Part 26 (1/2)

”How're we going to get back, Joe?”

”The Moons.h.i.+p has rockets on board,” Joe told him. ”Only they can't stick them in the firing-racks outside. They're stowed away, all s.h.i.+pshape, Navy fas.h.i.+on. After we land, we'll ask politely for rockets to get back to the Platform with. It'll be a tedious run. Mostly coasting--falling free. But we'll make it.”

”If everything doesn't blow when we land,” said the Chief.

Joe said uncomfortably: ”It won't. Not that somebody won't try.” Then he stopped. After a moment he said awkwardly: ”Look! It's necessary that we humans get to the stars, or ultimately we'll crowd the Earth until we won't be able to stay human. We'd have to have wars and plagues and such things to keep our numbers down. It--it seems to me, and I--think it's been said before, that it looks like there's something, somewhere, that's afraid of us humans. It doesn't want us to reach the stars. It didn't want us to fly. Before that it didn't want us to learn how to cure disease, or have steam, or--anything that makes men different from the beasts.”

Haney turned his head. He listened intently.

”Maybe it sounds--superst.i.tious,” said Joe uneasily, ”but there's always been somebody trying to smash everything the rest of us wanted. As if--as if something alien and hateful went around whispering hypnotically into men's ears while they slept, commanding them irresistibly to do things to smash all their own hopes.”

The Chief grunted. ”Huh! D'you think that's new stuff, Joe?”

”N-no,” admitted Joe. ”But it's true. Something fights us. You can make wild guesses. Maybe--things on far planets that know that if ever we reach there.... There's something that hates men and it tries to make us destroy ourselves.”

”Sure,” said Haney mildly. ”I learned about that in Sunday School, Joe.”

”Maybe I mean that,” said Joe helplessly. ”But anyhow there's something we fight--and there's Something that fights with us. So I think we're going to get the Moons.h.i.+p down all right.”

Mike said sharply: ”You mean you think this is all worked out in advance. That we'd be here, we'd get here----”

The Chief said impatiently, ”It's figured out so we can do it if we got the innards. We got the chance. We can duck it. But if we duck it, it's bad, and somebody else has to have the chance later. I know what Joe's saying. Us men, we got to get to the stars. There's millions of 'em, and we need the planets they've got swimming around 'em.”

Haney said, ”Some of them have planets. That's known. Yeah.”

”Those planets ain't going to go on forever with n.o.body using 'em,”

grunted the Chief. ”It don't make sense. And things in general do make sense. All but us humans,” he finished with a grin. ”And I like us, anyhow. Joe's right. We'll get by this time. And if we don't--some other guys'll have to do the job of landing on the Moon. But it'll be done--as a starter.”

”I can see lots of mountains down there. Plain,” Mike said quietly.

”What's the radar say?”

Joe looked. Back at the Platform it had shown the curve of the surface of Earth. Here a dim line was beginning to show on the vertical-plane screen. It was the curve of the surface of the Moon.

”We might as well get set,” said Joe. ”We've got time but we might as well. s.p.a.ce suits on. I'll tighten up the chain. Steering rockets'll do that. Then we'll take a last look. All firing racks loaded outside?”

”Yeah,” said Haney. He grinned wrily. ”You know, Joe, I know what I know, but still I'm scared.”

”Me, too,” said Joe.

But there were things to do. They took their places. They watched out the ports. The Moon had seemed a vast round ball a little while back.

Now it appeared to be flattening. Its edges still curved away beyond a surprisingly nearby horizon. The ring-mountains were amazingly distinct.

There were incredibly wide, smooth s.p.a.ces with mottled colorings. But the mountains....

When the s.h.i.+ps were 40 miles high the s.p.a.ce tug blasted valorously, and all the panorama of the Moon's surface was momentarily hidden by the racing clouds of mist. The rockets burned out.

Haney and the Chief replaced the burned-out rockets. They were gigantic, heavy-bore tubes which they couldn't have stirred on Earth. Now they loaded them into the curious locks which conveyed them outside the hull into firing position.

The ring-mountains were gigantic when they blasted again! They were only 20 miles up, then, and some of the peaks rose four miles from their inner crater floors.

The s.h.i.+ps were still descending fast. Joe spoke into his microphone.