. But it didn’t look like that to the eye. It was just a of with across the sky. It was a of sunlight, moving as they watched.
There were a good many millions of people it, just then, as it in emptiness. To some it meant peace and and of a old age and a life for their children and their children’s children. To some it was a achievement. To a it meant that if had ended, and was no longer the of life on earth, this thing would be their destruction. But it meant something to in the world. To the people who had been unable to do anything to help it to pray for it, it meant most of all.
Joe said quietly: “We’ll be going up there to visit it. All of us.”
He that Sally’s hand was in his. She said: “Me too, Joe?”
“Some day,” said Joe, “you too.”
He up to watch more closely. Sally him. The others came to look. They a group on the lawn, as people were in all the world to up at it.
The Space Platform, a of sunshine, an of light, moved across the toward the east. Toward the night.
