each short braking blast Pemberton caught a new radar fix, then compared his approach with a curve he had plotted from Weinstein's figures – with one eye on the time, another on the 'scope, a third on the plot, and a fourth on his fuel gauges.
«Well, Jake?» Kelly fretted. «Do we make it?»
«How should I know? You be ready to dump.» They had agreed on liquid oxygen as the cargo to dump, since it could be let to boil out through the outer valves, without handling.
«Don't say it, Jake.»
«Damn it – I won't if I don't have to.» He was fingering his controls again; the blast chopped off his words. When it stopped, the radio maneuvering circuit was calling him.
»
«Terminal Control – Supra reports you short on fuel.»
«Right.»
«Don't approach. Match speeds outside us. We'll send a transfer ship to refuel you and pick up passengers.»
«I think I can make it.»
«Don't try it. Wait for refueling.»
«Quit telling me how to pilot my ship!» Pemberton switched off the circuit, then stared at the board, whistling morosely. Kelly filled in the words in his mind: «
«You going in the slip anyhow, Jake?»
«Mmm – no, blast it. I can't take a chance of caving in the side of Terminal, not with passengers aboard. But I'm not going to match speeds fifty miles outside and wait for a piggyback.»
He aimed for a near miss just outside Terminal's orbit, conning by instinct, for Weinstein's figures meant nothing by now. His aim was good; he did not have to waste his hoarded fuel on last minute side corrections to keep from hitting Terminal. When at last he was sure of sliding safely on past if unchecked, he braked once more. Then, as he started to cut off the power, the jets coughed, sputtered, and quit.
The
Jake switched on the radio. «Terminal – stand by for my line. I'll warp her in.»
He had filed his report, showered, and was headed for the post office to radiostat his letter, when the bullhorn summoned him to the Commodore-Pilot's office. Oh, oh, he told himself, Schacht has kicked to the Brass – I wonder just how much stock that bliffy owns? And there's that other matter – getting snotty with Control.
He reported stiffly. «First Pilot Pemberton, sir.»
Commodore Soames looked up. «Pemberton – oh, yes. You hold two ratings, space-to-space and airless- landing.»
«What are you talking about?»
«I, well – don't you have a passenger complaint on me?»
«Oh, that!» Soames brushed it aside. «Yes, he's been here. But I have Kelly's report, too – and your chief jetman's, and a special from Supra-New York. That was crack piloting, Pemberton.»
«You mean there's no beef from the Company?»
«When have I failed to back up my pilots? You were perfectly right; I would have stuffed him out the air lock. Let's get down to business: You're on the space-to-space board, but I want to send a special to Luna City. Will you take it, as a favor to me?»
Pemberton hesitated: Soames went on, «That oxygen you saved is for the Cosmic Research Project. They blew the seals on the north tunnel and lost tons of the stuff. The work is stopped – about $130,000 a day in overhead, wages, and penalties. The
«But I – look, Commodore, you can't risk people's necks on a jet landing of mine. I'm rusty; I need a refresher and a checkout.»
«No passengers, no crew, no captain – your neck alone.»
«I'll take her.»
Twenty-eight minutes later, with the ugly, powerful hull of the
He felt good – until he hauled out two letters, the one he had failed to send, and one from Phyllis, delivered at Terminal.
The letter from Phyllis was affectionate – and superficial. She did not mention his sudden departure; she ignored his profession completely. The letter was a model of correctness, but it worried him.
He tore up both letters and started another. It said, in part: « – never said so outright, but you resent my job.
«I have to work to support us. You've got a job, too. It's an old, old job that women have been doing a long time – crossing the plains in covered wagons, waiting for ships to come back from China, or waiting around a mine head after an explosion – kiss him goodbye with a smile, take care of him at home.
«You married a spaceman, so part of your job is to accept my job cheerfully. I think you can do it, when you realize it. I hope so, for the way things have been going won't do for either of us.
Believe me, I love you. Jake»
He brooded on it until time to bend the ship down for his approach. From twenty miles altitude down to one mile he let the robot brake her, then shifted to manual while still falling slowly. A perfect airless-landing would be the reverse of the take-off of a war rocket – free fall, then one long blast of the jets, ending with the ship stopped dead as she touched the ground. In practice a pilot must feel his way down, not too slowly; a ship could burn all the fuel this side of Venus fighting gravity too long.
Forty seconds later, falling a little more than 140 miles per hour, he picked up in his periscopes the thousand- foot static towers. At 300 feet he blasted five gravities for more than a second, cut it, and caught her with a one- sixth gravity, Moon-normal blast. Slowly he eased this off, feeling happy.
The
The ground crew took over; a sealed runabout jeeped Pemberton to the tunnel entrance. Inside Luna City, he found himself paged before he finished filing his report. When he took the call, Soames smiled at him from the viewplate. «I saw that landing from the field pick-up, Pemberton. You don't need a refresher course.»
Jake blushed. «Thank you, sir.»
«Unless you are dead set on space-to-space, I can use you on the regular Luna City run. Quarters here or Luna City? Want it?»
He heard himself saying, «Luna City. I'll take it.»
He tore up his third letter as he walked into Luna City post office. At the telephone desk he spoke to a blonde in a blue moonsuit. «Get me Mrs. Jake Pemberton, Suburb six-four-oh-three, Dodge City, Kansas, please.»
She looked him over. «You pilots sure spend money.»
«Sometimes phone calls are cheap. Hurry it, will you?»
Phyllis was trying to phrase the letter she felt she should have written before. It was easier to say in writing that she was not complaining of loneliness nor lack of fun, but that she could not stand the strain of worrying about his safety. But then she found herself quite unable to state the logical conclusion. Was she prepared to face giving him up entirely if he would not give up space? She truly did not know ... the phone call was a welcome interruption.
The viewplate stayed blank. «Long distance,» came a thin voice. «Luna City calling.»
Fear jerked at her heart. «Phyllis Pemberton speaking.»
An interminable delay – she knew it took nearly three seconds for radio waves to make the Earth-Moon round trip, but she did not remember it and it would not have reassured her. All she could see was a broken home, herself
