Space Platform by Murray Leinster (miss read books .txt) š
- Author: Murray Leinster
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Mathematically, a rocket ship that could leave the Platform with full fuel tanks should have fuel to reach the moon and land on it, and take off again and return to the Platform. The mathematical fact had a peculiar nagging flavor. When a dream is subjected to statistical analysis and the report is in its favor, a dreamerās satisfaction is always diluted by a subconscious feeling that the report is only part of the dream. Everybody worries a little when a cherished dream shows a likelihood of coming true. Some people take firm steps to stop things right there, so a romantic daydream wonāt be spoiled by transmutation into prosaic fact. But Joe said doggedly: āTwenty ferry trips to pile up fuel, and the twenty-first [Pg 134]ship should be able to refuel and go on out. And then somebody will step out on the moon!ā
He was disappointed now. He wouldnāt be the one to do it. But somebody would.
āYou might try for the ferry service,ā said Sally uneasily.
āI will,ā said Joe grimly, ābut I wonāt be hoping too much. After all, there are astronomers and physics sharks and such things, whoāll be glad to learn to run rockets in order to practice their specialties out of atmosphere.ā
Sally said mournfully: āI canāt seem to say anything to make you feel better!ā
āBut you do,ā said Joe. He added grandiloquently, āBut for your unflagging faith in me, I would not have the courage to bear the burdens of everyday life.ā
She stamped her foot.
āStop it!ā
āAll right.ā But he said quietly, āYou are a good kid, Sally. You know, itās not too bright of me to mourn.ā
She drew a deep breath.
āThatās better! Now, I wantāāā
There was a gangling figure walking down the concrete path between the trim, monotonous cottages that were officersā quarters at the Shed.
Joe said sharply: āThatās Haney! Whatās he doing here?ā He called, āHaney!ā
Haneyās manner took on purpose. He came across the grassāthe lawns around the officersā quarters contained the only grass in twenty miles.
āHiya,ā said Haney uncomfortably. He spoke politely to Sally. āHiya. Uhāyou want to get in on the party, Joe?ā
āWhat kind?ā
āThe party Mike was talkinā about,ā said Haney. āHeās set it up. He wants me to get you and a kindaāuhāundercover tip-off to Major Holt.ā
Joe stirred. Sally said hospitably: āSit down. Youāve noticed that my father gave you full security clearance, so you can go anywhere?ā
Haney perched awkwardly on the edge of the porch.
[Pg 135]
āYeah. Thatās helped with the party. Itās how I got here, as far as that goes. Mikeās on top of the world.ā
āShoot it,ā said Joe.
āYāknow heās been pretty bitter about things,ā said Haney carefully. āHeās been sayinā that little guys like him ought to be the spacemen. Thereās half a dozen other little guys been working on the Platform too. They can get in cracks anā buck rivets anā so on. Useful. Heās had āem all hopped up on the fact that the Platform coulda been finished months ago if itād been built for them, anā they could get to the moon anā back while full-sized guys couldnāt anā so on. Remember?ā
āI remember,ā said Sally.
āTheyāve all been beefinā about it,ā explained Haney. āPeople know how they feel. So today Mike went and talked to one or two of āem. Anā they started actinā mysterious, passinā messages back anā forth anā so on. Little guys, actinā important. Security guys wouldnāt notice āem much. Yādonāt take a guy Mikeās size serious, unless you know him. Then heās the same as anybody else. So the security guys didnāt pay any attention to him. But some other guys did. Some special other guys. They saw those little fellas actinā like they were cookinā up somethinā fancy. Anā they bit.ā
āBit?ā asked Sally.
āThey got curious. So Mike anā his gang got confidential. Anā theyāre going to have help sabotaginā the Platform when the next shift changes. The midgets gettinā even for beinā laughed at, see? Theyāre pretending their plan is that when the Platformās sabotagedānot smashed, but just messed up so it canāt take offāthe big brass will let āem take a ferry rocket up in a hurry, anā get it in orbit, anā use it for a Platform until the big Platform can be mended anā sent up. Once theyāre up there, thereās no use tryinā to stop the big Platform. So it can go ahead.ā
Joe said dubiously: āI think I see....ā
āMike and his gang of little guys are beinā sapsāon purpose. If anybodyās goinā to pull some fast stuff, next shift changeāthatās the time everybodyās got to! Last chance! Mike and his gang donāt know whatās gonna happen, but [Pg 136]they sure know when! Theyāre invitinā the real saboteurs to make fools of āem. And whatāll happen?ā
Joe said drily: āThe logical thing would be to feel sorry for the big guys who think theyāre smarter than Mike.ā
āUh-huh,ā said Haney, deadly serious. āMikeās story is thereās half a dozen rocket tubes already loaded. Theyāre goinā to fire those rockets between shifts. The Platform gets shoved off its base anā maybe dented, and so on. Mikeās gang say they got the figures to prove they can go up in a ferry rocket anā be a Platform, and the big brass wonāt have any choice but to let āem.ā
Sally said: āI donāt think they know how the big brass thinks.ā
Haney and Joe said together, āNo!ā and Joe added: āMikeās not crazy! He knows better! But itās a good story for somebody who doesnāt know Mike.ā
Haney said in indignation: āI came out here to ask the Major to help us. The Chiefās gettinā a gang together, too. Thereās some Indians of his tribe that work here. We can count on them for plenty of rough stuff. And thereās Joe and me. The point is that Mikeās stunt makes it certain that everything busts loose at a time we can know in advance. If the Major gives us a free hand, and then in the last five minutes takes his own measuresāso they canāt leak out ahead of time and tip off the gangs we want to getāwe oughta knock off all the expert saboteurs who know the weak spots in the Platform. For instance those who know that thermite in the gyros would mess everything up all over again.ā
Joe said quietly: āBut Major Holt has to be told well in advance about all this! Thatās absolute!ā
āYeah,ā agreed Haney. āBut also he has got to keep quietānot tell anybody else! Thereāve been too many leaks already about too many things. You know that!ā
Joe said: āSally, see if you can get your father to come here and talk. Haneyās right. Not in his office. Right here.ā
Sally got up and went inside the house. She came back with an uneasy expression on her face.
āHeās coming. But I couldnāt very well tell him what was [Pg 137]wanted, andāIām not sure heās going to be in a mood to listen.ā
When the Major arrived he was definitely not in a mood to listen. He was a harried man, and he was keyed up to the limit by the multiplied strain due to the imminence of the Platformās take-off. He came back to his house from a grim conference on exactly the subject of how to make preparations against any possible sabotage incidentsāand ran into a proposal to stimulate them! He practically exploded. Even if provocation should be given to saboteurs to lure them into showing their hands, this was no time for it! And if it were, it would be security business. It should not be meddled in by amateurs!
Joe said grimly: āI donāt mean to be disrespectful, sir, but thereās a point youāve missed. It isnāt thinkable that youāll be able to prevent something from being tried at a time the saboteurs pick. Theyāve got just so much time left, and theyāll use it! But Mikeās plan would offer them a diversion under cover of which they could pull their own stuff! And besides that, you know your office leaks! You couldnāt set up a trick like this through security methods. And for a third fact, this is the one sort of thing no saboteur would expect from your security organization! We caught the saboteurs at the pushpot field by guessing at a new sort of thinking for sabotage. Hereās a chance to catch the saboteurs whoāll work their heads off in the next twenty-four hours or so, by using a new sort of thinking for security!ā
Major Holt was not an easy man to get along with at any time, and this was the worst of all times to differ with him. But he did think straight. He stared furiously at Joe, growing crimson with anger at being argued with. But after he had stared a full minute, the angry flush went slowly away. Then he nodded abruptly.
āThere you have a point,ā he said curtly. āI donāt like it. But it is a point. It would be completely the reverse of anything my antagonists could possibly expect. So I accept the suggestion. Nowālet us make the arrangements.ā
He settled down for a quick, comprehensive, detailed plan. [Pg 138]In careful consultation with Haney, Joe worked it out. The all-important point was that the Majorās part was to be done in completely unorthodox fashion. He would take measures to mesh his actions with those of Mike, the Chief, Haney, and Joe. Each action the Major took and each order he gave he would attend to personally. His actions would be restricted to the last five minutes or less before shift-change time. His orders would be given individually to individuals, and under no circumstances would he transmit any order through anybody else. In every instance, his order would be devised to mean nothing intelligible to its recipient until the time came for obedience.
It was not an easy scheme for the Major to bind himself to. It ran counter to every principle of military thinking save one, which was that it was a good idea to outguess the enemy. At the end he said detachedly: āThis is distinctly irregular. It is as irregular as anything could possibly be! But that is why I have agreed to it. It will be at leastāunexpectedācoming from me!ā
Then he smiled without mirth and nodded to Joe and to Haney, and went striding away down the concrete walk to where his car waited.
Haney left a moment later to carry the list of arrangements to the Chief and to Mike. And Joe went into the Shed to do his part.
There was little difference in the appearance of the Shed by night. In the daytime there were long rows of windows in the roof, which let in a vague, dusky, inadequate twilight. At night those windows were shuttered. This meant that the shadows were a little sharper and the contrasts of light and shade a trifle more abrupt. All other changes that Joe could see were the normal ones due to the taking down of scaffolding and the fastening up of rocket tubes. It was clear that the shape of the Platform proper would be obscure when all its rocket tubes were fast in place.
Joe went to look at the last pushpots, and they were ready to be taken over to their own field for their flight test before use. There were extras, anyhow, beyond the number needed [Pg 139]to lift the Platform. He found himself considering the obvious fact that after the Platform was aloft, they would be used to launch the ferry rockets, too.
Then he moved toward the center of the Shed. A whole level of scaffolding came apart and its separate elements were bundled together as he watched. Slings lowered the bundles down to waiting trucks which would carry them elsewhere. There were mixing trucks still pouring out their white paste for the lining of the rocket tubes, and their product went up and vanished into the gaping mouths of the giant wire-wound pipes.
Presently Joe went into the maze of piers under the Space Platform itself. He came to the temporary stairs he had reason to remember. He nodded to the two guards there.
āI want to take another look at that gadget we installed,ā he said.
One of the guards said good-naturedly: āMajor Holt said to pass you any time.ā
He ascended and went along the curious corridorāit had handgrips on the walls so a man could pull himself along it when there was no weightāand went to the engine room. He heard voices. They were speaking a completely unintelligible language. He tensed.
Then the Chief grinned at him amiably. He was in the engine room and with him were no fewer than eight men of his own coppery complexion.
āHereās some friends of mine,ā he explained, and Joe
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