C.C. said, "Yeah. You can't get to orbit?"
"I can barely get into an elliptical orbit with the low end eighty miles up. The atmosphere pulls it down fast. But another ship could rendezvous and boost it the rest of the way. That must be what you were planning with the Titan, wasn't it?"
"Yeah. What else do we need?"
"Quite a lot--"
"Will these help?" Bob Needleton held out a package wrapped in foil. "Cole said these are the ROMs."
Gary took the package. "That's a spare set, but yeah, after all these years it's worth doing a program comparison."
"And we brought you the fuel to make the fuel," Sherrine said. And--fans have been collecting things to go up with the Angels. Seeds, chemicals, supplies, all kinds of things--"
"All that stuff isn't coming up here!" Hudson exclaimed.
"No, no, it's going to a safe place in Los Angeles," Miller said. "We'll bring whatever's needed from there."
Hudson nodded.
"Can--may we see the ship?" Barbara Dinsby asked. She was holding tightly onto Gordon's hand.
Hudson sighed. "Yeah, sure." He led them into the hangar and turned on the lights.
"God, that's beautiful," Jenny said. "Beautiful. Starfire!"
Alex walked slowly over to the ship. He ran his hands along the sides, then stooped to look up into the engine chambers. When he stood again his face had changed.
"You can fly it, Alex?" Gordon asked.
"It doesn't need a pilot," Alex said. "It's up to Mr. Hudson, I think. But it's clear someone has been taking care of this ship. He looked up at the roof scaffolding. "Does that open?"
"Just once," Gary said.
"Once is all we need," Alex said. He looked straight at Hudson. "Commander Hopkins--our leader in the habitats--I'll start over. We thought it would be pointless to say anything to Lonny Hopkins about spaceships. Now… does he have a decision to make? Do I call him? I wouldn't want to unless this was all real."
"Let me think about it," Gary said.
"Don't think too long," C.C. Miller said.
Gary frowned at him.
"We heard from Ted Johnstone in Phoenix. He works for the Highway Department. The police are looking for milk trucks. They're being real quiet about it, but they're looking."
"Oh, shit," Fang said.
"The church," Harry said. "That's--"
"That's fine," Jenny said. "So first thing is we get the damn trucks under cover, right? Looks like there's room in here."
"Actually, there's a garage made for tanker trucks," Gary said. "I'll show you." He turned toward the door, then turned back. "Hell, I don't know why I'm stalling. I've been waiting for this all my life. Major MacLeod, you can tell your boss that with any luck we'll be launching you within a week."
Three fans had wheeled the scaffold up to the Phoenix. Hudson climbed up to the door, used a key, tried to open it.
By then Alex was up there with him, climbing barefooted, using his toes. He felt no gut-fear climbing this spiderweb of metal, but he didn't trust gravity. He set himself and pulled alongside Hudson, and the oval plug-shaped door swung back.
Three heads poked in: Gary, Alex, Gordon. And a fourth: Sherrine. Sherrine said, "Four."
There were four seats, two with control consoles, two without. There were tanks, and bracing struts, and oxygen lines. Hudson waved and pointed and lectured. "We were set for up to a month in orbit. A lot of this could come out, because we don't need that much oxygen. I could have got another couple of seats in. Of course I don't have the seats, but that's no sweat. Glue in an exercise mat and two, pillows for knees and head, that's all it would take. It's a matter of what cargo you're willing to give up."
"Four." Gordon scowled. "I should be reassured that it will not shrink by more yet."
Alex said, "After Chicago, after Titan, I wouldn't have believed this much. Gordon, by God, we can get home again!"
"Da."
The stilyagin's enthusiasm left something to be desired. No seat for Barbara? Others must stay, too… but Gordon wouldn't meet Alex's eyes.
They sat in the large workroom outside Hudson's office. In better times a dozen engineers would have sat at the desks and drafting tables there. C.C. Miller had his notebook and was ready to make a list. "All right. Dr. Hudson, what do we have to do now?"
"Details," Gary said. "First things first. We clean out the tanks. The hydrogen tank won't need a lot of work, but there's a fair amount of work to clean the oxygen tank. We'll need alcohol."
"Alcohol," Miller said. "What kind?"
"Anything would work, but since there will be people working in that tank, we'll want ethanol so we don't poison them."
C.C. wrote it down on his list.
"How much alcohol?" Harry asked.
"Gallons."
"Gallons." Harry shook his head. "All right. I'll see what I can do." He grinned. "Going to be the first time I ever convinced LASFS that they ought to buy me enough to drink. God knows I've tried."
"How many people do we need?" C.C. Miller asked. "To clean the tanks, other stuff?"
"Well, maybe ten," Gary said. "Moving scaffolds, just standing watch, that sort of thing. But they'd have to be reliable."
"They will be," Miller said. "I've got Lee Jacobs rounding up a crew. They'll come up in a van, as soon as some of the other stuff from the treasure hunt comes in. Gary. you may be a bit surprised by some of what they've rounded up."
Hudson said, "Can you keep most of the LASFS away? I'll look conspicuous enough without a horde of fans looking over our shoulders."
"What I can do, maybe, is make it official. Announce that anyone who comes brings groceries. I worried about that. What are a dozen of us going to eat? Nobody gets in without a bag of groceries per. Nobody will do that twice. Fans can't afford it."
Hudson nodded reluctantly.
"After we clean the tanks," Alex said. "What then?"
"We have to get hydrogen. That's not hard, the pipeline's already in place, we just tap it off the main pipeline into Mojave. We'll have to go turn it on, but the valve's not guarded."
"Won't anyone notice?" Sherrine asked.
"Not for a couple of weeks," Gary said. "And by then with any luck--"
"Right," Miller said. "What happens after the hydrogen's flowing?"
"Compression," Hudson said. "We run the turbo compressor and liquify the hydrogen. Takes about three days. Make it four to be sure."
"What about the LOX?" Harry asked.
"That takes about three days, too, but it's quieter," Hudson said. "That takes a diesel engine. The hydrogen compressor is run by a jet engine."
"Jet engine," Sherrine said. "Aren't they noisy?"
"A little," Hudson said. "Hell, a lot."
"So we have to run a jet engine for three days," Miller said. "Don't you think someone will notice?"
"I've thought about that for ten years," Hudson said. "I've got a cover story. This is a research facility as well as a museum. We'll say we're doing hydrogen energy research. I can double-talk it. I've even got a grant request to show around. It should work--"
"And if it doesn't work, we're all dead," Alex said.
"Would it help if we had a high ranking Green space cadet up here?" Miller asked.
"Green space cadet? Contradiction in terms," Hudson said.
C.C. Miller grinned. "That's what you think. OK, what comes after you make the fuel?"
"We need the IMU," Hudson said. "I know where it is."
"You're sure?"
"Yeah, I actually get along pretty good with some of the Air Force johnnies over at Dryden. They keep hoping we'll be able to take Phoenix up again. But, you know, I'm not exactly a professional thief," Hudson said. "Somebody's got to break in and steal the IMU. I think we do that last thing. I can double-talk the compressor if we get unwanted company, but there's only one thing we could be doing with the IMU."