Space Platform Part 29

Sally touched Joe warningly. But her face was very bright and proud. Joe felt queer.

"Joe," said the Major tiredly, "was an alternate for members.h.i.+p in the Platform's crew. But for penicillin, or something of the sort that made a sick man get well quickly, Joe would be up there in the Platform's...o...b..t now. His--ah--record in the instruction he did take was satisfactory. And--ah--all four of you were very useful in the last stages of the building of the Platform. Again Joe especially.

His--ah--co-operation with higher authorities has produced--ah--very favorable comments. So it is felt that he should have some recognition.

All of you, of course, but Joe especially. So----"

Joe felt himself going white.

"Joe," said the Major, "is to be offered an appointment as skipper of a ferry rocket, carrying supplies and crew reliefs to the Platform.

His rocket will carry a crew of four, including himself.

His--ah--recommendations for members.h.i.+p in his crew will have considerable weight."

There was a buzzing in Joe's ears. He wanted to cry and to dance, and especially right then he would have liked very much to kiss Sally. It would have been the only really appropriate way to express his emotions.

Mike said in a fierce, strained voice: "Joe! I can do anything a big elephant of a guy can do, and I only use a quarter of the grub and air!

You've got to take me, Joe! You've got to!"

The Chief said benignly: "H'm.... I'm gonna be in charge of the engine room, an' Haney'll be bos'n--let Joe try to take off without us!--an'

that don't leave you a rating, Mike, unless you're willin' to be just plain crew!"

Slowly Sally turned her face away from Joe and looked up.

Then they all saw it. A telescope, maybe, would have shown it as the thing they'd worked on and fought for. But it didn't look like that to the naked eye. It was just a tiny speck of incandescence gliding with grave deliberation across the sky. It was a sliver of sunlight, moving as they watched.

There were a good many millions of people watching it, just then, as it floated aloft in emptiness. To some it meant peace and hope and confidence of a serene old age and a life worth living for their children and their children's children. To some it was a fascinating technical achievement. To a few it meant that if wars had ended, and turmoil was no longer the norm of life on earth, this thing would be their destruction. But it meant something to everybody in the world. To the people who had been unable to do anything to help it except to pray for it, perhaps it meant most of all.

Joe said quietly: "We'll be going up there to visit it. All of us."

He realized that Sally's hand was tightly clasped in his. She said: "Me too, Joe?"

"Some day," said Joe, "you too."

He stood up to watch more closely. Sally stood beside him. The others came to look. They made a group on the lawn, as people were grouped everywhere in all the world to gaze up at it.

The s.p.a.ce Platform, a tiny sliver of suns.h.i.+ne, an infinitesimal speck of golden light, moved sedately across the deepening blue toward the east.

Toward the night.

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TOP SECRET

In the little desert town of Bootstrap stands a huge metal shed. In the shed men are building an object that can change the history of mankind.

It is a s.p.a.ce Platform. Propelled to an orbit 4000 miles from Earth this platform will serve as the starting place for man's exploration of mysterious outer s.p.a.ce.

s.p.a.cE PLATFORM tells the exciting story of a young man helping to build this first station. With scientific accuracy and imagination Murray Leinster, one of the world's top science-fiction writers, describes the building and launching of the platform. Here is a fast-paced story of sabotage and murder directed against a project more secret and valuable than the atom bomb!

Cover ill.u.s.tration by Earle Bergey

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