If at First You Don't... Page 3
issued the order to retrieve her.
_Senator D:_ Aha! (to the recording secretary) Did you get that? Andnow, Admiral, will you explain to this committee why this action, inview of the exigencies of the present situation, didn't strike you assingularly high handed, not to say out of your jurisdiction?
_Admiral F:_ (after a whispered consultation with an aide) Well, sir,there is a precedent. May I recall to your attention an incidentrecorded in Navy history about eighty years ago. An officer of flagrank, if my memory holds, in defiance of instructions and in a damagedship, at great danger to himself and his crew, acting on an operationalplan which had been scathingly disapproved by his superiors, went to therescue ... the successful rescue ... of a three-man Lunar explorationparty which had become lost near the south scarp of Sinus Iridum. Theofficer's name, I am almost certain, was Captain Steven Darius ... theSenator's grandfather, I believe ... an officer the Navy will nevercease to honor.
_Senator D:_ (shuffling papers, clearing throat, wiping glasses) Well,ah, yes Admiral ... I do recall something along those lines. Of course,this is different ... altogether different. But at the same time, sir, amost interesting parallel. The ... ah ... the committee will recessuntil two o'clock. You are excused, Admiral. And ... oh, yes ... ifyou're free, sir ... possibly you might join me at lunch?
* * * * *
"If I were you, chief," said Clements soothingly, "I would just stopworrying about your jurisdiction in this thing. Beta's out of orbit, andwe no longer have a problem. How nice can things be?"
Jordan gritted his teeth and wadded up paper with an odd gesture, asthough his fingers were encircling someone's neck.
"You will be sorry you said that," he said peevishly. "Whatever happensI'm going to assign it to you for action while I sit on the bench andcheer." He rang for Gerry. "What's happening now ... I haven't been outof here in three hours."
Clements stretched out on the Vibrolounge and turned it on.
"The president," he began, as the machine went to work, "has called anarbitration meeting. Everyone's in on it ... Darius, Flack, Criswell,Wamboldt, Larkin and the Lord knows who else. They are supposed to cometo some sort of agreement as to what's to be done. The minutes of themeeting are expected to take the form of a recommendation to congressfor action. By way of the Advisory Committee for Astronautics withDarius introducing the motion, of course."
"Of course," echoed Jordan. "Who else could?"
The door opened, and the huge glasses of Gerry peered in.
"Yes, chief?"
"Get on your telephone and finagle a way to route the first pressrelease from this big arbitration meeting direct to my DeskFax. Can do?"
Gerry nodded.
"No sweat, boss," she said and backed out.
"Now," said Jordan, returning to Clements, "you can get your overweightcarcass out of my chair and let me into it. Sit on the hot seat for awhile. I'll relax and you read the news when it comes in. It'll be yourbad luck, not mine."
The facsimile machine gave a little chug and began unwinding a palegreen, endless sheet. Clements began to read from it.
"In an unprecedented session at the White House today the Presidentrevealed that a unanimous decision had been reached regarding the fateof '58 Beta will be placed in the the congress for action it wasrecommended that a solid copy of the historic satellite, complete withmeteor pits, be made and placed in a special display in the SmithsonianInstitution. The original itself, '58 Beta will be placed in the thirdstage payload compartment of the Smithsonian's Vanguard missile and ...in an historic re-enactment of the first launch ... will be injectedinto permanent orbit about the Earth."
There was a loud snap as Jordan turned off the Vibrolounge. In a single,convulsive movement he was on his feet and around the desk.
"Get out of my chair," he yelled at Clements. "Let me at that phone! GetGerry in here! Get Flack on the telephone ... try to catch him at theWhite House if you can! And get Administration to send over some forms!"
Clements started for the other phone ... then stopped and stared atJordan.
"Forms?" he repeated slowly. "What kind of forms?"
Jordan's answer rattled the windows.
"Resignation forms, you idiot!"
* * * * *
General Criswell walked briskly to the front of the conference room. Hetook chalk in one hand and pointer in the other. He rapped sharply onthe desk with the pointer and sent a keen, Air Force type glance overhis assembled staff.
"Gentlemen, by direction of Congress and under orders issued by theSecretary of Defense the Air Force has been assigned the mission ofrelaunching satellite '58 Beta. The launching vehicle will be either theSmithsonian exhibit Vanguard or a duplicate if the old one proves to bestructurally unsuitable.
"To help you understand the magnitude of the problem involved and, ofcourse, to give you guidelines for additional staffing, I will reviewfor you the major techniques utilized in the original Vanguardlaunchings. I have had copies of the 1958 launch documentary filmsprinted for each department. They represent excellent source materialfor your planning sessions.
"Now, gentlemen ... the original Vanguard was the classic example ofwhat we now call, somewhat facetiously I'm afraid, the hybrid propulsionsystem. It utilized chemical fuels throughout ... liquid oxygen andkerosene in the first stage, fuming nitric acid and unsymmetricaldimethyl-hydrazine in the second stage and an unknown form of solidpropellant in the third stage."
* * * * *
A buzz of nervous comment ran through the assembled officers, andsitting in the back row, Jordan felt his blood run cold. Where, hewondered in a sort of dreadful daze, would they even find a crew to workon this project. No sane Launch Monitor he had ever known would even gonear such a bomb, much less work on it.
The General rambled on.
"Now the guidance system, gentlemen, may at first strike you as ratherincredible. However, it worked remarkably well in the original, andthere seems no reason to suppose we cannot force it to repeat. I foreseesome difficulty in finding manufacturers whose shop practices areflexible enough ... or sloppy enough, if you prefer ... to turn out apiece of mechanical gear to such low tolerances. However, we will askfor bids and award to the lowest; that should do it. It always has inthe past at any rate." He paused to allow the chuckles to subside.
Jordan crept quietly out and headed for his office.
Clements was busy supervising the placement of two new file cabinets.When he saw Jordan's face, he turned directly to his desk, poured alemonade and handed it to his chief. Jordan took the glass, pausedthoughtfully, opened a drawer and added a couple shots of gin.
Clements raised his eyebrows encouragingly, but Jordan simply drank andshook his head dully.
"Horrible," he said. "Horrible, horrible."
He turned and walked slowly back to the conference.
By this time General Criswell had a film showing in progress.
"This, gentlemen," he was saying, "was the famous launch attempt ofDecember sixth, 1957."
Jordan had never seen the film, and he watched in fascination as thelaunch crew scurried about their duties. Propellants and explosivespeople appeared, waddling in grotesque acid suits. Liquid oxygen boiloff made a hazy lake in which men walked with apparent unconcern.
Then, from a fixed and apparently unattended camera came a steady,portentous view of the rocket ... sleek and so incredibly slim thatJordan wondered why on Earth it didn't simply topple over and be donewith it.
The sound track came to life with sudden, brassy violence. Someone wascounting backward. When he reached zero, the first stage engine burstinto life, the rocket lifted off its platform, slowed, began to tiltslowly to one side and settled back into the stand. No, it kept right ongoing through the stand. The rear section began to crumple. Then therewas a horrible burst of flame which engulfed the lower part of therocket and then, with perfectly savage violence, erupted in greatbillowing bursts o
f fire until only the extreme tip of the missile wasvisible. The conical top of the first stage fell off and disappearedinto the inferno rather like an ice cream cone falling into the sun. Thefilm stopped at this point.
"That," said General Criswell matter-of-factly, "was the end of thefirst launch attempt. You will note, gentlemen, that not only was thevehicle structurally weak, but it also burned well, once ignited. Thesetwo points, I dare say, will exercise considerable influence over ourhandling of this project."
Jordan, sick to his stomach, got up again and left the conference, thistime for good.
* * * * *
Once begun the program proceeded feverishly. A corps of designers rootedthrough every available shred of data: microfilm, old blueprints andancient