Wade dropped his outstretched hand as the big man ignored him. Ackerson
turned his back and began to climb the metal rungs leading up the hull
of the ship.
Tomer, Wade thought. If only it could be Tomer instead of Ackerson.
He waited until the blond man entered the hatch before he climbed into
the jeep. He glanced once more at the silver hull of the _Starfrost_,
then he jammed down on the accelerator. Hate was a word Wade seldom
used. There was too much of it in the world already. But he was
beginning to hate Ackerson.
He parked the jeep beside the concrete and steel structure housing
Operations. The instant his hand touched the door handle he tried to
cease being Wade Boeman the man. He tried to become Colonel Wadon G.
Boeman, senior officer in charge of 'Operation Boomerang,' with no
personal feelings. It didn't come off fully.
The four walls were lined with banks of instruments. Small lights
flickered and died, only to come alive again the next instant. A man
coughed.
He nodded at a communications man, a civilian, as he hurried to the
small table where the television set was resting. The closed circuit
showed the _Starfrost_ resting alone on the sand with her nose pointed
toward the sky.
He took off his cap, then lighted a cigarette. He checked his wrist
watch with the large clock on the wall. He set the sweep second hand to
coincide with the larger one.
"Twelve minutes, Colonel," someone behind Wade said.
He wiped his dry lips as he flicked his eyes in the direction of the
Major in charge of the control panel. The Major gave him a tight smile.
Wade nodded. Major Gormely was a good man ... they were all good men.
Wade felt proud to be part of the team.
He took in the radar man checking the never-ending sweep of the beam.
Frank Piluis, a tall, lanky man of twenty-three. He was checking the
screen, adjusting, as if his own life depended on its operation instead
of a man he hardly knew.
Wade checked his own screen again.
The _Starfrost_ was so silent ... so latent ... so important. Wade
found Tomer creeping into his thoughts again. He shut the thought out
quickly. Wade was a military man. He had orders to forget Tomer. He
gave orders. He also had to take them.
Wade became mindful of someone standing behind him. He turned. The man
was tall, wearing the cloak of authority in the very way he smiled.
Distinguished looking streaks of gray ran over his once brown hair.
Tiny wrinkles at the eyes told that he was a man with a sense of humor
even though pressed with responsibility.
"A penny for your thoughts, Wade." The Secretary of Defense said as
Boeman got up. Wade wondered if the man had been in the control room
all the time. He hadn't seen him.
"They aren't worth it, Harry," he answered, offering his hand.
"As bad as that," the Secretary laughed. "Here we are on the edge of
a History making moment and you're wasting your time with worthless
thoughts."
Worthless thoughts. Wade wondered if they were, really.
Wade first met Harry Lowe a long time ago when the project was just a
dream on the drawing boards. Since that time he had come to know the
Secretary intimately. Now, suddenly, he felt awkward before the man.
Perhaps it was because Lowe seemed to have a special talent for reading
peoples' expressions, converting them into sentences. Like now, Wade
felt the man was reading his face like a book.
"That's right, Harry. History is being made isn't it?"
The Secretary's face became very serious. "More than that, Wade.
Perhaps salvation depends on it."
"Ten minutes," a voice said.
Wade nodded at the technician. Tiny lights came into play on
the control panel as Major Gormely began closing circuits. The
communications man made a final type check on the huge P.C.R. set.
"_Starfrost._ This is Mother. How do you read me? Over."
"Mother. This is _Starfrost_. Loud and clear. Five by five." Ackerson's
strong voice came from the loud-speaker located in the center of the
equipment. "Oxygen checks. I've bedded down. Give the Colonel my love."
The radio man looked at Wade. There had been no mistaking the sarcasm
in Ackerson's voice. Wade felt his face grow red.
"He hasn't changed," he heard the Secretary say.
"No. He hasn't changed." Wade said softly.
"Don't let it throw you, Wade. You've done a good job. We both know
that nothing counts but the Project."
_Nothing counts but the project._ Personal feelings, ideals, not even
human lives. _Nothing counts but the project._ How many times had he
said that to himself, trying to be convincing.
"It's Tomer. Isn't it?" the Secretary said.
Wade's eyes locked with those of the older man. There was no sense
going over that now. They had had it out a dozen times already.
"That and other things," he said.
"Like Ackerson's attitude, I suppose."
"Like Ackerson's attitude."
The Secretary gave a tight smile. "We all have reasons for doing
things, Wade. To you this is a military feat that could spell security
for years to come. To me it does that and more. It could be the opening
of a new frontier, something that will provide a new outlet for
humanity instead of war."
Wade said: "And to Ackerson it will mean fame and fortune. Nothing
more. His name will go in the history books. There will be personal
appearances, contracts, money. He has no feelings at all about what
this will mean to his country."
The Secretary nodded. "You're a professional military man, Wade. You're
making it your life. I understand how you feel."
Wade laughed bitterly, inside. _Did_ Harry know how he felt? Did he
think that military men were just brass and polish with no feelings, no
friends to worry about, no cares outside of regulations and orders!
"Eight minutes." The voice came again.
Wade left the Secretary, went to the mike resting on the communications
desk.
"_Starfrost._ This is Mother," he said.
"Go ahead, Mother." Ackerson recognized his voice.
"Double check everything. Repeat. Double check everything, oxygen,
hammock straps, loose objects, everything."
"Relax, Mother! You sound like you're going to have another baby."
Ackerson laughed over the loud-speaker.
Wade gave the mike back to the radio man carefully. He walked back to
the small television screen and sat down. The _Starfrost_ looked like a
silver monument standing alone out there on the sand. Soon there would
be nothing there but sand. Wade felt like a mother hen waiting for her
first egg.
He adjusted the contrast, brightened the picture. Perhaps the Secretary
was right. Everyone had their reasons for doing things. He wondered
what Tomer's were?
"Do you think he will make it, Wade?"
The Secretary sat down on the edge of the desk. He looked out of place.
He should have been behind one, a large mahogany one.
"I think he will," Wade said softly. "The test ship we sent made it.
There is no reason to believe a ship with a man in it should fail."
"Do you want him to make it?"
The words jarred Boeman. He searched the Secretary's face. "Of course I
do. What makes you say a thing like that?"
The Secretary toyed with his tie. He said nothing.
Wade got up. He could feel the anger begin to seep through his body.
"You know what this trip means to me--to the country." He faced the
gray-haired man squarely. "If you're insinuating that I want him to
fail because I disagree with his reasons for volunteering, you're
wrong. Dead wrong."
Wade found himself lighting a cigarette. "Sure. I dislike Ackerson.
Dislike him violently. I've taken more lip from him in the past months
than I've taken during my entire life. And when he returns that will be
finished or I'll finish him. One way or another." Wade inhaled deeply.
"It's the project that counts. Only the project. It's bigger than one
man ... it's bigger than all of us put together."
Lowe smiled. His face seemed younger. "I knew you felt that way, Wade.
I just wanted you to say it for your own benefit. Perhaps it will make
this entire thing easier for you."
The Secretary moved then, over to the communication panel.
"Three minutes," someone said.
Wade looked at the narrow back of Harry Lowe. And he knew how the man
became Secretary of Defense. It was shrewd getting him to open up
like that. They both knew how lucky they were to have Allen Ackerson.
Finding men capable of making such a flight hadn't been easy. Of the
dozen volunteers only Ackerson remained. Mental and physical tests had
eliminated all but a few. Those remaining were unfit for space travel,
weeded out by the psychological teams, unable to cope with the morbid
phobia of being alone so long wrapped in a metal cocoon. Only Ackerson
and Tomer had succeeded. Now there was only Ackerson.
"Colonel!" Wade turned and faced the rawboned sergeant standing beside
him. Meyers was a big man with a deep tan browning his face.
"What is it, sergeant?"
Meyers handed him a large white envelope. "Captain Ackerson said to
give this to you just before take-off."
"Thanks, sergeant."
"Two minutes," someone said. Wade stuffed the envelope inside his
jacket. Then he hurried over to the radar man. The envelope had to
wait, there was no time now.
"Are we set?" he asked. The man nodded as he adjusted the dials. Wade
smiled. These men were experts in their fields. To double check them
would be to insult them. Besides, this wasn't the first time for them.
The same crew had been operating when they fired the test rocket. He
knew they wouldn't fail.
"One minute ... 59 ... 58 ... 57...." Wade found himself counting under
his breath while he stared at the small screen on the table. Would
the reactors work? They would go on at 30. And the _Starfrost_! Would
it lift--or would it, like some others before it, slowly hesitate,
then begin a weird, frightening slide to the side to become a flaming
blowtorch of death.
"30!" Major Gormely closed the switch. Wade became conscious of the
Secretary watching the screen with him.
"... 5 ... 4 ... 3 ... 2...." The counter continued. "FIRE!"
The _Starfrost_ shivered.
Wade felt his heart skip a beat. Slowly, ever so slowly, the huge ship
began to move. Dust, sand and smoke mingled with the sheets of flame
pouring from her stern. The platform disappeared in a puff of smoke.
The _Starfrost_ lifted.
"Thank God!" the Secretary sighed.
"Amen." Wade muttered. He took out another cigarette. He was glad it
had begun; the project. Now there was only the long wait.
"Ackerson's a brave man." The Secretary said.
"Of course he is." Wade never had any doubts about Allen's intestinal
fortitude. The man had a good war record. Confidence seemed to ooze
out of the man. It was his attitude, damn it.
Wade drew deeply on the cigarette. Tomer had been the same type in many
ways. Eager, filled with the enthusiasm, unafraid. A small man compared
to the blond Ackerson, he seemed to carry himself tall. And his
attitude. He felt the same intensity about National defense as Boeman
did himself. Perhaps that was another reason he had felt close to the
boy. Tomer would have made this trip with no thought whatsoever about
the financial rewards or what the history books would have to say about
him.
"... Sixty thousand ..." someone said.
"Start communication," Wade commanded automatically.
"Romeo." The commo picked up the small hand mike. All eyes in the room
centered on the silent speaker on the wall.
"_Starfrost._ This is Mother. How do you read me, over?"
The speaker remained silent.
"_Starfrost._ Can you read me. Over!"
* * * * *
The Secretary looked at Wade. His face was tight and drawn. "What do
you think, Wade. Are we getting through?"
"It's hard to say. He's moving pretty fast. He could outrun the signal.
We've never had a practical voice test."
Lowe's face had a worried expression covering it. "Didn't you have
communications with the test rocket?"
"That was unmanned ... remember?"
"This silence doesn't worry you?" the Secretary asked with amazement.
"Ackerson was trained for this. He knows there is nothing we can do for
him. _He's on his own._ Communications would be to our advantage, to be
sure. But Ackerson knows that ship like you know the back of your hand.
Besides ... perhaps he is too busy to answer right now. He has to be
sure there is no wobble."
"Wobble!"
"Sure. The ship could begin to oscillate. If it does that he is done.
He has to keep his eye on the gyro."
The Secretary's eyes penetrated. "I can't help but feel that you would
be more concerned if Tomer were in the _Starfrost_ instead of Ackerson.
Wade ... don't let the fact that you hate Ackerson cloud the issue. He
is doing us a great service."
"Stop it, Harry!"
"After all. The first man to circle the Moon is entitled to a place in
the history books. I can share his feelings, in a way. It's a great
thing he's doing."
"Others have done more," Wade said sharply.
"Of course they have. But remember one thing. If Ackerson succeeds we
will get the appropriations we need to _build_ up there on that cold
chunk of rock. We need that ... need it badly."
"I tell you we have nothing to worry about yet," Wade said quickly.
"Have it your way, Wade. But remember, we can't land on the Moon until
we have appropriations for installations. It all takes money; landing
sites, protection against the elements, and most important, take-off
facilities. It's a big order. Ackerson can give us all of that if he is
successful. The public will back us to the limit if we prove we have
mastered space travel." The Secretary watched Wade carefully. "Ackerson
_is_ important!"
"I never said he wasn't."
"I know, Wade." The Secretary toyed with his tie. "But did you let your
feelings toward Tomer interfere with your attitude toward Ackerson?
He came to me you know, about halfway through the course. He said you
were babying Tomer to the point where it was interfering with _his_
instruction."
"He lied," Wade cut in. He threw down the cigarette he was holding and
ground his heel into it. "You know me better than that!"
"Of course. But perhaps Ackerson did have _something_. Perhaps you
spent more time with Tomer than you intended. Unconsciously you may
have favored him to the point where Ackerson did suffer."
Wade let his eyes wander over to the small television screen. It was
still operating. Flat, empty sand and a burned out area was all that
remained of the _Starfrost_. He wondered: Did I do that? Did I forget
to teach Ackerson something while I was working with Tomer?
The loud-speaker crackled.
"Mother. This is _Starfrost_. Over."
The operations room came alive. Wade and Lowe hurried over to
stand beneath the speaker, as if that would put them closer to the
_Starfrost_.
"Go ahead, _Starfrost_. This is Mother." The communications man held
the mike in a hand that wasn't quite as steady as it should be.
"This is _Starfrost_. Everything in the green. Repeat, everything in
the green. Over."