"Like what?" said Kaufman.
"Like knocking us out of orbit if they can. Like shooting at us if they
have a gun. Like throwing something at us, if they've got nothing
better to do."
"My God," said McNary, "you think they might have brought a gun up
here?"
Morgan began examining the interior of the tiny cabin. Slowly he turned
his head, looking at one piece of equipment after another, visualizing
what was packed away under it and behind it. To the right of the radio
was the spacesuit locker, and his glance lingered there. He reached
over, opened the door and slipped a hand under the suits packed in
the locker. For a moment he fumbled and then he sat back holding an
oxygen flask in his hand. He hefted the small steel flask and looked at
Kaufman. "Can you think of anything better than this for throwing?"
Kaufman took it and hefted it in his turn, and passed it to McNary.
McNary did the same and then carefully held it in front of him and
took his hand away. The flask remained poised in mid-air, motionless.
Kaufman shook his head and said. "I can't think of anything better.
It's got good mass, fits the hand well. It'll do."
Morgan said, "Another thing. We clip extra flasks to our belts and they
look like part of the standard equipment. It won't be obvious that
we're carrying something we can throw."
McNary gently pushed the flask toward Morgan, who caught it and
replaced it. McNary said, "I used to throw a hot pass at Berkeley. I
wonder how the old arm is."
The discussion went on. At one point the radio came to life and
Kaufman had a lengthy conversation with one of the control points on
the surface of the planet below. They talked in code. It was agreed
that the American satellite should not move to make room for the other,
and this information was carefully leaked so the Russians would be
aware of the decision.
The only difficulty was that the Russians also leaked the information
that their satellite would not move, either.
A final check of the two orbits revealed no change. Kaufman switched
off the set.
"That," he said, "is the whole of it."
"They're leaving us pretty much on our own," said McNary.
"Couldn't be any other way," Morgan answered. "We're the ones at the
scene. Besides--" he smiled his tight smile--"they trust us."