The Complete Stories (Page 192)

Stuart was intrigued. He said, "You know it’s a video sort of idea, but it might work if we had a hero to spare. Have we?"

"What about you?" demanded Porter, indignantly. "You go around sneering at us with your cheap wisecracks. I don’t notice you volunteering for anything."

"That’s because I’m no hero, Porter. I admit it. My object is to stay alive, and shinnying down steam-tubes is no way to go about staying alive. But the

rest of you are noble patriots. The colonel says so. What about you, Colonel? You’re the senior hero here."

Windham said, "If I were younger, blast it, and if you had your hands, I would take pleasure, sir, in trouncing you soundly."

"I’ve no doubt of it, but that’s no answer."

"You know very well that at my time of life and with my leg-" he brought the flat of his hand down upon his stiff knee- "I am in no position to do anything of the sort, however much I should wish to."

"Ah, yes," said Stuart, "and I, myself, am crippled in the hands, as Pory-orketes tells me. That saves us. And what unfortunate deformities do the rest of us have?"

"Listen," cried Porter, "I want to know what this is all about. How can anyone go down the steam-tubes? What if the Kloros use them while one of us is inside?"

"Why, Porter, that’s part of the sporting chance. It’s where the excitement comes in."

"But he’d be boiled in the shell like a lobster."

"A pretty image, but inaccurate. The steam wouldn’t be on for more than a very short time, maybe a second or two, and the suit insulation would hold that long. Besides, the jet comes scooting out at several hundred miles a minute, so that you would be blown clear of the ship before the steam could even warm you. In fact, you’d be blown quite a few miles out into space, and after that you would be quite safe from the Kloros. Of course, you couldn’t get back to the ship."

Porter was sweating freely. "You don’t scare me for one minute, Stuart."

"I don’t? Then you’re offering to go? Are you sure you’ve thought out what being stranded in space means? You’re all alone, you know; really all alone. The steam-jet will probably leave you turning or tumbling pretty rapidly. You won’t feel that. You’ll seem to be motionless. But all the stars will be going around and around so that they’re just streaks in the sky. They won’t ever stop. They won’f even slow up. Then your heater will go off, your oxygen will give out, and you will die very slowly. You’ll have lots of time to think. Or, if you are in a hurry, you could open your suit. That wouldn’t be pleasant, either. I’ve seen faces of men who had a torn suit happen to them accidentally, and it’s pretty awful. But it would be quicker. Then-"

Porter turned and walked unsteadily away.

Stuart said, lightly, "Another failure. One act of heroism still ready to be knocked down to the highest bidder with nothing offered yet."

Polyorketes spoke up and his harsh voice roughed the words. "You keep on talking, Mr. Big Mouth. You just keep banging that empty barrel. Pretty soon, we’ll kick your teeth in. There’s one boy I think would be willing to do it now, eh, Mr. Porter?"

Porter’s look at Stuart confirmed the truth of Polyorketes’ remarks, but he said nothing.

Stuart said, "Then what about you, Polyorketes? You’re the barehand man with guts. Want me to help you into a suit?"

"I’ll ask you when I want help." 1 "What about you, Leblanc?"

The young man shrank away.

"Not even to get back to Margaret?"

But Leblanc could only shake his head.

"Mullen?"

"Well-I’ll try."

"You’ll what?"

"I said, yes, I’ll try. After all, it’s my idea."

Stuart looked stunned. "You’re serious? How come?"

Mullen’s prim mouth pursed. "Because no one else will."

"But that’s no reason. Especially for you."

Mullen shrugged.

There was a thump of a cane behind Stuart. Windham brushed past.

He said, "Do you really intend to go, Mullen?"

"Yes, Colonel."

"In that case, dash it, let me shake your hand. I like you. You’re an-an Earthman, by heaven. Do this, and win or die, I’ll bear witness for you."

Mullen withdrew his hand awkwardly from the deep and vibrating grasp of the other.

And Stuart just stood there. He was in a very unusual position. He was, in fact, in the particular position of all positions in which he most rarely found himself.

He had nothing to say.

The quality of tension had changed. The gloom and frustration had lifted a bit, and the excitement of conspiracy had replaced it. Even Polyorketes was fingering the spacesuits and commenting briefly and hoarsely on which he considered preferable.

Mullen was having a certain amount of trouble. The suit hung rather limply upon him even though the adjustable joints had been tightened nearly to minimum. He stood there now with only the helmet to be screwed on. He wiggled his neck.

Stuart was holding the helmet with an effort. It was heavy, and his ar-tiplasmic hands did not grip it well. He said, "Better scratch your nose if it itches. It’s your last chance for a while." He didn’t add, "Maybe forever," but he thought it.

Mullen said, tonelessly, "I think perhaps I had better have a spare oxygen cylinder."

"Good enough."

"With a reducing valve."

Stuart nodded. "I see what you’re thinking of. If you do get blown clear

of the ship, you could try to blow yourself back by using the cylinder as an action-reaction motor."

They clamped on the headpiece and buckled the spare cylinder to Mul-len’s waist. Polyorketes and Leblanc lifted him up to the yawning opening of the C-tube. It was ominously dark inside, the metal lining of the interior having been painted a mournful black. Stuart thought he could detect a musty odor about it, but that, he knew, was only imagination.