The Lost Kafoozalum Read online

grappling-beams. We stayinside the ship, on five-eighths gee which we do not have time to getused to, and try to work, and discard the results before the computercan do so. There is hardly any work left to do, anyway.

  It takes nearly twelve hours to get the ship free, and caulked, andready to lift. (Her hull has to be patched because of Mr. Yardo'soperations which make use of several sorts of vapors). Then there is aqueer blind period with Up now one way, now another, and sudden jerksand tugs that upset everything not in gimbals or tied down;interspersed with periods when weightlessness supervenes with nowarning at all. After an hour or two of this it would be hard to saywhether Mental or physical discomfort is more acute; B consulted,however, says my autonomic system must be quite something, after fiveminutes _her_ thoughts were with her viscera entirely.

  Then, suddenly, we are back on Mass-Time again.

  Two days to go.

  * * * * *

  At first being on Mass-Time makes everything seem normal again. Bysleep time there is a strain, and next day it is everywhere. I know aswell as any that on Mass-Time the greater the mass the faster theshift; all the same I cannot help feeling we are being slowed, draggedback by the dead ship coupled to our live one.

  When you stand by the hull _Gilgamesh_ is only ten feet away.

  I should have kept something to work on like B and Kirsty who have notdone their Letters for Home in Case of Accidents; mine is signed andsealed long ago. I am making a good start on a Neurosis whenDelano-Smith announces a Meeting for one hour ahead.

  Hurrah! now there is a time-mark fixed I think of all sorts of thingsI should have done before; for instance taking a look at the controlsof the Hoppers.

  I have been in one of them half an hour and figured out most of thedials--Up down and sideways are controlled much as in a helicar, buthere a big viewscreen has been hooked in to the autopilot--whenacross the hold I see the air lock start to move.

  _Gilgamesh_ is on the other side.

  It takes forever to open. When at last it swings wide on the darktunnel what comes through is a storage rack, empty, floating onantigrav.

  What follows is a figure in a spacesuit; modern type, but the windowsof the hopper are semipolarized and I cannot make out the face insidethe bubble top.

  He slings the rack upon the bulkhead, takes off the helmet and hangsthat up, too. Then he just stands. I am beginning to muster enoughsense to wonder why when he comes slowly across the hold.

  Reaching the doorway he says: "Oh it's you, Lizzie. You'll have tohelp me out of this. I'm stuck."

  M'Clare.

  The outside of the suit is still freezing cold; maybe this is what hasjammed the fastening. After a few minutes tugging it suddenly givesaway. M'Clare climbs out of the suit, leaving it standing, and says,"Help me count these, will you?"

  _These_ are a series of transparent containers from a pouch slung atone side of the suit. I recognize them as the envelopes in which weput what are referred to as Personal Background Sets.

  I say, "There ought to be twenty-three."

  "No," says M'Clare dreamily, "twenty-two, we're saving one of them."

  "What on earth is the use of an extra set of faked documents andoddments--"

  He seems to wake up suddenly and says: "What are you doing here,Lizzie?"

  I explain and he wanders over to the hopper and starts to explain thecontrols.

  There is something odd about all this. M'Clare is obviously deadtired, but kind of relaxed; seeing that the hour of Danger is onlythirty-six hours off I don't understand it. Probably several of hisstudents are going to have to risk their lives--

  I am on the point of seeing something important when the speakerannounces in the colonel's voice that Professor M'Clare and Miss Leewill report to the Conference Room at once please.

  M'Clare looks at me and grins. "Come along, Lizzie. Here's where wetake orders for once, you and I."

  It is the colonel's Hour. I suppose that having to work withUndergraduates is something he could never quite forget, but from the wayhe looks at us we might almost be Space Force personnel,--low-grade ofcourse but respectable.

  Everything is at last worked out and he has it on paper in front ofhim; he puts the paper four square on the table, gazes into the middledistance and proceeds to recite.

  "One. This ship will go off Mass-Time on 2nd August at 11.27 hoursship's time....

  "Thirty-six hours from now.

  "... At a point one thousand miles vertically above Co-ordinates165OE, 7320S, on Planet Incognita, approximately one hour beforemidnight local time.

  "Going on planetary drive as close as that will indicate thatsomething is badly wrong to begin with.

  "Two. This ship will descend, coupled to _Gilgamesh_ as at present, toa point seventy miles above the planetary surface. It will thenuncouple, discharge one hopper, and go back on Mass-Time. Estimatedtime for this stage of descent forty minutes.

  "Three. The hopper will then descend on its own engines at the maximumspeed allowed by the heat-disposal system; estimated at thirty-sevenminutes. _Gilgamesh_ will complete descent in thirty-three minutes.Engines of _Gilgamesh_ will not be used except for the heat-disposaland gyro auxiliaries. The following installations have been made toallow for the control of the descent; a ring of eight rockets inpeltathene mounts around the tail and, and one outsize antigrav unitinside the nose. "Sympathizer" controls hooked up with a visiscreenand a computer have also been installed in the nose.

  "Four. _Gilgamesh_ will carry one man only. The hopper will carry acrew of three. The pilot of _Gilgamesh_ will establish the ship on theedge of the cliff, supported on antigrav a foot or so above the groundand leaning towards the sea at an angle of approximately 20 deg. with thevertical. Except for this landing will be automatic.

  "Five."

  The colonel's voice has lulled us into passive acceptance; now we arejerked into sharper attention by the faintest possible check in it.

  "The greatest danger attaching to the expedition is that theIncognitans may discover that the crash has been faked. This would beinevitable if they were to capture (a) the hopper; (b) any of the newinstallations in Gilgamesh, especially the antigrav; (c) any member ofthe crew.

  "The function of the hopper is to pick up the pilot of _Gilgamesh_ andalso to check that ground appearances are consistent. If not, theywill produce a landslip on the cliff edge, using power tools andexplosives carried for the purpose. That is why the hopper has a crewof three, but the chance of their having to do this is slight."

  So I should think; ground appearances are supposed to show that_Gilgamesh_ landed using emergency rockets and then toppled over thecliff and this will be exactly what happened.

  "The pilot will carry a one-frequency low-power transmitter activatedby the change in magnetic field on leaving the ship. The hopper willremain at five hundred feet until this signal is received. It willthen pick up the pilot, check ground appearances, and rendezvous withthis ship at two hundred miles up at 18.27 hours."

  The ship and the hopper both being radar-absorbent will not registeron alarm systems, and by keeping to planetary nighttime they shouldbe safe from being seen.

  "Danger (b) will be dealt with as follows. The rocket-mounts being ofpeltathene will be destroyed by half an hour's immersion in water. Theinstallations in the nose will be destroyed with Andite."

  Andite produces complete colecular disruption in a very short range,hardly any damage outside it; the effect will be as though the nosebroke off on impact; I suppose the Incognitans will waste a lot oftime looking for it on the bed of the sea.

  "Four ten-centimeter cartridges will be inserted within the noseinstallations. The fuse will have two alternative settings. The firstwill be timed to act at 12.50 hours, seven minutes after the estimatedtime of landing. It will not be possible to deactivate it before 12.45hours. This takes care of the possibility of the pilot's becomingincapacitated during the descent.

  "Having switched off the first fuse the pilot will get the s
hip intoposition and then activate a second, timed to blow in ten minutes. Hewill then leave the ship. When the antigrav is destroyed the shipwill, of course, fall into the sea.

  "Six. The pilot of _Gilgamesh_ will wear a spacesuit of the patternused by the original crew and will carry Personal Background Setnumber 23. Should he fail to escape from the ship the crew of thehopper will on no account attempt to rescue him."

  The colonel takes up the paper, folds it in half and puts it down oneinch further away.

  "The hopper's crew," he says, "will give the whole game away shouldone of them fall into Incognitan hands, alive or dead. Therefore theydon't take any risks of it."

  He lifts his gaze ceilingwards. "I'm asking for three volunteers."

  Silence. Manning the hopper is definitely second best. Then lightsuddenly bursts on me and I lift my hand and hack B on the