VI - BALLISIICS AND BUSTER

Blasting off from Luna is not the terrifying and oppressive experience that a lift from Earth is. The Moon's field is so weak, her gravity well so shallow, that a boost of one-g would suffice - just enough to produce Earth-normal weight.

Captain Stone chose to use two gravities, both to save time and to save fuel by getting quickly away from Luna - "quickly' because any reactive mass spent simply to hold a spaceship up against the pull of a planet is an 'overhead' cost; it does nothing toward getting one where one wants to go. Furthermore, while the Rolling Stone would operate at low thrust she could do so only by being very wasteful of reactive mass, i.e., by not letting the atomic pile heat the hydrogen hot enough to produce a really efficient jet speed.

So he caused the Stone to boost at two gravities for slightly over two minutes. Two gravities - a mere nothing! The pres­sure felt by a wrestler pinned to the mat by the body of his opponent - the acceleration experienced by a child in a school-yard swing - hardly more than the push resulting from standing up very suddenly.

But the Stone family had been living on Luna; all the children had been born there - two gravities was twelve times what they were used to.

Roger's headache, which had quieted under the sedative his wife had prescribed for him, broke out again with renewed strength. His chest felt caved in; he fought for breath and he had to read and reread the accelerometer to convince himself that the ship had not run wild.

After checking over his board and assuring himself that all was going according to plan even if it did feel like a major catastrophe he turned his head heavily. "Cas? You all right?"

Castor gasped, "Sure Skipper... tracking to flight plan.

"Very well, sir." He turned his face to his inter-com link. "Edith -"

There was no answer. "Edith"

This time a strained voice replied, "Yes, dear."

"Are you alright?"

" Yes, dear. Meade and I... are all right. The baby is having a bad time."

He was about to call the power room when Castor reminded him of the passage of time. "Twenty seconds! Nineteen! Eighteen -"

He tumed his eyes to the brennschluss timer and poised his hand on the cut-off switch, ready to choke the jet if the autopilot s­hould fail. Across from him Castor covered him should he fail; below in the power room Hazel was doing the same thing, hand trembling over the cut-off.

As the timer flashed the last half second, as Castor shouted, "Brennschluss!", three hands slammed at three switches - but the autopilot had beaten them to it. The jet gasped as its liquid food was suddenly cut off from it; damper plates quenched the seeking neutrons in the atomic pile - and the Stone was in free orbit, falling toward Earth in a sudden, aching silence broken only by the whispering of the airconditioner.

Roger Stone reswallowed his stomach, "Power room!" he rasped. "Report!"

He could hear Hazel sighing heavily. "Okay, son," she said feebly, "but mind that top step - it's a dilly!"

"Cas, call the port. Get a doppler check."

"Aye aye, sir." Castor called the radar & doppler station at Leyport. The Rolling Stone had all the usual radar and piloting instruments but a spaceship cannot possibly carry equipment of the size and accuracy of those mounted as pilot aids at all ports and satellite stations. "Rolling Stone to Luna Pilot - come in, Luna Pilot." While he called he was warming up their own radar and doppler-radar, preparing to check the performance of their own instruments against the land-based standards. He did this without being told, it being a co-pilot's routine duty.

"Luna Pilot to Rolling Stone."

"Rolling Stone to Luna Pilot - request range, bearing and separation rate, and flight plan deviations, today's flight fourteen - plan as field; no variations."

"We're on you. Stand by to record."

"Standing by," answered Castor and flipped the switch on the recorder. They were still so close to the Moon that the speed-of-light lag in transmission was unnoticeable.

A bored voice read off the reference time to the nearest half second, gave the double co-ordinates of their bearing in terms of system standard - corrected back to where the Moon had been at their blast-off - then gave their speed and distance relative to Luna with those figures also corrected back to where the Moon had been. The corrections were comparatively small since the Moon ambles along at less than two-thirds of a mile per second, but the corrections were utterly necessary. A pilot who disregarded them would find himself fetching up thousands or even millions of miles from his destination.

The operator added, "Deviation from flight plan negligible. A very pretty departure, Rolling Stone."

Castor thanked him and signed off. "In the groove, Dad!"

"Good. Did you get our own readings?"

"Yes, sir. About seven seconds later than theirs."

"Okay. Run 'em back on the flight line and apply the vectors. I want a check." He looked more closely at his son; Castor's complexion was a delicate chartreuse. "Say, didn't you take your pills?"

"Uh, yes, sir. It always hits me this way at first. I'll be all right."

"You look like a week-old corpse."

"You don't look so hot yourself, Dad."

"I don't feel so hot, just between us. Can you work that prob, or do you want to sack in for a while?"

"Sure I can!"

"Well... mind your decimal places."

"Aye aye, Captain."

"I'm going aft." He started to unstrap, saying into the inter­com as he did so, "All hands, unstrap at will. Power room, secure the pile and lock your board."

Hazel answered, "I heard the flight report, Skipper. Power room secured."

"Don't anticipate my orders, Hazel - unless you want to walk back."

She answered, "I expressed myself poorly, Captain. What I mean to say is, we are now securing the power room, as per your orders, sir. There - it's done. Power room secured!"

"Very well, Chief." He smiled grimly, having noted by the tell tales on his own board that the first report was the correct one; she had secured as soon as she had known they were in the groove. Just as he had feared: playing skipper to a crew of rugged individualists was not going to be a picnic. He grasped the centre stanchion, twisted around so that he faced aft and floated through the hatch into the living quarters.

He wiggled into the bunkroom and checked himself by a handhold. His wife, daughter, and least child were all un­strapped. Dr. Stone was manipulating the child's chest and stomach. He could not see just what she was doing but it was evident that Lowell had become violently nauseated - Meade, glassy-eyed herself, was steadying herself with one hand and trying to clean up the mess with the other. The boy was still unconscious.

Roger Stone felt suddenly worse himself. "Good grief!" His wife looked over her shoulder. "Get my injection kit," she ordered. "In the locker behind you. I've got to give him the antidote and get him awake. He keeps trying to swallow his tongue."

He gulped. "Yes, dear, Which antidote?"

"Neocaffeine - one c.c. Move!"

He found the case, loaded the injector, handed it to Dr. Stone. She pressed it against the child's side. "What else can I do?" he asked.

"Nothing."

"Is he in any danger?"

"Not while I have an eye on him. Now get out and ask Hazel to come here."

"Yes, dear. Right away." He swam on aft, found his mother sitting in midair, looking pleased with herself. Pollux was still loosely secured to his control couch. "Everything all right back here?" he asked.