"All right."
"The first time seems odd, I know."
"But it's not the first time," Traub answered. "I checked these walkie-talkies in the chamber at the job."
"If yOu gentlemen are through chatting," Bowles cut in, "you'll note that the tell-tale reads 'vacuum."
"Eh?" Corley turned and undogged the outer door.
He stood in the door, gazing north. The aching, sun-drenched plain stretched to a black horizon. On his right, knife sharp in the airless moonscape, was the wall of mountains they had grounded to avoid. He lifted his eyes and made out the Big Dipper, midnight clear above a dazzling, noonday desert. --
Bowles touched his arm. "One side, Doc. I'll rig the ladder."
"Sorry."
Bowles linked the ends of a rope ladder to hooks outside the door. Finished, he kicked the ladder out. "Go ahead, Doe."
"Uh, thanks." Corley felt for the first rung. It was a clumsy business in the pressure suit. Finally he knelt, grasped the threshold, got a toe in and started down.
It was awkward, rather than hard work. Suit and all, he weighed less than forty pounds. He found it easier to lower himself by his hands alone. He could not see below his chin, but the shape of the ship let him know his progress. Finally he was even with the jets. He lowered himself a bit more, felt for the ground-and kicked his toe into the lunar soil.
Then he was standing on it.
He stood there a moment, his heart pounding. He was trying to realize it, take it in, and found himself unable to
do so. He had lived the moment too many thousands of -- times in too many years of dreams. It was still a dream. A foot brushed his shoulder; he stepped back to avoid being stepped on by Traub. Soon Bowles joined them. "So this is it," the Admiral said inanely and turned slowly around. "Look, -- Mannie! Hills! Not far away."
Corley saw that Bowles was looking under the jets to the south. The plain was broken there with a sharp eruption of rock. Corley touched Bowles' arm. "Let's get away from the ship. Here where the jets splashed is probably a bit radioactive."
"Okay." Bowles followed him; Traub brought up the
rear. --
Ix Columbus had one motive; Queen Isabella had another -- Farquharson, Ibid., III: 421
On climbing back into the control room Barnes did not immediately get to work. Instead he sat down and thought. For the last-two days, was it? three days? four days, really-he had had no chance to collect his thoughts, drop his public mask and invite his soul.
He felt unutterably weary. He lifted his eyes to the mountains. There they stood,
tall and forbidding, witnesses that he had accomplished his driving purpose. --
To what end? To let Corley explore the dark outer reaches of science? To help Bowles insure the safety of western civilization-or perhaps hasten a new crisis?
Or to make orphans of four kids whose old man was "a very domestic type guy" but could be shamed Into coming along?
No, he knew it had been because Jimmy Barnes had been small for his age, clumsy with his fists, no decent
-- clothes-so he had to make more money, boss more men, build faster planes than anyone else. He, James A. Barnes, had reached the Moon because he had never been sure of himself, --
He wondered about Mannie's kids and his stomach was a rock inside him. -- --
He threw off the mood and went to the radio controls, keyed the walkie-talkie circuit and called out, "This is Jim Barnes, kiddies, coming to you by courtesy of 'SLUMP,' the Super soap. Come in, come in, wherever you are!"
"Jim!" Bowles' voice came back. "Come on out."
"Later," Barnes answered. "Where's Doe?"
"Right here," Corley answered. "I was just coming back."
"Good," said Barnes. "Red, I'll leave this switched on. Sing out now and then."
"Sure thing," Bowles agreed.
Barnes went to the desk and -- began toting up mass reserves. An orbit computation is complicated; calculating what it takes to pull free of a planet is simple; he had a rough answer in a few minutes. --
• He ran his hand through his hair. He still needed that haircut-and no barbers on this block. He wondered if it were true that a man's hair continued to grow after his death...
The hatch creaked and Corley climbed into the room. "Whew!" be said. "It's good to get out of that suit. That sun is really hot."
"Wasn't the gas expansion enough to keep you cool?"
"Not cool enough. Those suits are hard to get around
-- in, too, Jim-they need a lot of engineering."
"They'll get it," Barnes answered absently, "but reengineering this ship is more urgent. Not the Corley engine, Doe; the controls. They aren't delicate enough;"
"I know," Corley admitted. "That poor cutoff-we'll have to design a prediction for it into the autopilot, and use a feedback loop."
Barnes nodded. "Yes, sure, after we get -- back-and if we get back." He tossed his fingers at the scientist. "Hum that through."
Corley glanced at it. "I know."
"Red won't find a spot in line-of-sight with home; those mountains are infernally high. But I wanted him out of the way-and Mannie. No use talking to Red, he's going to get a posthumous Congressional Medal if it kills him-and us too."
Corley nodded. "But I'm with him On trying to contact Earth; I need it worse than he does."
"Hastings?"
"Yes. Jim, if we had enough margin, we could blast off and correct after radio contact. We haven't; if we get off at all it will be close."
"I know. I spent our ticket home, when I made that extra blast."
"What good would it have done to have crashed? Forget it; I need Hastings. We need the best orbit possible."
"Fat chance!"
"Maybe not. There's libration, you know."
Barnes looked startled. "Man, am I stupid!" He went on eagerly, "What's the situation now? Is Earth swinging up, or down?"
The Moon's spin is steady, but its orbit speed is not; it moves, fastest when it is closest to Earth. The amount is slight, but it causes the Moon to appear to wobble each • month as if the Man-in-the-Moon were shaking his head. This moves the Earth to-and-fro in the lunar sky some seven degrees.
Corley answered, "It's rising-I think. As to whether it will rise enough-well, I'll have to compute -- Earth's position and then take some star sights."
"Let's get at it. Can I help?"
Before Corley could reply Bowles' voice came over the speaker: "Hey! Jim!"
Barnes keyed the wallcie-talkies. "Yes, Red?"
"We're at the hills south of the ship. They might be high enough. I want to go behind them; there may be an easier place to climb."
On the airless Moon, all radiorequires line-of-sight -- yet Barnes hated to refuse a reasonable request. "Okay -- but don't take any chances."
"Aye aye, Skipper." ' Barnes turned to Corley. "We need the time anyhow." "Yes," Corley agreed. "You know, Jim, this isn't the way I imagined it. I don't mean the Moon itself-just wait until we get some pressurized buildings here and some decent pressure suits. But what I mean is what we find ourselves doing. I expected to cram. every minute with exploring and collecting specimens and gathering new data. Instead I'll beat my brains out simply trying to get us back."
"Well, maybe you'll have time later-too much time."
Corley grudged a smile. "Could be -- "
He sketched out the relative positions of Earth and Moon, consulted tables. Presently he -- looked up. "We're in luck. Earth will rise -- nearly two and a half degrees before she swings back."