The general grinned almost sheepishly, "Besides," he said, "it's more than possible that the right kind of publicity will make the United Congress feel quite generous…"
"Is it all right for me to approach some of the people I'd like to consider for the planning work, and maybe for the trip, before the thing is announced? Of course any such approach would be held confidential."
"I can't see where it would do any harm. You'll need a few men immediately, if we're to get on with this, anyway. And, of course, you'll discuss it only with thoroughly reliable people whom you can trust absolutely. It will be but a few weeks before the whole world will be standing on its head over the mere plans, anyway."
"I have a few people in mind already, General…"
"That would go to show that you'd decided to take the job before you even talked to me, wouldn't it?" laughed the General.
"General, I believe you know perfectly well that I couldn't have refused a job like this…"
"What's your wife got to say about it?"
"She's taking it beautifully. Half the time she's in tears, but the other half, she laughs over us men who can't stay quietly at home."
"You tell Catherine that my hat's off to her," answered the General as Holt opened the door to leave, "and one more thing. Of course you'll go back to active duty in the Space Forces. Colonel Maligny, our present Chief of Staff, will take care of that detail. Talk it over with him; he's had all the necessary instructions. Your preliminary post of duty will be Long Beach, so that you may collaborate as closely as possible with Spencer. But first, get away on your trip to Lunetta and have a good look at your new planet."
Chapter 2 — A Flight to Lunetta
The Lunetta Ferry Squadron's Base was near Kahului on the Island of Maui. To Gary and Catherine Holt it was almost a second home, for they had been based there for a long time during the past war, when he had been flight instructor of Captains of Space Ships during the days of the old Jupiter class vessels. So he naturally took Catherine along to the base. Of this she was very fond, not the least reason for this fondness being that they had honeymooned there. To this had been added the first few years of their married life, and she proposed to look up a lot of old friends. When Holt got back from Lunetta, there'd probably be time for them to spend a day or so at Waikiki Beach, and that was a pleasant prospect.
There was an excellent reason for the selection of Kahului as a base for the Lunetta Ferry Service. First of all, any such base must of necessity lie close to the sea, for all space ships were given their primary acceleration by enormous rocket booster stages. After exhausting their propellants, these booster stages fell back to Earth, and could land only upon water without suffering irremediable damage. Water also was essential for practical salvage operations. On Hawaii, climatic conditions were especially favorable. It was also essential that the base be located at a great distance from the West Coast of America. This need was due to the fact that the relative movement of Lunetta to the Earth was in the same direction as the latter's rotation, although at a marked angle to the plane of the Equator. This meant that the boosters might drop as much as 1,000 miles East of the launching site. Logistically, all sorts of necessary supplies and equipment, such as rocket ships, parts, and particularly propellants, could be transported from the West coast by sea at low cost and with ease.
Catherine and Gary Holt had seated themselves in the cafeteria of the Flight Control Building at Kahului where they awaited the departure announcement of the space vessel in which the latter was scheduled to go to Lunetta. The time of departure was 9:12 p.m.
Departures were calculated — somewhat in the manner of ocean liners with respect to tidal conditions — according to the seasonal date and the location of Lunetta in her orbit. Holt was back in uniform, having been recalled to active duty with the rank of Colonel. The wings of his collar bore shiny rocket insignia, the specialty mark of the Space Forces. His appearance was somewhat weary, for he had slept but little during the last few days. He had spent the daytime in the public libraries of Los Angeles, gathering books and pamphlets on the subject of Mars, and had sat up into the wee small hours reading them. Finally, he had prepared an enormous questionnaire for the astronomers in Lunetta, to insure that he would not miss asking them any question which seemed to him important and primary with respect to Mars.
He and his wife had little to say to one another. She could feel how his mind was churning around the many unknown factors in the new plan. She hated to see him disappear once more into the infinity that lay between the stars, whose dim light shone into her eyes through sleepless night after sleepless night. When he was away in Space she could never so much as gaze through a window after nightfall without feeling a sort of humble horror of those distant stars.
Gratingly, the public address system interrupted her thoughts: "Passengers for Lunetta ferry Sirius, all aboard, please!" Holt, with overcoat, brief case and kit bag, rose and she followed him. Together they walked down a long, subterranean passage, brightly lighted and paneled. It led to a heavy, blast-proof door beyond which lay the launching site. Here, centered in the gleaming rays of ten powerful searchlights, stood Sirius. Like a great black tower she loomed into the sky — a sky dark and lowering to Catherine, despite its serene stars. Of Sirius' 200 feet of height, the lower two thirds was cylindrical and 65 feet thick. The cylinder was necked down to about 30 feet at this point, somewhat above which stood the third stage. It oddly resembled a stubby artillery shell and was the heart of the vessel which alone would rise to escape the grasp of gravity. All the great mass of the lower part was made up of two booster stages, whose sole purpose was to bring the third stage to a speed from which its own much smaller thrust could whirl it into outer space and into Lunetta's satellitic orbit. From its sides protruded two arrow-head-shaped raking wing-stubs housing the retractable airfoils for use upon return to the atmosphere.
Near these stubs, a ring of portholes shore dimly. Sinus' vast bulk was supported vertically by four great stabilizing fins which provided flight stability on her passage up through the atmosphere. They rested upon a heavy iron annulus, itself standing upon four massive legs some distance above the ground. The raging torrent of fire which was to spout from the rocket nozzles would pass through the central aperture of this huge metal ring and would be equal in diameter to the full thickness of the ship.
Just below the center of the aperture was the jet deflector, whose conical point would divide the great stream of fire emerging from the rocket nozzles in a vertically downward direction, and would fan it out horizontally. This would be necessary to protect the concrete underpinnings from the mighty blast of the fiery jet streams during the few seconds before the ship lifted high enough to reduce the terrific heat. Beside the ship stood an enormous tower-like gantry mounted upon a heavy trailer with many wheels. A small open door in the third stage was accessible via this structure.
The tiny figure of a man could be seen standing in the open door. When Catherine and Gary reached the underground blast-proof door, a group of some fifteen men were crowded around a gateway leading to it. Among them were officers, soldiers and civilians, each with the necessary papers for passage to Lunetta. Holt joined them after a short and silent good-bye kiss. She saw him stride across the open space leading to the gantry, within which an elevator lifted him and his group of fellow passengers up towards the open door in the third stage. As he crossed the little walkway between the tower and the door, he waved to her, then he disappeared within.