From a and a distance, the rocket's must have appeared like the and of a snake. It left it a of which was serpentine. It and struck, and and struck, like a itself at some prey. Six, seven, eight times it at the minute egg-shaped ship which for the heavens. Each time it missed and about to again.
Then its fuel gave out and for all and purposes it to exist. The thick, it left to dissipate. The path of scattered. It spread to and of through which the in the long which is a rocket's ending.
Burke cut the drive and the ship on its side, it toward the north. The of the ship was one of tenseness.
"I'm a new driver," said Burke, "and that was a of to do." He at the exterior-pressure meter. "There's no air to register. We must be fifty or sixty miles high and maybe still rising. But we're not air."
Actually the plastic ship was eighty miles up. The world it white of cloud in patterns a would have interesting. Burke see the of the St. Lawrence River the white areas. But the Earth's surface was foreshortened. What was flat, and at the of the world all appeared and unreal.
Holmes, still pale, asked, "How'd we away from that rocket?"
"We accelerated," said Burke. "It was a rocket. It was designed to bomb or which travel at a speed. Target-seeking can lock onto the echo from a ship, or one going at its speed their where their target, traveling at speed, can be intercepted. We were there. We were accelerating. Missile-guidance can't measure and allow for it. They shouldn't have to."
Four of the six television screens dark sky with lights in it. On one there was the of the sun, to its light was too great to be registered in a normal fashion. The other screen Earth.
There was a buzzing, and Keller looked at Burke.
"Rocket?" asked Burke. Keller his head. "Radar?" Keller nodded.
"The DEW line, most likely," said Burke in a tone. "I don't know they've got that can us. But I know can't this high. Maybe they can a spread of air-to-air rockets, though.... I don't know their range."
Sandy said unsteadily, "They shouldn't do this to us! We're not criminals! At least they should ask us who we are and what we're doing!"
"They did," said Burke, "and we didn't answer. See if you can up some voices, Keller."
Keller and set indicators. Voices into speech. "Reporting UFO coördinates—First fuel in and fell, sir." Another voice, very brisk, "Thirty-second squadron, scramble! Keep top and under it. If it range, blast it!" Another voice said crisply, "Coördinates three-seven Jacob, one-nine Alfred...."
Keller the voices to they were useless.
Burke said, "Hell! We ought to land and check over the ship. Keller, can you give me a and a somebody will be likely to up?"
Keller and up of wire. He to work on an as yet job. Evidently, the ship was not near to to be of a call to ground. It had taken off with many not finished. Burke, at the controls, it possible to think of a number of that should have been the ship left the in which it had been made. He worried.
Pam said in a voice, "I I might as a for away on this voyage, but I didn't think we'd have to and to away!"
There was no comment.
"I'm a beginner at navigation," said Burke a little later, more than before. "I know we have to go out over the north magnetic pole, but how the do I that?"
Keller beamed. He his job and to the bank of instruments. He set one, and then another, and then a third. The action, of course, was to that of an pilot when he in in different cities. From each, a reading can be taken. Where the lines of direction cross, there the transport plane must be. But Keller to be up in space. Presently, eighty miles high, he a and on a of paper, "North magnetic 93°W, 71°N, nearly," and after that a course.
"Hm," said Burke. "Thanks."
Then there was a relative the ship. Only a of voices came from speakers that Keller had on and then down, and a small from a gyro. When they listened, they also a high sweet tone. Burke this here, and that there, and his hands. The ship moved on steadily. He this and that and the other thing. He was pleased. But there were to be checked. Holmes the to the other below. There were to be looked into there, too.
One of the screens Earth from a of seventy miles of eighty, now. Others pictured the heavens, with very many out of blackness. Keller got at his again and the work of a ship-to-ground and its to an exterior-reflecting antenna.
Sandy Burke as he moved about, one thing after another. From time to time he at the screens which had to in the place of windows. Once he to the control-board and an adjustment.
"We ten miles," he to Sandy. "And I we're being by below."
Holmes all places. He'd packed them when the ship on her side.
Burke read an and said with satisfaction, "We're on sunshine!"
He meant that in empty space plates on the of the were up from the sun. The use of the drive-shaft its temperature. Metallic with the plates from those plates. The drive-shaft was cold to the touch, but it four hundred Fahrenheit it to as a drive. It was that it had so little up to this moment.
Later Keller Burke on the and his thumb upward.
"We go up now?" asked Burke.
Keller nodded. Burke the ship to vertically. The views of solid Earth from previous screens to new ones. The and the dark object which was the sun also moved across their screens to and on others. Then Burke touched the drive-control. Once more they had the of being in a elevator. And at just that moment appeared on the barren, icy, totally below.
They were rocket-trails from target-seeking which had the area of the north magnetic by and were at the radar-detected little ship by the that them.
From the surface of the Earth, it would have that of white appeared and rose with toward the heavens. They on, up and up and up, to closer together as they smaller in the distance, until all eight of them to into a single point of in the above the world's of air.
But nothing happened. Nothing. The ship did not as fast as the rockets, but it had started and it up longer. It away to and the of the towers of rocket-smoke away and away over the all with ice and snow.
When Earth looked like a that did not very near, with a night that was like a black among the stars, the of the ship diminished. Keller his of a ship-to-ground transmitter. He up, off his hands and beamed.
The little ship on. Its temperature constant. The air in it of green stuff. It was moist. It was warm. Keller a and a tiny, noise be heard. Dials pointed, precisely.
"We couldn't go on our true earlier," Burke told Sandy, "because we had to out the Van Allen of in around the world. Pretty stuff, that radiation! In theory, though, all we have to do now is onto our proper and those home. We ought to be in here. Do you want to call Washington?"
She stared.
"We need help to navigate—or astrogate," said Burke. "Call them, Sandy. I'll on the wire when a answers."
Sandy to the just connected. She to speak steadily, "Calling Earth! Calling Earth! The you just all those at is calling! Calling Earth!"
It monotonous, but a voice identification.
It was a conversation. The five in the small were on Earth they had the right of American citizens to go about their own unhindered. It that their private purposes ran to the of the public. Hence voices Sandy and that the ship return immediately. Sandy on higher authority and presently an official voice itself as so-and-so and that the ship and orders to return to Earth. Burke took the transmitter.
"My name's Burke," he said mildly. "If you can some of code, I'll tell you how to the plans, and I'll give you the you'll need to more ships like this. They can us out. I think they should. I that this is more than anything else you can think of at the moment."
Silence. Then more sternness. But the official voice said, "I'll a expert on this."
Burke the to Sandy.
"Take over. We've got to a so nobody who in can learn about official business. We may use a social security number for a key, or the name of your aunt's sweetheart, or something we know and Washington can out but that nobody else can. Hm. Your last year's car-license number might be a starter. They can seal up the records on that!"
Sandy took over the job. What was to Earth, of course, be up over an entire hemisphere. Somebody would pass on what they to, say, nations the United States would have it than ahead of it in space-travel equipment. Burke's of a and his entire with authority. They'd have had him come back, but this was second best, and they took it.
From Burke's it was the only thing to do. He had no official to weight to his that magnet-cores with would amount to space-drive units. If he returned, in the nature of there would be a long overcome theoreticians' convictions. But now he was forty-five thousand miles out from Earth.
He had to home on the from M-387, was at one full and had been doing so for forty-five minutes. And the small ship already had a of twenty miles second and was still going up. All the that men had made, plus the Russian manned-probe now, had as much for space travel as are for war.
Burke returned to the when Sandy left it to a pencil and paper.
"By the way," he said briskly. "We can keep on at one gravity. We've got radars. We got them from—" He named the supplier. "Now we want on how fast we can traveling we'll be going too fast to or that the may detect. Get that out for us, will you?"
He gave the to Sandy and returned to his of every item of in the ship. He one or two to be bettered. The small on in a matter-of-fact fashion. If it had been a bomb in the the in which it was built, there would have been very little in the of things. The perfectly for gravity. The six television screens, to be sure, pictured outside, but television screens often picture things. The wall-gardens looked green and flourishing. The were noiseless. There were no moving parts in the drive. The steady. There was no vibration.
Nobody in such an environment. Presently Pam the below. Holmes took his place in the control-chair, but no need to touch anything.
Some time later Sandy reported, "Joe, they say we must be lying, but if we can keep on accelerating, we'd not over four hundred miles a second. They say we can then end for end and to two hundred, and then once more and up to four again. But they that we ought to return to Earth."
"They don't mention at us, do they?" asked Burke. "I they wouldn't. Just say thanks and go on out a code."
Sandy set to work with pencil and paper. Federal would be moving, now, to all official records that were in any way with any of the five on the ship. The key to the would be in such records. It would be an of such as Burke's grandmother's name, Holmes' social-security number, the name of a Burke had on some years before, the exact amount of his federal taxes the previous year, the title of a book third from the end on the second of a in Keller's apartment, and such as most people can with a little effort, but which can only be out by people who know where to look. These people would keep else from looking in the same places. Such a would be to work with, but it would be unbreakable.
It took hours to it without the mention of a single word in the key. The ship four hundred miles a second, about, and to cut its speed again.
Pam spoke from an electric stove, "Dinner's ready! Come and it!"
They dined; Sandy weary, Burke and worried, Holmes and amiable, and Keller and in all that on, which was nothing.
They did not see the direct, television were to portholes. Earth had very small, and as it more nearly into a direct line the ship and the sun, night more of its until only a of at one edge. The to mutter. The on Earth who'd sent a message to M-387 were of their and set to work again to the West Virginia for with Burke's ship. Other to prepare to up the ship's from for two-way communication.
And on Earth an official out from high authority. It that a American ship was on the way to M-387 to the from space. It that long in were now in use, and that an of would be in months, they had not been for for another generation. An had it possible to the science of space travel by many decades, and a to all the as well as M-387 was already under construction. It was almost true that they were. The of Burke's ship had been to Washington from the plant, and an number of of the egg-shaped were ordered to be immediately, the of the drive was understood.
There was one minor hitch. A legal-minded official that Congressional had been for rocket-driven only, and the money not be used for other than rockets. An executive order settled the matter. Then to object to the of the drive. It well-established scientific beliefs. It not work.
It did, but there was opposition to the fact.
Publicly, of course, the of such an about-face by the national government was extreme. But newspapers new headlines. "U.S. SHIP SPEEDING TO QUERY ALIENS!" Lesser announced, "Critical Velocity Exceeded! Russian Probe Already Passed!" The last was not true. The Russian had started out ten days before. Burke hadn't overtaken it yet.
Broadcasters special bulletins, and two top to with scientists who'd had nothing to do with what Burke had managed to achieve.
In Europe, obviously, the political was stupendous. Russia was to that the ship had been from Russian plans, using Russian discoveries, which had been by agents. And the of the Russian were for not having, in fact, the plans and from the Americans. All other of what would to them if they didn't repair that omission. These so a dozen that they and told all they knew, the Russian for the time being.
Essentially, however, the of in America was as as the previous to no more about space. Burke, Holmes, Keller, Sandy and Pam national and eighteen hours after had failed to shoot them down. The only came from a who that other girls would not Sandy's and Pam's of and that a married woman should have gone along to them.
The in the ship, however, was that of to the point where were dull. The of the ship, being smaller, was by Sandy and Pam. They retired when the ship was twenty hours out from Earth. Each of them had prepared for away by in layers.
"Funny," said Pam, as they to turn in, "I it was going to be exciting. But it's just like a full day at the office."
"Which," said Sandy, "I'm used to."
"I do think you ought to have in when they designed the ship, Sandy. There's not one in it!"
In the upper Keller took his place in the control-chair and took a of duty. It of looking at the and to the which came from every two seconds, and the still which came every seventy-nine minutes. It wasn't exciting. There was nothing to be about. But somebody had to be on watch.
On the second day out, Washington was to use the new code. The West Virginia bowl was to again. Sandy took the that came in and it. From then on she at the and of and the and of others. Presently Pam her at the job. Pam to be Holmes was as much in the of anything from as was Burke.
The were almost for, and to for, about the ship plans. The United States had not yet a drive-shaft. Machinists to the cores, which would then have to be in the fashion the plans described. But it was an for the scientific minds to Burke's ship. No woman a without making some change. Very can another's without to it. There were six copies of the drive under at the same time, at the beginning. Four were by skeptics, who to the original plans with accuracy. They were sure they'd prove Burke wrong. Two were "improved" in the making. The four, when finished, beautifully. The two did not. But still there was of the of the drive. It to Newton's law that every action has a of equal moment and opposite sign—a law at least as as the law of the of energy. But that had been into the law of the of energy and matter, which now was gospel. Burke's the Newtonian law to be to read "every action of a has a of the same force, of the same moment," and so on. When the of one is into another force, the results can be interesting. In fact, one can have a space-drive. But there was to the idea. It was that Burke his views in a more way than by that they worked.
After a time, Burke gave up trying to things. And when one and then another drive worked, the ceased. But still had a that Burke was on them somehow.
Then for days nothing happened. One of the three men in the ship always in the control-chair where he check the ship's against the from the asteroid. He might have to it by the of a hair, or ship and put on more drive if the should in the spaceship's path. Every so many hours the ship had to be about so that of she decelerated, or of fresh speed. But that was all.
On the day there was the of a on the radar. On the seventh day an object which have been the second or third Russian at the very of the screens. In essence, however, the was pure tedium. Burke of making sure that his work was good, though he himself that nothing did to the monotony. Holmes that he was disappointed. He'd wanted to make the he'd in but a spaceship. But there was no fun in it. Keller alone absorbed. He prepared daily of instrument-readings to be sent to Earth. They would be of to science-minded people. They were not of to Sandy.
Even when she talked to Burke, it was necessarily impersonal. There be no which was not ostentatious. The two girls used the compartment, the three men the upper and larger one. For Sandy to talk privately with Burke, she'd have had to go to the small of the ship. Holmes and Pam the same situation. It was uncomfortable. So they a perfectly of talking of talk about. It did not Keller, who would a dozen in twenty-four hours, but Sandy to herself when she and Pam retired for what was a ship-night's rest.
When they past the of Mars, came out from Earth. The belts Mars. Elaborate came. The ship was by all around the world, direction-finding on its transmission. Croydon track. American up the ship's voice. South American and Hawaiian and Japanese and Siberian the ship's position every time a set of Earth from the ship. Of course, there were also the and the seventy-nine-minute-spaced from out from the sun.
Somebody got a idea and authority to try it. An for on Earth was with somebody on the ship. It was then a hundred thirty miles from Earth, and ninety-two more from the sun. Largely out of Sandy to answer questions. But at the speed of light it eleven minutes to her from Earth, and as long for her reply to be received. It did not make for liveliness, so she spoke for five minutes and stopped. She talked at about in space. Without it, she was for her in many the Sunday, and eight hundred ninety-two of marriage up in to her in of the United States government. Twelve were in Russian.
But nothing the spaceship. It was Burke's that they go directly through the along the plane of the ecliptic, and not nearer than ten thousand miles to any of or metal in out there. He was almost right. There was only one occasion when his came into doubt.
It was on the day out from Earth. Experimentally, the ship on momentum, using no drive. There was, then, no for and and in the ship was weightless. The power from the sun as had to one-ninth of that at the Earth's distance. But what was be stored, and was. Meanwhile the ship at very nearly four hundred miles second. Burke, Keller, and Holmes together over a self-contained which they be used as a space in and for periods. They wanted to the of using it with pressure and as conditions. Sandy sat at the transmitter, at which by now she loathed. Pam sat in the control-chair, the instruments.
There was a buzz. Burke his around to see the screen. A line of light appeared on it. It directly at the center of the screen, which meant that had been up was on a with the ship. Burke toward the control-chair to take over. But he'd the condition of no-gravity. He off in mid-air, wide of the chair.
He orders to Pam, who was least of to meet an of this sort. She panicked. She did nothing. Holmes took to himself to the by what hand-holds be had. The white line on the screen swiftly. It the center. It the center. Burke and Holmes froze.
There was a in a vision-screen. An image into view. It was a jagged, tortured, irregularly-shaped of or metal, in its by the speed at which it passed the television lens. It was a hundred yards in diameter. It have been from Earth. It might circle the sun in its for a hundred years and be again.
It away to nothing. It had missed by yards or fathoms, and Burke himself profusely. Holmes was white. Keller very took a breath, swallowed, and to his work on the diving-suit-qua-space-suit. Sandy hadn't noticed anything at all. But Pam into abrupt, tears, and Holmes her clumsily. She was that she'd done nothing to meet the which came while she was at the control-board, and which was the only they'd since the ship's from Earth.
After that, they put on the drive and used fuel. It was necessary to check their speed, anyhow. They were very near the of the they'd by for so long. The pointed to it had long since been to its possible volume, and still the were loud.
On the day after their take-off, they Asteroid M-387. They had two hundred seventy miles at an averaged-out speed of very close to three hundred miles second. Despite muting, the from the loud-speakers were noises.
"Try a call, Holmes," said Burke. "But they ought to know we're here."
He strange. He'd the ship to a stop about four or five miles from M-387. The was a of dark with white at one place and another. The ship to itself toward it. The of and metal had no particular shape. It was longer than it was wide, but its no description. A which had been from with its of might look like Schull's Object as it slowly against a of of stars.
There was no in the that came from the thing. It did rotate, but so slowly that one had to watch for long minutes to be sure of it. There was no of any to the ship's presence. Holmes took the microphone.
"Hello! Hello!" he said absurdly. "We have come from Earth to out what you want."
No answer. No in the calls. The with deliberation.
Sandy said suddenly, "Look there! A stick! No, it's a mast! See, where the of white is?"
Burke very, very closer to the thing which in space. It was true. There was a of some up out of white stone. The direction-indicators pointed to it. The stopped and a began. It was the Earth every seventy-nine minutes.
There was no reply to Holmes' call. There was no that the ship's had been noted. On Earth the of to M-387 had arrogance, indifference, a and for man and all his works; somehow, here the was different. This was a of something that once had been much greater. It to it oblivious. It blindly, by rote, like some set to in a way and unable to act in any other.
It did not alive. It had like a beacon. Now it like one. It was one.
"Look, around toward us," said Holmes very quietly. "There's something that looks like a tunnel. It's not a crevasse. It was cut."
Burke nodded.
"Yes," he said thoughtfully. "I think we'll it. But I don't we'll any life here. There's nothing to see but a single metal mast. We've got some lights on our hull. If we're careful—"
No one objected. The of the was disappointing. Its and its to their and their calls were than disappointing. There was nothing to be but a metal from which out to nowhere.
Burke the little ship to the tunnel-mouth. It was a hundred in diameter. He on the ship's lights. Gently, cautiously, he the very center of the very large bore.
It was perfectly straight. They in for what an distance. Presently the lights that the was smoothed. The smaller still. They on and on.
Suddenly Keller grunted. He pointed to one of the six television screens which out the length of the and the beyond.
Those were being out. Something moved slowly and across the they navigated. It closed the opening. Their was blocked. The ship was in, in the center of a of which in emptiness. Burke the ship's motion, their speed by the by the ship's lights.
Very, very slowly, appeared outside. In they see that the light came from long of light. The light changed. It stronger. It green and then and then very bright, indeed.
Then nothing more took place. Nothing whatever. The five the ship waited more than an hour for some other development, but nothing happened.
