"Let's make it an even twenty," I decided. "We can tie the rest of the
plates on in back and we won't have to load and unload. You go back
and get them while Murphy and I fix up a couple more."
Listless hopped back to the ship and beat it for the asteroid belt. I
set out with Murphy, two plates and a hand excavator. We picked out
spots, bored holes for the pincers, set the points and exploded the
charges that drove them home. I stepped back to look it over. It was
a nice idea. Space ships to order in any conceivable size. And these
little babies were going to nip Dudley right where the hair was short.
We made several more trips to the stock pile and stopped once for a
rest and sleep before the ship came back.
Murphy called my attention to it.
"He's coming in," he said over the space phone. I turned to look. The
_Beerbuster_ was starting her spin. Suddenly Murphy grabbed me.
"Out of the way," he yelled. "That slipstick expert miscalculated his
stop."
I stood and stared at the load of plates aimed straight at my head.
Outhouse threw me one way and jumped the other. But the bundle came to
a stop about twenty-five feet over us.
* * * * *
The air lock opened and Lomack stepped out, a big grin on his face.
He jumped toward us with the tie line in his hand. I picked up my
excavator by the wrong end and started for him.
"You did that on purpose, you undernourished breakfast," I gritted,
diving for him. He stepped out of my way and I landed on a sharp-edged
rock with a very tender part of my anatomy.
"Hold it, Doc, until you see what I brought back." He made the ship
fast and ducked back in the air lock. He came out with a case.
"Here y'are, Doc. Catch." The box sailed through space into my waiting
arms. I caught the Drake label on the side.
"And there are five more like it in the stock room."
"Well," I hesitated. "In that case, I'll excuse you," I told him. I
tossed it back and jumped after it. Murphy followed. He could smell
beer through that helmet. We took off our suits and had a good stretch.
Then we opened up. Lovely, lovely bottles. But not half so good as our
beer was going to be we told each other.
"I thought you boys would like a little refreshment," Listless expanded
under our praise. "But I didn't want to interfere with work so I held
it down to half a dozen."
We went through the first two and then Outhouse and I had a good sleep
in the ship's bunks while Lomack went out to look around and fiddle a
bit. When we woke up we felt like a million, and it wasn't long before
the three of us had the rest of the plates installed and ready to run.
We turned in for a final nap before the big day.
I woke up as nervous as a Martian juju. This was it. Listless was
sitting at the control box, when I came in from breakfast, fingers
ready to press the buttons tied into the plate chambers. Murphy was
running around the ship putting up filters over observation ports at my
suggestion. They still didn't have an inkling of what I was shooting at.
"O.K.," I choked. "Let 'er go."
Listless pressed the main contact. The box warmed up with a steadily
rising hum. The little lights blinked on and the main panel showed
the location of each asteroid. I read the figures off to him and his
fingers ran over the board more nervously than his toes would ever go.
The dots of light on the indicator panel started slowly in motion. They
built up speed, flashing faster and faster around the two focal points
I had calculated.
"Take an observation," I told Murphy, sweating.
He shot a glance out of the bow port, filter in his hand, ready to slap
it on.
"No stuff yet," he reported.
The asteroids were revolving dizzily now.
Suddenly a tremor passed through the ship.
"There she goes!" I screamed. Murphy's eyes bugged out against the
transparent plate.
"There's something out there, Doc," he yelled. "Light by all that's
uncontrollable. It's getting bigger. And brighter!" Lomack was still
madly balancing the orbits, speeding up the asteroids like rocks on
strings. A burst of brilliance came streaming through the forward
observation. Murphy put up the filter.