* * * * *
Of course, I had juggled the computations I had shown Goil a littlebit. And made the course of the asteroid look like it would coincidewith that of the freighter. If I hadn't, Goil would never have givenme the time I needed.
Art Jones had kept the news of the freighter coming in all day. It wasstill on course for Mars. About a half-hour before the freighter crewwas due to leave the ship, the rec room was crowded with men waitingto watch the escape of the crew.
There hadn't been time enough to get a ship in the area that couldblast the freighter off course. And there hadn't been any ship even onMars equipped for such action, not even an old slightly serviceablederelict that could be placed in the runaway ship's path fordeflection.
The long-range scope still had the runaway ship in focus. It lookedlike a little painted miniature in the trideo, with a very slowlymoving spangled background. A faint superimposed image of Marsappeared. The announcer was talking about forces, vectors, and othernavigational terminology, plus nonsensical chatter of probabilityfactors. The picture faded and was replaced with an artist's animatedconception of the impending tragedy. It showed the present location ofthe ship, the calculated course and trajectory of the ship through theatmosphere to the point of impact--right in the center of theindustrial area. It ended with a big question mark before the image ofthe ship returned.
During the sequence of the collision course, I was trying in my mindto figure out just how far off Willy's asteroid would be. I couldfigure it roughly in my head, remembering the original figures I'dgotten from Artie. The asteroid would be no fewer than a million and ahalf miles from the runaway ship, at its nearest point. Besides, itwouldn't emerge from sub-space until it was near Earth, a good seventymillion miles from Mars at that time.
It had taken some belligerent persuasion to get Artie to conjure upthe figures and tapes I gave Goil.
I felt a tap on my shoulder and glanced up. Simon, one of the tugpilots, was pointing toward the back of the room. I looked back.Artie was there with a worried look on his face looking at me. Hiseyes moved quickly toward where Goil sat, and then back at me. Hishead gave a little backwards jerk.
Feeling real unhappy all of a sudden as premonition nudged my mind, Igot up quietly and went back.
Artie had stepped outside in the hall. When he saw me step out of therec room doorway, he motioned me down the hall farther. Gloom was allover his face, even in his motions. He said:
"Sam, I don't know what's going on around here between Willy, Goil,and you. But I thought you'd like to know Goil was in to see me alittle while ago. Before I had much of a chance to think about it, Igave him the figures and tapes for that course I plotted for Willy. Idon't know how Goil knew about them, but he asked for them directly."
"Which figures, Art?" I asked anxiously.
"Why, the ones I made for you. Is there something wrong, Sam?"
My alarm must have shown in my face. I said, "No, Art. I thought maybeyou might have given him that other course I asked you to plot."
"You mean that false course? Hell, Sam. I didn't know--"
"It's all right, Art. You didn't know." And I left him standing therepuzzled. I went back to the rec room.
I wasn't feeling so good by the time I got back. My seat had beentaken, so I wriggled myself a place against the back wall.
Goil knew all about the fictitious course I gave him. Right there hehad me cold. But he was too worried to want to do anything about itthen.
The time seemed to stand still. The crew still had some fifteenminutes before they were due to abandon ship, so I left the rec roomto sneak out to the galley for a cup of coffee. When I entered, therewas Artie and Elmer already having coffee.
Artie said, "Sit down, Sam, and have a cup."
Elmer poured, and I gulped half the cupful down gratefully, then said,"Aren't you two going to watch the runaway crack into Mars?"
"Sure," said Artie. "I've got a small monitor screen in the com room.Want to join us?"
I did and said so. We all drank another cup of coffee and then went tothe communications room. The three of us could sit and comfortablywatch the small monitor.
A series of montages suddenly snapped off the screen to be replaced bythe lonesome ship. This time there was Mars in the near background. Inever could understand how the long-range scope mechanisms managed tobend their energies so that they could literally see behind somethingdirectly in front of them, but they could. That was how they could getMars in the background.
The excited announcer was saying that the crew would abandon ship infour minutes since all hope of a course change was gone. And inanother three hours the runaway would enter atmosphere.
"Sure," Elmer said, "the crew will abandon ship. But where can they goafter they do? Mars, that's where."
"I guess all you can say about it is that they are going right out ofthe fire into the frying pan," Artie said morbidly.
"Yeah," Elmer said. "They sure are. About all they can do is land onMars with the short range of the lifeboats."
"Oh, they got enough range, all right," Artie said. "Only they don'thave enough food and water for all the crew to reach some otherplanet. They have no choice but to try Mars."
"That'll get them there a little while after the crash," Elmer said."In time to get in on the marsquakes and the dust storms."
"Yeah," said Artie, "if they make it through the atmosphere while it'sstill being churned."
"Why don't you guys stow the chatter," I said brusquely. "Let us hearwhat's going on."
The announcer was saying, "... in ninety seconds. All hope ofregaining control of the ship is past. The entire crew is now in thefour lifeboats ready to leave." Then he started a long countdown, afull sixty seconds.
The scope magnified the ship more.
I found myself holding my breath. The countdown neared an end--ended.
And two lifeboats sprang from each side of the freighter.
The scope lost them for a moment, then picked up one pair. They werealmost invisible specks in the background.
In another five minutes they had joined the other pair of lifeboats,and all four were now headed slowly toward Mars, apparently wellbehind the mother ship.
The scope shifted back to the abandoned ship. The announcer wassaying:
"And now take a long last look at this--this compounded missile thatin a few hours may very well destroy a world unless a miracle--"
The scene, the words could not have been more perfectly timed even ina class B trideo space thriller. The racing derelict was framedagainst a background of ruddy Mars, then the next instant the areacompletely around it seemed to blacken out. Then it started glowing,increasing in intensity, expanding, throwing fiery arms wildlyoutward. It became a nova of fury. The scope had it centeredbeautifully. Even the coolest molten blobs could be seen being pushedfrom the mass until the inner hell caught up with them and turned theminto vapor.
A quick-thinking engineer must have thrown a filter somewhere in thescope's innards, for the scene became sort of an X-ray one in whichthe glare of the light no longer impeded vision. The heart of the furycould easily be seen as it expanded itself, feeding and growing on thesolid matter within its reach. The central fury overtook the laggingperimeter forces, engulfed them, then blossomed out, thinned, andbecame a diaphanous curtain rippling and shimmering in an uncertaintyof direction. It waned, leaving a residual flicker that might havebeen only a product of imagination.
The entire magnificent show lasted ten minutes. For each second ofeach minute of that time, I'll swear I held my breath! And everyoneelse in the station at that time would say the same about himself. Itwas that striking, that breath-taking.
Some seconds after the spectacle was over, there was a near-silence.Then cheers broke loose. Such a confined din I hope never to hearagain. The dramatic suspense had been so effectively communicated forso many hours, the miraculous sudden release seemed to demand anover-compensating effect. Everyone seemed suddenly to believe it
anexcellent reason to celebrate--and they certainly did!
* * * * *
Speculation as to what caused the explosion ran riot. But to me it wasplainly Willy's influence reaching out to a company ship's crew andMars personnel. It might seem that I had gambled a little too much onWilly's influence, but not really. I had observed and recorded thatparticular synergism and had every confidence in the results. Willy'sRube Goldberg had a combination of built-in errors which produced aseries of compensating course alterations that made the asteroidde-energize and materialize right smack in normal space where thefreighter was--after the crew escaped.
The blackness that had been noticeable for an instant was, of course,the asteroid coming out of sub-space. And with the runaway trying