Morrie nodded. “Suits. I still think that a man with a gun in his hands is worth more than a gadget anyhow. See here — there are four of us. That’s two hours a’ night. Let’s stand guard.”
Cargraves agreed to this. Various plans were offered to supplement the human guard and the charged fence, but all were voted down as too time-consuming, too expensive or impractical. It was decided to let the matter stand, except that lights would be left burning at night, including a string to be rigged around the ship. All of these lines were to be wired to cut over automatically to the ship’s batteries.
Cargraves sat down to lunch on Wednesday of the following week with a feeling of satisfaction. The thorium power pile was in place, behind the repaired shield. This in itself was good; he disliked the finicky, ever-dangerous work of handling the radioactive element, even though he used body shields and fished at it with tongs.
But the pile was built; the air lock had been welded in place and tested for air-tightness; almost all the supplies were aboard. Acceleration hammocks had been built for Art and Ross (Cargraves and Morrie would ride out the surges of power in the two pilot seats). The power pile had been operated at a low level; all was well, he felt, and the lights on the board were green.
The phony inspector had not showed up again, nor were the night watches disturbed. Best of all, Ross’s eyesight had continued to improve; the eye specialist had pronounced him a cure on Monday, subject to wearing dark glasses for a couple of weeks.
Cargraves’ sprain still made him limp, but he had discarded his stick. Nothing bothered him. He tackled Aggregate a la Galileo (hash to ordinary mortals) with enthusiasm, while thinking about a paper he would write for the Physical Review. Some Verified Experimental Factors in Space Flight seemed like a good title — by Doctor Donald Morris Cargraves, B.S., Sc.D., LL.D., Nobel Prize, Nat. Acad., Fr. Acad., etc. The honors were not yet his — he was merely trying them on for size.
The car ground to a stop outside and Art came in with the mail. “Santa Claus is here!” he greeted them. “One from your folks, Ross, and one from that synthetic blonde you’re sweet on.”
“I’m not sweet on her and she’s a natural blonde,” Ross answered emphatically.
“Have it your own way — you’ll find out. Three for you, Morrie — all business. The rest are yours, Doc,” he finished, holding back the one from his mother. “Hash again,” he added.
“It’s to soften you up for what you’re going to eat on the moon,” said the cook. “Say, Doc-”
“Yes, Morrie?”
“The canned rations are at the express office in town, it says here. I’ll pick `em up this afternoon. The other two are bills. That finishes my check-off list.”
“Good,” he answered absently, as he tore open a letter. “You can help Ross and me on the test stand. That’s the only big job left.” He unfolded the letter and read it.
Then he reread it. Presently Ross noticed that he had stopped eating and said, “What’s the matter, Doc?”
“Well, nothing much, but it’s awkward. The Denver outfit can’t supply the dynamometers for the test stand run.” He tossed the letter to Ross.
“How bad off does that leave us?” asked Morrie.
“I don’t know, yet. I’ll go with you into town. Let’s make it right after lunch; I have to call the East Coast and I don’t want to get boxed in by the time difference.”
“Can do.”
Ross handed the letter back. “Aren’t there plenty of other places to buy them?”
“Hardly `plenty.’ Half-a-million-pound dynamometers aren’t stock items. We’ll try Baldwin Locomotives.”
“Why don’t we make them?” asked Art. “We made our own for the Starstruck series.”‘
Cargraves shook his head. “High as my opinion is of you lugs as good, all-around jack-leg mechanics and pretzel benders, some jobs require special equipment. But speaking of the Starstruck series,” he went on, intentionally changing the subject, “do you guys realize we’ve never named the ship? How does Starstruck VI appeal to you ?”