Space Tug

and a little more. Anything intending interception and rising straight up needed to start skyward long before the Platform was overhead. A three-g rocket would start while the Platf

Platform's orbit, its upward velocity would be zero there. If it were intercepted 500 miles down, it would be risi

o matter how desperately they fired braking-rockets, they couldn't stop and maneuver around the rising control-ship. Inevitably they would simply flash past it in the f

k in space. It wasn't much experience, but it was

d keep from being overheard, "get close enough to me to see what I do, and do i

space. The Chief was using his

ng rocket. They were relatively low-speed missiles, intended to blow up a robot ship that couldn't be hooked onto, because it was traveling too much faster or slower than the Platform it was intended to reach. The missil

's headphones brought his explosive

talk Indian! I could ki

I'm going to let that manned ro

Joe. "Then maybe you can use

of vapor. They were the thinnest possible filaments of gossamer white. But they enlarged as they r

om space, no matter from what cause, its enemies would announce vociferously that it had been destroyed by its own atomic bombs, exploding spontaneously. Even in the face of proof of murder, enemy nations would stridently insist that

. They had already fired their missiles, which trailed them. They went into battle, not pr

ying rocket. It seemed like a side-spout from the column of

rfully. "Remember the trick o

ator had less time to swing his guided rockets to match the change of target course. And besides, the attacker hadn't made a single turn in space. Not yet. He might know that a rocket doesn't go where it's point

y from Earth on steering rocket thrust, and touched off a four-three while he faced toward Earth's north pole, and halfway along that four-second rush he flipped his craft in a somersault and the result was nearly a right-angled turn.

g his first space-flight could possibly hit such targets as Joe and the Chief made of themselves. The man in the enemy rocket was making his first flight. Also, Joe and the Chief h

ery long time indeed for anything he shot after them to catch up. But their missiles had still to pass him-

made

ing. One was small and one was fairly large. Another demolition-missile hit the larger section. Still another exploded as that was going to pieces. The smaller f

adphones, still tense. "You

ome 3,700 miles above the surface of the Earth. He might think unhappily of that man as a victim of hatred rather than as a hater. He

fuses. Those friends of ours who want so badly to kill us have found that proximity fuses don

to himself in Mohawk, tw

t getting back t

d disown me! Winning a fight and no scalp to

kets flare, away of

ey climbed up with incredible speed. One went by Joe at a distance of little more than a mile, and

back to Earth. Hours, probably. Then they would be meteors. They'd

barely made it before the Platform made its plunge into that horrible blackness which was the Earth's shadow. And Joe was very glad they did make it before then. H

in the airloc

warmly. "Uh-the Lieutenant Commander wan

d an eyeb

at

s me. I'll bet, Joe, he's going to explain you shouldn't've gon

o be the ceiling, from Joe's point of view. Joe put his space gear in its proper place. He went to the small cubby

ng. On Joe's entry, he carefully put the pen down on a magnetized plate that would hol

"you did a very nice piece of work.

lucky the Chief and I were out practicing, but now

air? I can't suggest commendation, or a promotion, or-anything! I don't even know how to refer to you! I am going to ask you, Mr. Kenmore, to put through

grin

ul," said Brown earnestly. "It's necessary for s

o me is getting ready to load up the Plat

quarters assigned himself and his crew. Mike gre

led, and new rockets put in place. Then you and Haney go out and pra

ebelliously. "It'

ere's a robot ship from Bootstrap coming up any tim

m to see if he could get a

k on the Platform had evidently already gone down to Earth. Sally's ex

she asked. "How does it fee

mebody in the rocket we blew up. He felt like a patriot,

it," she said. "Maybe

. He hesitated. "

till on it. She nodded. "Still

as blood-stirring-and left one rather sickish afterward. This business of space travel and even space battle was what he'

ou?" he asked. "We can't t

at's allowed to go out," she as

ouldn't see that either of them had said anything of any imp

le of the Pacific. It didn't try to make a spiral approach as all other ships had done. It came straight up, and it started from the ground. No pushpots. Its take-off rockets were monsters. They pushed

enough to be protected by the Platform. And-it costs fuel to carry fuel to be burned. So if the rocketship could get up speed for coasting to orbit in the first co

off couldn't be seen, of course. It first appeared aloft as a pip on a radar screen. Then Mike prepared to go out and hook on to it and tow it in. He was in his spac

ed: "Hol

of that order. You should not be in the airlock, Mr. Ken

wagon," snapped Joe. "That

rely: "The checking shoul

ts firing circuit inspected. The tanks' contents and pressure verified. The air connection to Mike's space suit. The air pressure. The device

dled his red-painted mount. Jo

. Okay to open airlock do

t, and twenty miles below, and all of ten miles off-course. Joe saw Mike scoot the red space wagon to it, stop short with a sort of co

then he and Haney-Haney in the other space wagon-nudged at it and tugged at it a

Kent brought Joe a note. A note was an absurdity in the

Lt. Com

r. Ke

courtesy in rocket reco

tesy in the launching of rocket-recovery vehicles (s

equires that the commanding officer maintain o

launched, the commanding officer will be notified in

be given in such notification in hours an

e given by the commanding officer

equipment. After all, this had been a lucky landing. For a robot to end up no more than 30 miles from its target, after a journey of 4,000 miles, and with a difference in velocity that was a

ty-foot length and its carpet on floor and ceiling, and the galleries without stairs outside the sleeping cabins. He sat in a chair with thigh grips to hold him in place, and he wore a gravity simula

finished his mail

ship of new design-almost half as big as the Platf

for?" dem

x weeks, according to plan. As long as we're the only American base in space, we're going t

id hop

s for me t

to be ready to take a robot ship every round. Actually, they can't hope to send us more

e stuff?" His tone was odd. He looked at a letter he'd been reading and gave up pretense. He said self-consciously: "Listen, you

tle embarrassed, but something ha

in another chair. He didn't look up, though he

ted Nations and all Europe was dog-eat-dog. My tribe had a big pow-wow about me. There's a tribe member that's a professor of anthropology out in Chicago. He

s dark skin. "I wouldn't tell y

e lived in Brooklyn, and individual members were widely scattered. But still there was a certain remote village which to all the tribesm

mer glory, who'd heard stories of forest warfare and zestful hunts, and scalpings and heroic deeds from their grand

he Chief grinned abashedly. He went on. "'In full assembly, the elders of the tribe have held counsel on a way to express their pride in you, and in the friends you have made who accompanied you. It was proposed that you be given a new name to be borne by your sons after you. It was proposed that the tribe accept from each of its members a gift to be given you in the name of the tribe. But these were not

him and shook hands warmly. The Chief almost broke his fingers. It was, of co

they don't know me like you

hadn't said a word. The

for ten thousand years is gonna be told

an that, Chief. It's fine! But I-I got a lett

evingly at the p

there were women who were fools. It would be unbearable if some half-witted female h

head, with an o

t me her picture. It's a-swell letter. I'm-going to answer

passed the picture to Joe and said ferociously: "You Mike! You doggoned Don Juan! The Chief

ut of the photograph were very honest and yearning. And Joe understood. He grinned at

just two inches shorter than me. And-she says she doesn't mind bein

ong time before there was a way

ket recovery vehicle (space wagon) according to paragraph 3 of the formal memo, nor the time of launching in hours, minutes, etc., by Greenwich Mean Time (paragraph 4), nor was the testing of all equipment made before mov

, and Joe was honestly apologetic, but the

e Platform physically in shape to operate the space wagons, considering the acceleration involved. Brent and the others were w

ter, heated to sintering temperature faster, and the hulls cooled to usefulness in a quarter of the former time. The production of space ship hulls went up to four a day, while the molds for the Moonship were being worked even faster. The M

arry a crew of four, and its cargohold was accessible from the cabin. It had an airlock. More, it carried a cargo of solid-fuel rockets which could be shifted to firing racks outside its hull. Starting from the platform, where it had no effective weight, it was capable of direct descent to the Earth without spiralling or at

t had t

gotten this far because-somebody wanted to do something. But--" Then he said, "It could be done and the United Nations wouldn't do it. So the United States had to, or-some

we wanted to take off!"

d through plenty more than that! But Brent and the others couldn't put up a fight in space. They're wearing harness now, and they're com

rocket-scarred hulls from Earth. But once in three times the robots were going too fast or too slow. The space wagons couldn't handle them. Then the new ship, the space tug, went out and hooked onto the robot with a chain and used the power i

le variety. It had a stock of rockets which were enough to land it safely on Earth, though there was surely no intention of doing so. It had food and air for centuries. It had repair parts for all its own equipme

ly scrambled before transmission, but it was a heartening sight. The Shed on the TV screen appeared a place of swarming activity. Robot hulls were being made. They were even improved, fined down to ten tons of empty weight

ether cells with strengthening members added. It was 60 feet high from the floor and twice as long, and it did not weigh nearly what it seemed to. Al

themselves out. But the storage space on the Platform filled up. Days and weeks went by. Then there cam

ag of mail and four bags of scientific records and photographs which had only bee

e's headphones. "Ten ... nine ... eight ... seven ... si

d toward the west. The Platform seemed to dwindle with startling suddenness. It seemed to rush away and become lost

, it dropped toward Earth an