Space Tug

ery messily mixed with water and smeared lavishly over the now waterproofed wooden mockup of a space ship. It came off again in

e helium-cooling plant from a gaswell-it could cool metal down to the point where it crumbl

more plaster sections for a second mold ready to be dried out now, but meanwhile vehicles like concrete mixers mixed turnings and filings and powder in vast quantities and poured the dry mass here and there in the firs

worked out. The concreting process-including the heating-was in action while fittings were being flown to the

ngs. It was a replacement of one of the two shot-down space craft, ready for fitting out some six weeks ahead o

urned and hammers hammered. Small diesels rumbled. Disk saws cut metal like butter by the seemingly impractical method of spinning at 20,000 revolutions per

construction program, Joe and Sally looked down from a gallery high up in the outward-curving wall of the Shed. Acres of dark flooring lay beneath them. There was a s

l trucks ran up to their sides to feed the fitting-out crews such items as air tanks and gyro assemblies and steering rocket piping and motors, and short wave communicators and control boards. Exit doors were being fitted. The last two hulls to be uncovered were be

appily, "I can't help worrying, even though th

about. Sally knew these matters too. But top secret information isn't talked about by the people who know it, unless they are actively

d of before, but so long as any ship that went up could be destroyed on the way down, the supply of the Platform was impractical. But the ships

of ships by some fantastic new method was in progress. The fact couldn't be hidden. But nobody in a country where material shortages were chronic could imagine building ships before a way to use them was

ry soon have to change their tune. So there were no more attacks on the Platform. It floated serenely overhead, sending down astronom

he ships were being built while the p

ut to crack," s

again because they had to leave supplies at the Platform, not consume the

ing on light guided m

d," sna

wer was that it could. But guided missiles used to fight one's way down would have to be carried up first. And they would weigh as much as

s a slight touch of genius. There's been genius before n

," growled Jo

hips in a hurry wi

hat," said

age-screen for the Pla

t happened that it made sense that he hadn't noticed.

l brains of the armed forces were struggling with it. They were trying everything from re

tfully, "is a way for ships to go up to

onically. Then he s

descending corridor. It was remarkably private. In a place like the Shed, with frantic activity going on all around, and even at Ma

otice. Presently she shrugged her shoulders and ceased to try to make him notice that nobody else happene

expression was unbelieving.

s the

he said amazedly. "Yo

ha

ps that can go up to the Platform and not have

he shoulders as if to shake her into comprehe

urgently. "I've got

tom of the ramp. And Sally, with remarkably mingled

ined, lest their return to Earth become too publicly known. Mike was stalking up and down with his hands clasped behind his back, glum as a

cabin and supplies and crew can be cut down by tons! Even the instruments can be smaller and weigh less! Four of us in

. "You're right. But people won't do

g! And Sally's just gotten the real answer! The answer

exuberantly: "They've been talking about arming ships with guided missiles to fight with.

him. Sally said, startled

ce barges. Remote-controlled ships. Control them from one manned ship-the tug! We'll ride that! Take 'em up to the Platform exactly like a tug tows barges. The tow-line will be radio beams. We

sted Sally, "I d

hief was about to say. Haney said drily: "Sally, if Joe hadn't ki

e too. I'd've made a two-ton cargo possible-ma

etter, right away." Joe grinned

ing rockets, and you save plenty more. Count in the cargo you could take anyhow"-- he searched another pocket still--"and you get forty-two tons of cargo per space barge, delivered at the Platform. Six drones-tha

d the job. She displayed that remarkable insensitivity of females in situations productive

ers out to the Shed floor and stopped the installation of certain types of fittings in all but one of the hulls. In an hour and a half, top technical designers were doing the work of foremen and getting things

d. Some were Air Force supplies and some were Ordnance, and some were strictly Quarterm

aming hulls in launching cages and the unholy din of landing pushpots outside the Shed. They came with hysterical cries f

e cabin of the one ship which was not a drone. There were now seven cages in all to be hoisted toward the sky. A great double triangular gore had been jacked out and

inside the Shed. The noise was the most sustained and ghastly tumul

by clustering, bellowing, preposterous groups of howling objects that looked like over-sized black beetles. One of the seven hulls had eyes. The other

the open air. At 40 and 50 feet above the ground, they jockeyed into some

ise of their going diminished from a bellow to a howl, and from a how

that faded