area, the area of turnabout. We propose to use the last blink test vehicle—» «No,» Seagle said. «—to run a series of tests in the turnabout zone, far enough from the moon so that any accident would have no effect on—» «If Congress thought I was wasting money on the blink drive they'd cut me to the bone,» interrupted Seagle. «Sir, do they have to know? The ship is built. It couldn't cost much to make it operational.» «A dollar would be too much. No. I must say no. And you can tell Commander Heath that this latest gambit of his was ill advised. As for you, my dear, I advise you to choose your companions more carefully if you are looking forward to a future in the service.» «Sir,» Hara said, taking a deep breath. «I must tell you that if something is not done with existing equipment to try to solve the disappearances, I will be forced to go to the press.» Seagle's face hardened. «Do I understand what you're saying?» «I'm afraid you do, Sir,» Hara said. «To put it plainly, I'm going to blow the whistle. I'll tell the press that 30-plus ships have disappeared.» «Do you realize what you're doing?» Seagle asked. «I've looked at your record. It's a very good one. It's a shame that you've just tossed away 25 years of work.» «And it's a shame that Congress will know, within a few days, that the service has been concealing most important information.» Seagle opened his mouth. She could see that he was making a effort to control himself. Calmed, he said, «You're quite serious, aren't you?» She nodded. «You're blackmailing me.» «Yes.» «Let me get this straight. Heath wants to take out the last blink ship, jump it out in open space. Observing from a nearby ship?» «Yes, Sir. Short jumps. You see, we don't know what happens when a blink ship comes back. We think that there may be some relation between the blink end and the buildup of power after a ship does the turn and starts deceleration. More than 40 ships have disappeared, Sir, when you count the blink test vehicles. We could gain valuable information through these tests. And, I assure you, they can be done in secrecy. We've hidden some facts from the public, why not hide one more test?» «And you're absolutely sure you want to pursue this course of threat and coercion?» «Yes, Sir.» «I could have you busted, thrown out of the service.» «I've thought about that, sir. That wouldn't stop me from releasing the facts.» «I will not authorize use of the blink test ship,» Seagle said. «On the other hand, I am not going to do anything to stop its use. You may tell Heath that this is his last caper as a member of the service. You may tell him that he can obtain, through channels, permission to run ground tests on the blink ship. Ground tests. You and Heath seem intent on ruining yourselves, so I will allow you to do so. I will not stop you. Do you understand?» «I understand,» Hara said. «Thank you. Sir.» «I don't think you'll thank me when you are court-martialed,» Seagle
said. «And I foresee only one possibility of your avoiding it. That is, if you come up with some concrete results from the tests you're going to run when you take the blink ship into space without official authorization.» He stood. «If word leaks out, my official position is that the service knew nothing of Heath's plans to take out the ship.» Standing in a viewport, Hara watched the ferry lift off. She mused as the drive stirred moon dust and the ship dwindled as it shot upward. She felt an almost overwhelming sadness. She was due for promotion. Her life had been built around the service, and now she could measure her service
life in very small amounts of time. At best she could look forward to a long career as a first officer pushing papers on the moon Base or down below on Earth. She stood, watching the dust settle on the now empty pad. Then she lifted her eyes to the stars, to the great emptiness. Plank was out there somewhere, dead perhaps, but there. «Plank,» she said, her lips moving but the words forming inaudibly. «You're not worth it, you know.» But she knew, even as she said it, that if she were out there and Plank were down here on the moon, he'd be doing exactly what she was doing. Plank was that way. He'd risk everything for her and she, knowing that, could do no less. CHAPTER SIX Earth is never visible from the dark side of the moon. Space is more impressive from the dark side, made to seem larger, more empty by the absence of any near neighbor. The main bulk of moon installations were built in areas situated so that Earthrise and Earthset added dimension. The friendly, glowing ball of home was behind one's shoulder, comforting, endlessly beautiful. On the dark side one looked into infinity and felt the distances. The psychological reassurance of being able to look up and see the home planet was in evidence on the charts. More spare-time explorations had taken place on the Earth side than on the dark side. The working
facilities were on Earth side. On the other side were the experimental labs, the abandoned projects, the scrap heaps, the unexplored areas. Storage is relatively simple on the moon. The vacuum of space allows no oxidation. To protect electronic and mechanical gadgets from the extremes of temperature—a simple process when the energy of the raw sun is used to store energy to provide cooling and heating—a ship can be mothballed for decades without being encased in goos and greases. The last of the blink test vehicles sat behind an unlocked door in a round tank, which resembled an antique oil-storage tank from the planet's history. The moon's population was an elite bunch, against which locked doors were unnecessary. The ship gleamed with newness, just as it had gleamed on the day, years ago, when it was assembled from components flown from Earth. The simple storage cells in the bay along one side of the tank functioned perfectly. There were no moving parts, nothing to go wrong. Relays and thermostats, which had never known the tarnish of oxidation, clicked softly, heating elements glowed during dark periods, cooling air moved during the periods of sunlight. It was necessary to work in LSG. To fill the tank with atmosphere would have required going to Moon Control and would have put an entry into the record, a record that was scrutinized from time to time by anti-space legislators down home. Air was the one thing the moon needed to have to
support life inside the installations, and the expense of that air was not an inconsiderable item in the moon's budget. More than once, air consumption on the moon had been the subject of congressional debate. So, rather than risk having a new drain of air entered into the record, Walker Heath's team went out in LSG and worked in LSG, pumping air