“I know. I spent our ticket home, when I made that extra blast.”
“What good would it have done to have crashed? Forget it; I need Hastings. We need the best orbit possible.”
“Fat chance!”
“Maybe not. There’s libration, you know.”
Barnes looked startled. “Man, am I stupid!” He went on eagerly, “What’s the situation now? Is Earth swinging up, or down?”
The Moon’s spin is steady, but its orbit speed is not; it moves, fastest when it is closest to Earth. The amount is slight, but it causes the Moon to appear to wobble each • month as if the Man-in-the-Moon were shaking his head. This moves the Earth to-and-fro in the lunar sky some seven degrees.
Corley answered, “It’s rising-I think. As to whether it will rise enough-well, I’ll have to compute — Earth’s position and then take some star sights.”
“Let’s get at it. Can I help?”
Before Corley could reply Bowles’ voice came over the speaker: “Hey! Jim!”
Barnes keyed the wallcie-talkies. “Yes, Red?”
“We’re at the hills south of the ship. They might be high enough. I want to go behind them; there may be an easier place to climb.”
On the airless Moon, all radiorequires line-of-sight — yet Barnes hated to refuse a reasonable request. “Okay — but don’t take any chances.”
“Aye aye, Skipper.” ‘ Barnes turned to Corley. “We need the time anyhow.” “Yes,” Corley agreed. “You know, Jim, this isn’t the way I imagined it. I don’t mean the Moon itself-just wait until we get some pressurized buildings here and some decent pressure suits. But what I mean is what we find ourselves doing. I expected to cram. every minute with exploring and collecting specimens and gathering new data. Instead I’ll beat my brains out simply trying to get us back.”
“Well, maybe you’ll have time later-too much time.”
Corley grudged a smile. “Could be — ”
He sketched out the relative positions of Earth and Moon, consulted tables. Presently he — looked up. “We’re in luck. Earth will rise — nearly two and a half degrees before she swings back.”
“Is that enough?” “We’ll see. Dig out the sextant, Jim.” Barnes got it and Corley took it to the eastern port. He measured the elevations of three stars above the tops of the mountains. These he plotted on a chart and drew a line for the apparent horizon. Then he plotted Earth’s position relative to those stars.
“Finicky business,” he complained. “Better check me, Jim.’,
“I will. What do you get?”
“Well-if I haven’t dropped a decimal point, Earth will be up for a few hours anyway three days from now.”
Barnes grinned. “We’ll get a ticker-tape parade yet, Doe.”
“Maybe. Let’s have another look at the ballistic situation first.”
Batnes’ face sobered. —
Corley worked for an hour, taking Barnes’ approximation and turning it into something slightly better. At last he stopped. “I don’t know,” he fretted. “Maybe Hastings can trim it a little.”
“Doe,” Barnes answered, “suppose we jettison everything we can? I hate to say it, but there’s all that equipment you brought.”
“What do you think I’ve been doing with these weight schedules? Theoretically the ship is stripped.”
“Oh. And it’s still bad?”
“It’s still bad.”
Bowles and Traub returned worn out and just short of sun stroke. The Admiral was unhappy; he had not been able to find any way to climb the hills: “I’ll go back tomorrow,” he said stoutly. “I mean after we’ve eaten and slept.”
“Forget it,” advised Barnes.
“What do you mean?”
“We are going to have line-of-sight from here.”
“Eh? Repeat that.”
“Libration,” Barnes told him. “Doe has already calculated it.”
Bowles’ face showed delighted comprehension. Traub looked puzzled; Barnes explained it. —
“So you see,” Barnes went on, 4’we’ll have a chance to send a message in about seventy hours.”
Bowles stood up, his fatigue forgotten. “That’s all we • — need!” He pounded his palm exultantly.
“Slow down, Red,” Barnes advised, “our chances of taking off look worse than ever.”
“So?” Bowles shrugged. “It’s not important.”
“Oh, for Pete’s sake! Drop the Nathan Hale act. Have the common’ decency to give a thought to Mannie and his four kids.”,,