«But this was a volunteer deal. What if I’d turned it down?»
«The cybernetics machine predicted that you wouldn’t.»
Carmody swore at Junior.
Granham said, «Besides, we could have had a hundred volunteers. Rocket cadets who’ve got everything you have except one round trip to the Moon already under their belts. We could have shown a picture of Anna around and had them fighting for the chance. That gal is Moon bait.»
«Careful,» Carmody said, «you are speaking of my wife.» He was kidding, of course, but it was funny—he really hadn’t liked Granham’s wisecrack.
Zero hour was ten p.m., and at zero minus fifteen minutes he was already strapped into the webbing, waiting. There wasn’t anything for him to do except stay alive. The rockets would be fired by a chronometer set for the exact fraction of a second.
Despite its small payload, the rocket was a little roomier inside than the first one he’d gone to the Moon in, the R-24. The R-24 had been as roomy as a tight coffin. This one, the R-46, was four feet in diameter inside. He’d be able to get at least a bit of arm and leg exercise on the way and not—as the first time—arrived so cramped that it had taken him over an hour to be able to move freely.
And this time he wouldn’t have the horrible discomfort of having to wear his spacesuit, except for the helmet, en route. There’s room in a four-foot cylinder to put a spacesuit on, and his was in a compartment—along with the food, water and oxygen—at the front (or top) of the rocket. It would be an hour’s work to struggle into it, but he wouldn’t have to do it until he was several hours away from the Moon.
Yes, this was going to be a breeze compared to the last trip. Comparative freedom of movement, forty-four hours as against ninety, only three gravities as against four and a half.
Then sound that was beyond sound struck him, sound so loud that he heard it with all of his body rather than only with his carefully plugged ears. It built up, seeming to get louder every second, and his weight built up too. He weighed twice his normal weight, then more. He felt the sickening curve as the automatic tilting mechanism turned the rocket, which had at first gone straight up, forty-five degrees. He weighed four hundred and eighty pounds and the soft webbing seemed to be hard as steel and to cut into him. Padding was compressed till it felt like stone. Sound and pressure went on and on interminably. Surely it had been hours instead of minutes.
Then, at the moment of Brennschluss, free of the pull of Earth—sudden silence, complete weightlessness. He blacked out.
But only minutes had gone by when he returned to consciousness. For a while he fought nausea and only when he was sure he had succeeded did he unbuckle himself from the webbing that had held him through the period of acceleration. Now he was coasting, weightless, at a speed that would carry him safely toward the gravitational pull of the Moon. No further firing of fuel would be necessary until he used his jets to brake his landing.
All he had to do now was hang on, to keep from going crazy from claustrophobia during the forty hours before he’d have to start getting ready for the landing.
It was a dull time, but it passed.
Into spacesuit, back into the webbing, but this time with his hands free so he could manipulate the handles that controlled the braking jets.
He made a good landing; it didn’t even knock him unconscious. After only a few minutes he was able to unbuckle himself from the webbing. He sealed his spacesuit and started the oxygen, then let himself out of the rocket. It had fallen over on its side after the landing, of course; they always do. But he had the equipment and knew the technique for getting it upright again, and there wasn’t any hurry about doing it.
The supply rockets had been shot accurately, all right. Six of them, four American type and two Russian, lay within a radius of a hundred yards of his own rocket. He could see others farther away, but didn’t waste time counting them. He looked for one that would be larger than the rest—the manned (or womaned) rocket from Russia. He located it finally, almost a mile away. He saw no spacesuited figure near it.
He started toward it, running with the gliding motion, almost like skating, that had been found to be easier than walking in the light gravitational pull of the Moon. Spacesuit, oxygen tank and all, his total weight was about forty-five pounds. Running a mile was less exertion than a 100-yard dash on Earth.
He was more than glad to see the door of the Russian rocket open when he was about three-quarters of the way to it. He’d have had a tough decision to make if it had still been closed when he got there. Not knowing whether Anna was sealed in her spacesuit or not inside the rocket, he wouldn’t have dared open the door himself. And, in case she was seriously injured, he wouldn’t have dared not to.
She was out of the rocket, though, by the time he reached her. Her face, through the transpariplast helmet, looked pale, but she managed to smile at him.
He turned on the short-range radio of his set and asked, «Are you all right?»
«A bit weak. The landing knocked me out, but I guess there are no bones broken. Where shall we—set up housekeeping?»
«Near my rocket, I think. It’s closer to the middle of where the supply rockets landed, so we won’t have to move things so far. I’ll get started right away. You stay here and rest until you’re feeling better. Know how to navigate in this gravity?»
«I was told how. I haven’t had a chance to try yet. I’ll probably fall flat on my face a few times.»
«It won’t hurt you. When you start, take your time till you get the knack of it. I’ll begin with this nearest supply rocket; you can watch how I navigate.»
It was about a hundred yards back the way he’d come.
The supply rockets were at least a yard in outside diameter, and were so constructed that the nose and the tail, which contained the rocket mechanism, were easily detachable, leaving the middle section containing the payload, about the size of an oil drum and easily rolled. Each weighed fifty pounds, Moon weight.
He saw Anna starting to work by the time he was dismantling the second supply rocket. She was awkward at first, and did lose her balance several times, but mastered the knack quickly. Once she had it, she moved more gracefully and easily than Carmody. Within an hour they had payload sections of a dozen rockets lined up near Carmody’s rocket.
Eight of them were American rockets and from the numbers on them, Carmody knew he had all sections needed to assemble the shelter.
«We’d better set it up,» he told her. «After that’s done, we can take things easier. We can rest before we gather in the other loot. Even have a drink to celebrate.»
The Sun was well up over the ringwall of Hell Crater by then and it was getting hot enough to be uncomfortable, even in an insulated spacesuit. Within hours, Carmody knew, it would be so hot that neither of them would be able to stay out of the shelter for much longer than one-hour intervals, but that would be time enough for them to gather in the still uncollected supply rockets.
Back in the supply depot on Earth, Carmody had assembled a duplicate of the prefab shelter in not much more than an hour. It was tougher going here, because of the awkwardness of working in the thickly insulated gloves that were part of the spacesuits. With Anna helping, it took almost two hours.
He gave her the sealing preparation and a special tool for applying it. While she calked the seams to make the shelter airtight, he began to carry supplies, including oxygen tanks, into the shelter. A little of everything; there was no point in crowding themselves by taking inside more of anything than they’d need for a day or so at a time.