"No," says M'Clare dreamily, "twenty-two, we're saving one of them."
"What on earth is the use of an extra set of faked documents and
oddments--"
He seems to wake up suddenly and says: "What are you doing here,
Lizzie?"
I explain and he wanders over to the hopper and starts to explain the
controls.
There is something odd about all this. M'Clare is obviously dead
tired, but kind of relaxed; seeing that the hour of Danger is only
thirty-six hours off I don't understand it. Probably several of his
students are going to have to risk their lives--
I am on the point of seeing something important when the speaker
announces in the colonel's voice that Professor M'Clare and Miss Lee
will report to the Conference Room at once please.
M'Clare looks at me and grins. "Come along, Lizzie. Here's where we
take orders for once, you and I."
It is the colonel's Hour. I suppose that having to work with
Undergraduates is something he could never quite forget, but from the way
he looks at us we might almost be Space Force personnel,--low-grade of
course but respectable.
Everything is at last worked out and he has it on paper in front of
him; he puts the paper four square on the table, gazes into the middle
distance and proceeds to recite.
"One. This ship will go off Mass-Time on 2nd August at 11.27 hours
ship's time....
"Thirty-six hours from now.
"... At a point one thousand miles vertically above Co-ordinates
165OE, 7320S, on Planet Incognita, approximately one hour before
midnight local time.
"Going on planetary drive as close as that will indicate that
something is badly wrong to begin with.
"Two. This ship will descend, coupled to _Gilgamesh_ as at present, to
a point seventy miles above the planetary surface. It will then
uncouple, discharge one hopper, and go back on Mass-Time. Estimated
time for this stage of descent forty minutes.
"Three. The hopper will then descend on its own engines at the maximum
speed allowed by the heat-disposal system; estimated at thirty-seven
minutes. _Gilgamesh_ will complete descent in thirty-three minutes.
Engines of _Gilgamesh_ will not be used except for the heat-disposal
and gyro auxiliaries. The following installations have been made to
allow for the control of the descent; a ring of eight rockets in
peltathene mounts around the tail and, and one outsize antigrav unit
inside the nose. "Sympathizer" controls hooked up with a visiscreen
and a computer have also been installed in the nose.
"Four. _Gilgamesh_ will carry one man only. The hopper will carry a
crew of three. The pilot of _Gilgamesh_ will establish the ship on the
edge of the cliff, supported on antigrav a foot or so above the ground
and leaning towards the sea at an angle of approximately 20° with the
vertical. Except for this landing will be automatic.
"Five."
The colonel's voice has lulled us into passive acceptance; now we are
jerked into sharper attention by the faintest possible check in it.
"The greatest danger attaching to the expedition is that the
Incognitans may discover that the crash has been faked. This would be
inevitable if they were to capture (a) the hopper; (b) any of the new
installations in Gilgamesh, especially the antigrav; (c) any member of
the crew.
"The function of the hopper is to pick up the pilot of _Gilgamesh_ and
also to check that ground appearances are consistent. If not, they
will produce a landslip on the cliff edge, using power tools and
explosives carried for the purpose. That is why the hopper has a crew
of three, but the chance of their having to do this is slight."
So I should think; ground appearances are supposed to show that
_Gilgamesh_ landed using emergency rockets and then toppled over the
cliff and this will be exactly what happened.
"The pilot will carry a one-frequency low-power transmitter activated
by the change in magnetic field on leaving the ship. The hopper will
remain at five hundred feet until this signal is received. It will
then pick up the pilot, check ground appearances, and rendezvous with
this ship at two hundred miles up at 18.27 hours."
The ship and the hopper both being radar-absorbent will not register
on alarm systems, and by keeping to planetary nighttime they should
be safe from being seen.
"Danger (b) will be dealt with as follows. The rocket-mounts being of
peltathene will be destroyed by half an hour's immersion in water. The
installations in the nose will be destroyed with Andite."
Andite produces complete colecular disruption in a very short range,
hardly any damage outside it; the effect will be as though the nose
broke off on impact; I suppose the Incognitans will waste a lot of
time looking for it on the bed of the sea.
"Four ten-centimeter cartridges will be inserted within the nose
installations. The fuse will have two alternative settings. The first
will be timed to act at 12.50 hours, seven minutes after the estimated
time of landing. It will not be possible to deactivate it before 12.45
hours. This takes care of the possibility of the pilot's becoming
incapacitated during the descent.
"Having switched off the first fuse the pilot will get the ship into
position and then activate a second, timed to blow in ten minutes. He
will then leave the ship. When the antigrav is destroyed the ship
will, of course, fall into the sea.
"Six. The pilot of _Gilgamesh_ will wear a spacesuit of the pattern
used by the original crew and will carry Personal Background Set
number 23. Should he fail to escape from the ship the crew of the
hopper will on no account attempt to rescue him."
The colonel takes up the paper, folds it in half and puts it down one
inch further away.
"The hopper's crew," he says, "will give the whole game away should
one of them fall into Incognitan hands, alive or dead. Therefore they
don't take any risks of it."