Knew at once what to do first.
Went over to Junior and had him print out predicted impacts of all loads in orbit–easy, was a pre-program he could run anytime against real time running. While he was doing it, I looked for certain alternate programs in that long roll Mike had prepared.
Then set up some of those alternate programs–no trouble, simply had to be careful to read them correctly and punch them in without error. Made Junior print back for check before I gave him signal to execute.
When finished–forty minutes–every load in trajectory intended for an inland target had been retargeted for a seacoast city–with hedge to my bet that execution was delayed for rocks farther back. But, unless I canceled, Junior would reposition them as soon as need be.
Now horrible pressure of time was off me, now could abort any load into ocean right up to last few minutes before impact. Now could think. So did.
Then called in my ‘War Cabinet”–Wyoh, Stu, and Greg my “Commander of Armed Forces,” using Greg’s office. Lenore was allowed to go in and out, fetching coffee and food, or sitting and saying nothing. Lenore is a sensible fem and knows when to keep quiet.
Stu started it. “Mr. Prime Minister, I do not think that Great China should be hit this time.”
“Never mind fancy titles, Stu. Maybe I’m acting, maybe not. But haven’t time for formality.”
“Very well. May I explain my proposal?”
“Later.” I explained what I had done to give us more time; he nodded and kept quiet. “Our tightest squeeze is that we are out of communication, both Luna City and Earthside. Greg, how about that repair crew?”
“Not back yet.”
“If break is near Luna City, they may be gone a long time. If can repair at all. So must assume we’ll have to act on our own. Greg, do you have an electronics tech who can jury-rig a radio that will let us talk to Earthside? To their satellites, I mean– that doesn’t take much with right antenna. I may be able to help and that computer tech I sent you isn’t too clumsy, either.” (Quite good, in fact, for ordinary electronics–a poor bloke I had once falsely accused of allowing a fly to get into Mike’s guts. I had placed him in this job.)
“Harry Biggs, my power plant boss, can do anything of that sort,” Greg said thoughtfully, “if he has the gear.”
“Get him on it. You can vandalize anything but radar and computer once we get all loads out of catapult. How many lined up?”
“Twenty-three, and no more steel.”
“So twenty-three it is, win or lose. I want them ready for loading; might lob them off today.”
“They’re ready. We can load as fast as the cat can throw them.”
“Good. One more thing– Don’t know whether there’s an F.N. cruiser–maybe more than one–in our sky or not. And afraid to look. By radar, I mean; radar for skywatch could give away our position. But must have skywatch. Can you get volunteers for an eyeball skywatch and can you spare them?”
Lenore spoke up. “I volunteer!”
“Thanks, honey; you’re accepted.”
“We’ll find them,” said Greg. “Won’t need fems.”
“Let her do it, Greg; this is everybody’s show.” Explained what I wanted: Mare Undarum was now in dark semi-lunar; Sun had set. Invisible boundary between sunlight and Luna’s shadow stretched over us, a precise locus. Ships passing through our sky would wink suddenly into view going west, blink out going east. Visible part of orbit would stretch from horizon to some point in sky. If eyeball team could spot both points, mark one by bearing, other by stars, and approximate time by counting seconds, Junior could start guessing orbit–two passes and Junior would know its period and something about shape of orbit. Then I would have some notion of when would be safe to use radar and radio, and catapult–did not want to loose a load with F.N. ship above horizon, could be radar-looking our way.
Perhaps too cautious–but had to assume that this catapult, this one radar, these two dozen missiles, were all that stood between Luna and total defeat–and our bluff hinged on them never knowing what we had or where it was. We had to appear endlessly able to pound Terra with missiles, from source they had not suspected and could never find.