Part 15 (1/2)

She was not just a nice kid, she was swell! And she was good to look at.

Joe had noticed that before, but now with the memory of her fright because he'd been in danger, her worry because he might have been killed, he thought of her very absurd but honest offer to cry for him.

Joe found himself twisting at the ring on his finger. He got it off, and there was some soot and grease on it from the work he'd been doing. He knew that she saw what he was about, but she looked away.

”Look, Sally,” he said awkwardly, ”we've known each other a long time.

I've--uh--liked you a lot. And I've got some things to do first, but----” He stopped. He swallowed. She turned and smiled at him. ”Look,”

he said desperately, ”what's a good way to ask if you'd like to wear this?”

She nodded, her eyes s.h.i.+ning a little.

”That was a good way, Joe. I'd like it a lot.”

There was an interlude, then, during which she very ridiculously cried and explained that he must be more careful and not risk his life so much! And then there was a faint, faint sound outside the Platform. It was the yapping sound of a siren, crying out in short and choppy ululations as it warmed up. Finally its note steadied and it wailed and wailed and wailed.

”That's the alarm,” exclaimed Sally. She was still misty-eyed.

”Everybody out of the Shed. Come on, Joe.”

They started back the way they'd come in. And Sally looked up at Joe and grinned suddenly.

”When I have grandchildren,” she told him, ”I'm going to brag that I was the very first girl in all the world ever to be kissed in a s.p.a.ce s.h.i.+p!”

But before Joe could do anything about the comment, she was out on the stairs, in plain view and going down. So he followed her.

The Shed was emptying. The bare wood-block floor was dotted with figures moving steadily toward the security exit. There was no hurry, because security men were shouting that this was not an alarm but a precautionary measure, and there was no need for haste. Each security man had been informed by the miniature walkie-talkie he wore. By it every guard could be told anything he needed to know, either on the floor of the Shed, or on the catwalks aloft or even in the Platform itself.

Trucks lined up in orderly fas.h.i.+on to go out the swing-up doors. Men came down from the scaffolds after putting their tools in proper between-s.h.i.+fts positions--for counting and inspection--and other men were streaming quietly from the pushpot a.s.sembly line. Except for the gigantic object in the middle, and for the fact that every man was in work clothes, the scene was surprisingly like the central waiting room of a very large railroad station, with innumerable people moving briskly here and there.

”No hurry,” said Joe, catching the word from a security man as he pa.s.sed it on. ”I'll go see what my gang found out.”

The trio--Haney and Mike and the Chief--were just arriving by the piles of charred but now uncovered wreckage. Sally flushed ever so slightly when she saw the Chief eye Joe's ring on her finger.

”Rest of the day off, huh?” said the Chief. ”Look! We found most of the stuff we need. They're gonna give us a shop to work in. We'll move this stuff there. We're gonna have to weld a false frame on the lathe we picked, an' then cut out the bed plate to let the gyros fit in between the chucks. Mount it so the spinning is in the right line.”

That would be with the axis of the rotors parallel to the axis of the earth. Joe nodded.

”We'll be able to get set up in the mornin',” added Haney, ”and get started. You got the parts list off to the plant for your folks to get busy on?”

Sally said quickly: ”He's sending that by facsimile now. Then----”

The Chief beamed in benign mockery. ”What you goin' to do after that, Joe? If we got the rest of the day off----?”

Sally said hurriedly: ”We were--he was going off on a picnic with me. To Red Canyon Lake. Do you really need to talk business--all afternoon?”

The Chief laughed. He'd known Sally, at least by sight, back at the Kenmore plant.

”No, ma'am!” he told her. ”Just askin'. I worked on that Red Canyon dam job, years back. That dam that made the lake. It ought to be right pretty around there now. Okay, Joe. See you as soon as work starts up.

In the mornin', most likely.”

Joe started away with Sally. Mike the midget called hoa.r.s.ely: ”Joe! Just a minute!”