"I made it. And the satellite's finished."
"It's finished? Good. Now, what we have to do...."
"Wait," Tom interrupted. "It's finished but it's useless."
"What?"
Tom twisted around to look at the completed satellite, its oddly-angled
framework and bulbous machinery glinting fiercely in the newly-risen
sun. "After I finished it I looked through the sighting mechanism to
make certain the satellite's transmitters were correctly aimed at the
settlement. Nobody told me to, but nobody said not to, either, so I
looked. It's a simple mechanism.... The transmitters are pointed smack
in the middle of Hudson's Bay."
"You're sure?"
"Certainly."
"You can rotate the antennas...."
"I know. I tried it. I can turn them as far south as the Great Lakes."
A long pause.
"I was afraid of this," Jason's voice said evenly.
_I'll bet you were_, Tom answered to himself.
"You must have moved the satellite out of position while assembling its
components."
* * * * *
"So my work here comes to nothing because the satellite's power beam
can't reach the settlement's receivers."
"Not ... not unless you use the ship ... to tow the satellite into the
proper orbital position," Jason stammered.
_You actually went through with it_, Tom thought. Aloud, he said, "But
if I use the ship's engine to tow the satellite, I won't have enough
fuel left to get back to Earth, will I?" _Not to mention oxygen._