The Scarlet Lake Mystery: A Rick Brant Science-Adventure Story
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CHAPTER XV
The Open Hatchway
Pegasus was ready.
The dry run was over and only the final checkout remained.
At zero minus sixteen hours Rick stood at the base of the huge rocketand looked up, studying every inch of it. He knew he would never havethe opportunity again.
About fifty feet up he could make out the smooth, stainless-steelconnecting ring where the second stage joined the first. Explosivebolts, set off by one of the electronic circuits, would blow the stagesapart. The second stage, still carrying the final stage, wouldaccelerate away on its own motors until they, too, had consumed allavailable fuel. Again, explosive bolts would destroy the connection andthe final stage would be on its own. The motors would flare briefly,providing less than a minute's acceleration, then the final stage wouldcoast on its momentum to maximum altitude nearly three hundred milesabove the earth.
Not until the final stage started its downward plunge would Jerry Liptontake over. His job, then, would be to control the plunging flight, touse up the excess of energy by maneuvering the rocket into theatmosphere and out, to prevent its burning up like a meteor. In slow,careful stages, he would let it come lower and lower, until most of itsenergy was used up. Then he would try to land it. The landing speedwould be terrific--nearly a thousand miles an hour.
Gee-Gee Gould came up and stood beside him. "It's a beautiful thing,Rick. And it's ours. Yours, mine, Dick's, Frank's, Charlie's--it belongsto every one of the crew."
Rick knew. It was _his_ rocket. If it worked, it would be because of thecare and devotion with which he had done his job. He knew others feltthe same, and they were equally right. All of them had built part ofthemselves into Pegasus.
If it worked . . . Of course it would work! He sought reassurance fromGee-Gee.
"It's going to be okay, isn't it?"
"Yes." Gee-Gee had no doubt. "Every piece of it has been checked anddouble-checked. Even the inner workings of the critical parts have beenrun and rerun. This is one rocket the Earthman never had a chance tosabotage."
Rick nodded. He felt that way, too. The entire rocket had been checkedout by teams of never less than two. Each man checked the other's workand both had to agree that all was in perfect order before the piece wasaccepted and checked off. Each man had to account to a guard before hecould go to work. The system was foolproof. Now only the ultimate stepsremained, the final checks, the fueling, and at the very last, theplacement of the tiny spacemonk in his specially designed carrier.
"Let's go," Gee-Gee said.
They mounted the elevator and were whisked upward to the final stage.Gee-Gee picked up his walkie-talkie from the rack. "Do you read me,Dick?"
"Go ahead, Gee-Gee."
"Tell Jerry to go through checkoff."
Rick and Gee-Gee stood on the ramp and looked down at the ridiculouslytiny wings and watched the control surfaces move in response to Jerry'sgentle touch on the controls within the blockhouse. The drone controlwas working perfectly. Rick felt a surge of pride. This particular partof Pegasus was his.
The two went into the confined space in the nose. It was circular, thestructural members rising to a near-peak overhead. A radar unit blockedout the tip of the nose cone. Under the unit a heavy steel channel randown to the side of the drone control. Fixed to the channel by heavysprings was a tiny chair, complete with straps. The chair was festoonedwith wires, unconnected for the moment. The wires terminated ininstruments that would sense every action, every response of thespacemonk's body. The chair channel was pivoted, so the monk wouldalways be upright.
At Gee-Gee's order, Jerry Lipton ran through the check procedures again.This time Rick and Gee-Gee carefully watched the functioning of eachservomotor. Finally Gee-Gee announced that he was satisfied. Next stepwas to check the spacemonk's instruments' circuits.
Rick picked up a tiny stethoscope. It would be taped to the monk's body,held tightly to his heart. He traced the circuit to where it disappearedinto the oscillator switch, then took the walkie-talkie. "Display on?Checking the stethoscope."
"Go ahead," Earle replied.
Rick held it to his own heart for a few minutes, then tapped on the bellwith his forefinger.
"Looks good on the display," Dick's voice came back. "What did you hitit with--a hammer?"
"Finger," Rick said. "Let's take a temperature next." He found thethermocouple that would be attached to the marmoset's body, traced thecircuit to the oscillator, then called, "Watch my own body heat." Hetucked the sensing element under his armpit.
"Hotter than a pistol," Dick said.
"Why? Do I have a fever?"
"Not unless you're a monkey. Next?"
"Sphygmomanometer. And don't worry about the pronunciation. Theblood-pressure cuff." He traced the circuit, then inflated the rubberand fabric cuff.
"You just had heart failure," Dick reported.
They continued work, checking the radar equipment, the photon counters,cameras, the temperature-sensing devices, and myriad other instruments.Each instrument would feed its information to the oscillator, throughthe measurand transmitter and into the telemetering circuit, travelingby radio circuit back to the blockhouse. In the blockhouse it wouldappear in several forms. The information from the marmoset's instrumentswould appear as a series of waves on continually moving strips ofspecial paper, in a machine called the display.
Finally Rick and Gee-Gee left the nose section and started to work down.It was already dark outside. The nose section was finished. Thecameraman had arrived and loaded the cameras and departed. Now itremained only to place Prince Machiavelli, which was among the very lastthings to be done. Rick had hoped to carry the little monk to his seat,but Frank Miller and Dr. Bond had been given that job. He and Gee-Geewould be too busy with last-minute checks.
Gee-Gee was hard to satisfy. He told a guard, "Watch the nose section.No one is authorized to enter now until the monk is placed at zero minusthirty minutes." Then he led Rick across the desert to the blockhouse.
There were sandwiches and coffee on a table near the door. They helpedthemselves, then went and stood behind Dick Earle, who was paired offwith Charlie Kassick.
"Punch up the nose section," Gee-Gee requested.
Dick ticked off the circuits as he pressed the buttons. One by one thered lights switched to green. All were operating. Only then did Gee-Geenod his satisfaction. "Okay, Rick. Let's get back to work. Most of it'sdone, but we still have some checking to do in the first and secondstages."
As they mounted the crane again Rick looked up at the festooned cablesthat terminated in the nose cone. At the moment of firing, the cableswould drop off. After that, Pegasus would be on its own.
It was after dawn when the two emerged from the final check. The fuelingcrews were already at work. The loud-speaker on the crane emitted, "Thetime is zero minus twenty-five."
Gee-Gee departed for the blockhouse. Rick started after him, then as hecleared the gate he saw Scotty. His pal was waiting patiently in thejeep.
"Just wanted you to know I'm standing by," Scotty said. "You'll be inthe blockhouse, I suppose?"
"That's right. Where will you be?"
"Watching the warehouse. Luis is watching it now. I suppose some of thesecurity boys are, too, but I haven't seen them." Scotty's eyes traveledup the great rocket. "It's a honey. Suppose the Earthman has got in hislicks?"
Rick shook his head. "Positively not. It's been checked out from nose tofins, and guarded every minute."
Scotty started the jeep motor. "I'd better get out of here. Good luck."The jeep roared off.
Rick turned for a last look at close range, and his eyes traveled up andup, from the stabilizing fins past the wings to the nose cone. Pegasuswas ready. Then, he suddenly realized, the nose hatchway was still ajar.
That was strange. Prince Machiavelli should be installed in his seat bynow and the hatchway buttoned for take-off. Rick ran to the gate,exchanged his badge for the special badge, and hurried to the crane. Hehalf expected Dr. Bo
nd and Frank to appear in the hatchway, but neitherdid.
"I'd better see," he muttered.
"The time is zero minus fifteen," the speaker stated.
Rick went up the elevator, hurried up the last few steps, and swung thehatch open. He took the flashlight from his belt kit and swung it aroundthe interior. Prince Machiavelli blinked at him from a cocoon of tapesand straps. The light hurt the monk's eyes. Rick clicked it off andmoved to the little marmoset's side. He stroked the tiny head. Whywasn't the hatch locked? Someone must have forgotten something. Hewalked over and peered through one of the two thick glass ports,expecting to see someone coming up the crane, but there was no sign ofDr. Bond or Frank.
Then, as he turned, the hatchway swung shut. For an instant Rick thoughtit had closed of its own weight, then he heard the scrape of metal as itwas dogged down. Suddenly frightened he crossed the little room andbanged on it, but the thick metal gave no sound under his fists. He hadto make more noise! He lifted the flashlight to bang it on the door, andin that moment there was a scream of metal from outside as the crane waspulled away. He was locked in! Locked in the rocket! And it was ready tofire!