Space Tug

objects rose and rose. Of all flying objects ever imagined by ma

e. Headphones and a mike gave him communications with the Shed direct, and the pushpots were balanced in groups, which cost efficiency but helped on control. He would have, moreover, to handle his own steering rockets during acceleration and when he could-and dared-he should supervise the others. Because each of the other three had

d into it at 36,000 feet. Joe's headphones buzzed tinnily. Radar from the ground told him his rat

he way up Joe protested, "Somebody's s

ply, "Got it,

are getting out of formation. And

thing whacky here ... com

ation ever designed for an exact result. The squadron went wallowing t

e is flattening. You should fire your jatos when

maze of noise waves and pressur

uit for jatos. Try to line up. We want the drones

utside the ports was dark purple. The launching cage responded sluggishly. Its open end came around

se-with a slight spread as a safety measure-and at one time. So the firing-circuits were keyed to relays in series.

o frameworks of steel, pushing valorously. Far below there were clouds and there was Earth. There was a horizon, which wavered and tilted. The pushpots struggled with seeming lac

nothing happened. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Haney pressing down both but

rt-breaking clumsinesses of the drone-ships. They hu

grimly. "We've got forty seconds. Or

adline time for firing. Up to that deadline, the pushpots could let the ships back down to

e closer and clo

leeway. We've g

vements of the controls. Haney pushed both hands down, raised one, pushed again. The Chief had one fi

began the horrible fight to stay alive, while the blood tried to drain from the conscious forepart of his brain, and while every button of his garments pressed noticeably ag

It seemed to la

Joe's body weighed half a ton. The next instant, it weighed less than a dust grain. His head throbbed twice a

to be going up, but the sensation and the fact was free fall. Joe had b

," sai

sly, "Four's off c

hands stirred on the panel for remote

d. "Got it now, Jo

y, M

-secon

ka

leration cushions, he could perform the navigation for the fleet. He did. The mother-ship had to steer a true course, regardless of the vagaries of its rockets. The drones had simply

l seemed to last for centuries. Actually it could be measured only in minutes. But it seemed millennia before the h

release," panted Jo

could release the drive rocke

ice co

en ... six ... five ... four ..

take-off rockets let go. They flashed off into nothingnes

s again

w they weren't curious. They'd had over a month in space, and something

ered. The six drone ships showed on the screens. But they also had telemetering apparatus. They faithfully reported their conditio

The take-off had been timed to get the ships into Earth's shadow above the area from which war ro

: "Reporting everything all r

id ground said, "R

ery minute adjustments of the movement of one of his drones. Mike fussed

bottomless pit and their stomach-muscles knotted and cramped in

enter Earth's shadow in three

"We're to prep

ed. "I'd like t

fleet was seven ships in very ragged formation. Most improbably, after the long three-gravity acceleration, they were still within a fifty-mile globe of space. Number Four loitered behind, but was being brought up by judicious bursts of steer

to a reddish pin-point of light. The red color deepened. It winked out. Th

e ghosts,

t random targets in emptiness. They wouldn't damage anything they hit. They'd go varying distances, explode and shoot small lead shot ahead to check their missile-velocity, and then emit dense masses of aluminum foil. There was no air resistance. The shredded foil would continue to move thr

tell ships from mas

ships in ragged but coherent formation, soaring through emptiness

nd course of a single ship to waiting rocket-launching submarines half-

ncredible fleet-in space. He didn't beli

ight to look down at the western shore of America itself. With seven ships to get on an exact course, at an exact speed, at an exact

ched out impossibly far and clamped to one drone with a magnetic grapple. He maneuvered it to the hull and made

ent in the lock and the great outer door closed, and the plas

seemed strange to all the four from Earth to find themselves with their feet more or less firmly planted on a solid

doesn't like us is yelling blue murder. Somebody-you may guess who-is announcing that a fleet of ninety-one war rockets took off from the Uni

atisfaction, "the government back home can tell them how many we were a

ious thoughtfulness. "You must have gotten

andle the freight faster. We found ou

down. But from this point on, the procedure was changed. Haney and Joe went into the cargo-section of the rocketship and heaved its contents smoothly through weigh

use their strength where there was no weight. By the time they'd learned, their muscles had lost a

lly invalids. No exercise up here. This time we've br

oring outside, and a drone took its place. Brown's eyes blinked at

rth-in fact, not as much. By now the original crew would have trouble

n fr

ask for instructio

re the same magnetic-soled shoes. Joe knew, with private amusement, that

ddenly. "Have you been assig

without interest. "I skipper th

nything from a lieutenant junior grade to a captain, depending on the size and rating of t

ow of," Joe told him.

t once annoyed

hether you are under my command or not! For discipline! For organizat

He was more excited over the fact that he didn't know whether he ranked Joe, than over the much more important matter of physical deterioration in the absence of gravity. Yet he surely unders

" he said worriedly. "It shouldn't have been l

e clanked away, his magnetic shoe-soles beating out a singular

s warped in. Brent, the crew's psychologist, joined him when

t to be a crackpot with his notions of grandeur. I'm no

y. The doctors now predicted that anybody who spent six months without weight would suffer a deterioration of muscle tone which could make a return t

ve to be relieved before too long. But we brought

rst, but lately we've all been sleeping well! Now I see why! Normally one sleeps beca

himself-sent faint, especially-tuned short wave impulses to the steering-rockets of the drone. The liquid-fuel rockets were designed to steer a loaded ship. With the a

e vast Earth rolled beneath it. It sped on and vani

But come sixty hours it will be directly underneath. We'll haul it up and refuel it. And our friends the enemy will hate it.

to emit pure noise and drown them out. But the jamming stations were on the enemy nations' borders. If radio programs came down from overhead

to being by dozens, and with one convoy of hundreds of tons of equipmen

ey were officially rocket recovery vehicles, and Joe's crew referred to them as space wagons. They had no cabin, but something like a saddle. Before it there was a control-board complete with radar-screens. And there were racks to w

gether," the Chief told Jo

ter one being built with a regular cabin and hull. But some experi

much of casualness: "I'm kind of

should all be able to handle them. When this is assembled you can stand by

e went back to the assemb

Earth-gravity simulation. He couldn't imitate actual gravity, of course. Only the effect of gravity on one's muscles. There were springs and elastic webbing pulling one's s

that. If he increased the pull a very little every day, he might be able to return to Earth, in time. Now it woul

mb into the saddle of one of these creations, plug in the air-line of his suit to the crash-wagon's tanks, and travel in space by means of the space wagon's rockets. These weird vehicles had remarkably powerful magnetic grapples. They were equipped with steering rockets as powerful as those of a ship. They had banks of solid-fuel rock

f things that had to work right or nothing would work at all. That part of the job wasn't thrilling, but Joe no longer looked for thrills. He pains

he'd carefully avoided giving him direct orders, because Joe was not certainly and officially his subordinate. Lacking exact information, the only thing a consc

ipped his safety-belt, plugged in his suit air-supply to the

ight, you can join me. If I get in serious trouble, come after me

thing in Mohawk. He

mps pounded briefly, removing what air was left. Then the walls drew back, stra

"Radar says there's a rocket on the way up! It's over at what is the

es-Brown's business-if the tin can screen didn't handle it. Joe would have no part in it. He wouldn't be needed. H

. There have been misfires and so on. It won't take long to try this wagon, anyhow. They're anxi

to himself. But one tested sp

ckets. The lock filled instantly with swirling fumes. And instantly the tiny space wagon moved. It did not have to lift from the lock floor. Once the magnetic c

at the beginning the conditions of handling vehicles in space. But Joe cracked the braking roc

ll creation seemed still to revolve slowly about him. The monstrous globe which was Earth moved sedately from above his head to u

on't run your rockets! On Earth you keep a motor going because when it stops, you do. But out here you have to use your moto

s voice ca

Joe! Her

lt the utterly helpless sensation of a man in a car when his brakes don't work. But a moment later the braking rockets did flare briefly, yet still too long. The Chief was not only stopped, but drifting backwards toward the Platform. He evidently tried to turn, and he spun as dizzily as Joe had done. But after a m

member that what you have to estimate is not where I am, but where you have to

He came to a stop a

ed," said his v

o join you,

objects drifted almost together. The Chief was upside

hinking," sai

adphones, from th

t three gravities. It looks like it isn't defective. I

re! I want to get the hang of this." Then his

is own voic

n in it, he's coming up to take over guided missiles that'll overtake him, and try to smash the Pl

me very curt and

the Platform. Something went foaming away toward Eart

ndle these wagons on the way. I think we're going to have a fight on our ha

ed vehicle and pointed

id-fuel job, Chief. Count

cceleration the rocket burned out. The Chief had fired a matching rocket. Th

ller. That was their

m closer to Joe. It did not work. He had to aim for Joe and fire a blast to mov

nough. The manned rocket was accelerating at a great deal more than that rate. And if the Platform's enemies down on Earth had sent a manned rocket up to destroy

id sud

two. We've got to match velocities

breathless, on Earth. But here there was no sensation of motion, and the distances were enormous. Things which happen in space happen with insensate vio

ation. It's floating up, now. It should reach our orbit fifty m

coldly. "Figure interception data f

steering rockets to close, again. The Chief had the han

two tiny space wagons were 90 miles from the Platform, which was now

Earthward. It was brighter tha

"Our missile went off 200 miles short!

t hand. We won't be fighting rockets controlled from 4,000 miles away! They've found proximity fuses don't work, s

rdly possible to pick out the Platform with the naked eyes. The Earth was thousands of miles below. Joe and the Chief, in sp

were eight of them. They came out to