Space Tug

found himself rather absurdly thinking that Sanford was not actually insane, except as any man may be who believes only in his own cleverness. Sooner or later it is boun

s emotional collapse, he could have accepted it grandly, and in so doing have made it his own. But it was too late for that now. He'd given up and worked up a frantic scorn for the universe he could not cope with. For Joe's tr

er: "Quiet! This crazy fool's tried to commit suicide for all

ranged for the greatest possible safety under normal conditions. In every airlock it had naturally been arranged so that the door to space and the door to the interior could

ody watch Sanford! All we've got to do is find which lock he came out of. H

. He sounded like someone in

er door was open, I opened the stopcock and shut the door. The air bottle filled the lo

muttering, "Ye

might amuse him to watch us die while he knew w

ement, but not breaking the links which bound them to each other. Joe saw Haney go grimly back to the task of throwi

mused. "By all means! Don't throw

er voices, with increasing desperation, verified that every airlock was im

rced it through a hygroscopic filter which at once extracted excess moisture and removed carbon dioxide. The same pump carefully measured a volume of oxygen equal to

minutes. Despite the insulation inside, that was too long. He turned quickly to expose another part of himself to the sunlight. He knew abstractedly that the metal underfoot would sear

rowing them away. He was a singular small figure, standing on shining stee

metal of the satellite's hull. A moment later he was ripping it apart. The solder had softened. He unrolled

inable temperature is possible with a large enough mirror. Mike didn't have a concave mirror. He had only a cylindrical one. He couldn't reflect light to a

esticulated to Haney, trying to convey his meaning by

ief! You watch Sanford. The rest of you try to flatten

ver the plating. His hand moved to ca

s," Mike said brusquel

e, hurried clankings. Space-

ark it was blackness. Off in emptiness the many-colored mass of Earth shone hugely, rolling past. Innu

ified sunlight to the edge of the airlock seal. Haney ripped fiercely at other tin cans. Joe held another strip of polished metal. It focused crudely-very

hine down to a single blindingly-bright spot on an airlock door. They seemed breathlessly tense. They ignored the glorie

r the space of an inch. It would not melt, of course. It could not. And they had

p it

permit him to use it. It was bulkier on him than the suits of the others. He shifte

ce, scintillating, streaking sparks leaped up from the spot where the metal glowed brightly.

ly fine steel wool will make an excellent blaze if a match is touched to it. White-hot iron, with a jet of oxygen played upon it, explodes to steaming sparks. Technica

the door open, and Haney climbed into it, practically carrying Mike by the scruff of the neck.

me in the ear-phones. It was hi

s! It's stupid to do useless things

anford were struggling. Sanford flailed his arms about, trying to break

ted Sanford from the metal deck. He could have t

an-height above the Platform's surface. The Chief drew back and left him there, Sanford co

wrathfully. "How's Han

y airlock door thrust out from the surface of g

e's headphones. "It's all okay. Mike's pumping out t

airlocks in various parts of the hull, besides the great door to admit supply ships. The

e'd fight again. Go inside

oe went to the nearest airlock

away. He did not fall toward it. There was nobody to listen to him. He cried out in blood-curdling fury because other men we

e, by the monster gyros which in turn were controlled by the pilot gyros Jo

in it. The door of the supply ship lock moved until

supply ship. It reached out and touched Sanford's helmet. It w

great lock. The outer doors closed. Before air was

be roused. Freed, he drew his knees up to his chin in the position in which pri

elieved it. He couldn't face the fact that he was wrong. He couldn't stay conscious and not know it. So he's blacked out. He refuses to be anyt

better not describe our screen of tin cans on radio waves. Not

out from Earth. It came from the night-side, and they could not see where it was launched, though

e sardine can had been traveling in its own private orbit ever since. The effect of Mike's muscles had not been to send it back to Earth, but to change the center of the circular orbit in which it floated. Sometimes it floated above the Platform-that was on one side

ast of pure brightnes

, and on occasion massaged and variously tended to keep him alive. The men on the Platform worked. They made telephoto maps of Earth. They took highly magn

ecise measurements of the solar constant than could be obtained below. The flickering radar was gathering information for studies of the frequency and size of meteoric particles outsid

Joe managed to

picked up elsewhere. It probably was. But she told Joe how she felt, and she wanted to read him the newspaper stories based on the reports Bren

e you people getting any fresh veg

hours in each twenty-four produced incredibly luxuriant vegetation. It kept the air of the ship brea

wanted to know. Sally was partly responsib

now," Joe

was partly responsible-the bunks were designed to help in that difficulty. Each bunk had an inflatable top blanket. One crawled in and settled down, and turned the petcock that inflated the cover. Then it held one quite gently but reassuringly

t might be overheard, but there'll be another ship up before to

oot on solid ground again. He looked at Sally and sa

date," she

. The Space Platform was not admired uniformly by all the nations of Earth. The United States had built it because the United Nations couldn't, and one of t

as isolated Berlin did before the first airlift proved what men and planes could do in the way of transport. And the Platform

n the middle of the Pacific. One blew up 250 miles below the Platform. Another detonated 190 miles away. F

hunting for sheet metal that could be spared. They pulled out minor partitions here and there, and w

ided missiles. There might be as few as two of them left. So eight rockets came up together-and the first of them we

They went off at 180 and 270 miles from the Platform. Joe's trash screen would not work on Earth, but in space it was an adequate defense against anything equippe

own was a passenger. Its start was just like the one Joe's ship had made. Pushpots lifted it, jatos

enteen minutes from take-off. It arrived with its own landing rockets intact, and it brought a set of forty-foot metal tubes for Joe's ship to

up grandly in full uniform-and had to hook his feet around a chair leg to keep from floating absurdly in mid-air. This d

nd assigned him pro tem to service with the Space Exploration Project. The second w

ly, I expect to learn much from you and to have very few orders to give. I expect merely to exercise such aut

aced in command because it was unthinkable that he serve under anyone without official rank and authority. And he quite honestly believed that his coming, with e

hadn't brought some long-ra

pace Platform was a rescue mission and nothing else. Arithmetic wouldn't let it be anything else. And there couldn't be any idea of noble self-sacrifice and staying out at the Platform, either, because only four ships like Joe's had been b

took off together to return to Earth. Joe's ship left the airlock first. Sanford was loaded in the c

headed away from it in fleet formation. They p

had had the Platform's own velocity and orbit. Thrown away from it, the centers of their orbits changed. In theory, the center of the Platform's orbit was

arely graze Earth's atmosphere, lose some speed to it, and then bounce out to empty space again before they melted. Cooled off, they'd make another grazing bounce. After eight such bounce

been needed for course correction on the way out. At 4,000 miles up, the force of gravity is just one-fourth of that at the Earth's sur

d behind them. Night flowed below until the hull of the artificial sat

y, glowed crimson, glowed the deepest possible color that could be seen,

he same way. Then they went hurtling through the blackness of the night side of Earth. Microwaves from the ground played upon them-radar used by friend and foe alike-and the friendly radar

Platform's orbit, but no farther from each other. And they were descend

ard the edge of the world's disk. When they were only 2,000 miles high, the Earth's surface under them moved much faster than it had on the way up. When they were only 1,000 miles high, the seas and continents seemed to flow past like a rus

r position 4,000 miles high had been transformed into kinetic energy of motion. And at 40 miles there is something very close to

se to a roar, to a bellow, to a thunderous tumult. The ship quivered and trembled. It shook. A violent vibration set up and grew more an

urteen seconds at take-off. But that, at least, had been smoothly applied. This was deceleration at a higher figure yet, and accompanied by the

ourse of the ship. Joe could see out a quartzite port. The ground 40 miles below was merely a blur. There was a black sky overhead, which did not seem to stir. But cloud-mas

nder diminished gradually to a bellow, and the bellow to a roar, and

ng farther still. They were 100 mil

s for breath. Their muscles had refused to lift their ches

y, very high. He found that he was bruised where he had strapped himself in. The places where

mehow I don't think this is goin

ething," said Joe, dry-throate

a little bit too low. They think we weren't tilted

trapped

t the oth

ead. Down at the Shed, they're recalculating for us. We'll have t

other ship. He should have known better. One does not spot an ei

though for seconds he

e ship in the graze just past. The sister space ship hadn't lost speed so fast. It would be traveling fast

heating had been so fast that the inner surfaces of the plating might still be cold. He saw the vast area which was th

ts size and distance. This thread of vapor was already 100 miles long, and it expanded to a column of whiteness half a mile across before it seemed to dissipate.

ay to meet the

which was too small. But he saw the burst of flame, bright as the sun itself, which was the explosion of a proximi

f the second rocket. It