“I thought you were among the top scientists here now!”
“Yes, but—well, frankly, Presthin, I didn’t want anything to do with making Quelf welcome. I said as much, and they respected my wishes.”
Their scudder checked and dropped off the branchway just behind the one carrying Quelf. Yull, compelling herself to be polite, ushered the Fregwil delegation towards the control-house. Contriving to fall back a little, Theng muttered to Albumarak, “No wonder you dislike your old teacher so much! She must be the vainest and most self-important person on the planet! Do you know what she was saying on the way here? Because it was her team that developed the loss-free circuit, we ought to have invited somebody from Fregwil to supervise the construction of the launcher and dictate what missions were flown with it!”
“We’re not all like Quelf,” Presthin countered.
“Ah … No, of course.” Theng exuded embarrassment. “I spoke out of turn. I’m sorry. Well, we’d better go inside, or we shall miss the launch-gap.”
“Is Karg around? Presthin would like to say hello.”
Theng’s expression changed to one of utter surprise. She started to say something, but it was drowned out by the racket of a klaxonplant, warning everybody on the site to prepare for launch. The acceleration imparted to a space-cylinder was relatively gentle now, and created less overpressure than a driver test, but there was still a sonic boom to brace oneself against.
“Inside!” Theng directed, and they hastened to obey.
By now so many launches had occurred, they were reduced to a matter of routine, but this one was made different by Quelf and her companions, who were wandering around demanding the function of this, that and the other device, and on being told declaring that they would have organized things otherwise. Yull withstood the temptation as long as possible, but at last erupted in ill-disguised annoyance.
“Permit me to remind our distinguished visitors that from this site we have achieved four-score successful orbital missions employing gas-globes, and twice that number using the sparkforce launcher! I submit this as evidence for the correctness of our approach!”
Albumarak could guess the nature of Quelf’s retort before it was uttered. She was right.
“And you still haven’t proved that the folk can survive in space. Have you?”
Her tone was harsh, yet unmistakably her exudations contradicted it. She wanted to be told there was an escape from this endangered planet; she simply didn’t want anybody but herself to be the one who gained the credit for making it possible.
Her posture eloquent of disdain, Yull snapped her claw against a far-speaker hanging from a nearby branch. At once a voice rang out.
“On-hauq status is go! I’ve been ready for ages—how much longer do you plan to keep me waiting?”
Karg!
Albumarak padded half a step towards Yull, but Theng caught her by the mantle’s edge.
“Did you really not know?” she demanded.
“I haven’t seen him for nearly a moonlong!”
But there was no time to say anything else. Yull was turning to the visitors again.
“I am about to give the launch command. You will oblige us by remaining still and saying nothing as from—now!”
First the long straight tube began to hum. Apart from its size, in appearance this launcher was not so different from the ranks of rings which once had served to guide under test the primitive drivers known to Chybee, three generations ago. But it operated on a very different principle. Both the amount of sparkforce it could withstand and the subtlety of its controls bore witness to the unstinting effort of its creators, who had condensed five-score years’ worth of development into less than five.
After the humming came the glow. No matter how perfect the insulation of the circuits, there was always a trace of energy that leaked out as light, because matter was matter and would be so until the universe’s end. Ideally it should have been enclosed by vacuum, but the best that could be done was to create a low-pressure zone within the tube. The necessary pumping made a low and grumbling noise.
The cylinder, at this point, began to stir. The charge upon it was enough to counteract its weight.