The Rolling Stones by Robert A. Heinlein
The Rolling Stones by Robert A. Heinlein
© 1952 Robert A Heinlein
FIRST NEL PAPERBACK EDITION FEBRUARY 1971
Contents
I — THE UNHEAVENLY TWINS
II — A CASE FOR DRAMATIC LICENSE
III — THE SECOND-HAND MARKET
IV — ASPECTS OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING
V — BICYCLES AND BLAST-OFF
VI — BALLISTICS AND BUSTER
VII — IN THE GRAVITY WELL
VIII — THE MIGHTY BOOM
IX — ASSETS RECOVERABLE
X — PHOBOS PORT
XI — ‘WELCOME TO MARS!’
XII — FREE ENTERPRISE
XIII — CAVEAT VENDOR
XIV — FLAT CATS FACTORIAL
XV — ‘INTER JOVEM ET MARTEM PLANETAM INTERPOSUI’
XVI — ROCK CITY
XVII — FLAT CATS FINANCIAL
XVIII — THE WORM IN THE MUD
XIX — THE ENDLESS TRAIL
I — THE UNHEAVENLY TWINS
The two brothers stood looking the old wreck over. ‘Junk,’ decided Castor.
‘Not junk,’ objected Pollux. ‘A jalopy — granted. A heap any way you look at it. A clunker possibly. But not junk.’
‘You’re an optimist, Junior.’ Both boys were fifteen; Castor was twenty minutes older than his brother.
‘I’m a believer, Grandpa — and you had better be, too. Let me point out that we don’t have money enough for anything better. Scared to gun it?’
Castor stared up the side of the ship. ‘Not at all — because that thing will never again rise high enough to crash. We want a ship that will take us out to the Asteroids — right? This superannuated pogo stick wouldn’t even take us to Earth.’
‘It will when I get through hopping it up — with your thumb-fingered help. Let’s look through it and see what it needs.’
Castor glanced at the sky. ‘Its getting late.’ He looked not at the Sun making long shadows on the lunar plain, but at Earth, reading the time from the sunset line now moving across the Pacific.
‘Look, Grandpa, are we buying a ship or are we getting to supper on time?’
Castor shrugged. ‘As you say, Junior.’ He lowered his antenna, then started swarming up the rope ladder left there for the accommodation of prospective customers. He used his hands only and despite his cumbersome vacuum suit his movements were easy and graceful. Pollux swarmed after him. Castor cheered up a bit when they reached the control room. The ship had not been stripped for salvage as completely as had many of the ships on the lot. True, the ballistic computer was missing but the rest of the astrogation instruments were in place and the controls to the power room seemed to be complete. The space-battered old hulk was not a wreck, but merely obsolete. A hasty look at the power room seemed to confirm this.
Ten minutes later Castor, still mindful of supper, herded Pollux down the ladder. When Castor reached the ground Pollux said, ‘Well?’
‘Let me do the talking.’
The sales office of the lot was a bubble dome nearly a mile away; they moved toward it with the easy, fast lope of old Moon hands. The office airlock was marked by a huge sign:
DEALER DAN
THE SPACESHIP MAN
CRAFT OF ALL TYPES
***
SCRAP METAL
***
SPARE PARTS
FUELING & SERVICE
(AEC License No. 739024)
They cycled through the lock and unclamped each other’s helmets. The outer office was crossed by a railing; back of it sat a girl receptionist. She was watching a newscast while buffing her nails. She spoke without taking her eyes off the TV tank:
‘We’re not buying anything, boys — nor hiring anybody.’
Castor said ‘You sell spaceships?’
She looked up. ‘Not often enough.’
‘Then tell your boss we want to see him.’
Her eyebrows went up. ‘Whom do you think you are kidding, sonny boy? Mr Ekizian is a busy man.’
Pollux said to Castor, ‘Let’s go over to the Hungarian, Cas. These people don’t mean business.’
‘Maybe you’re right.’
The girl looked from one to the other, shrugged, and flipped a switch. ‘Mr Ekizian — there are a couple of Boy Scouts out here who say they want to buy a spaceship. Do you want to bother with them?’
A deep voice responded, ‘And why not? We got ships to sell.’ Shortly a bald-headed, portly man, dressed in a cigar and a wrinkled moonsuit, came out of the inner office and rested his hands on the rail. He looked them over shrewdly but his voice was jovial. ‘You wanted to see me?’