Last Flight For Craggy by Gary Weston Page B

only a few hundred killing each other on a daily basis, rather
than tens of thousands.
    No love was
lost, but the alternative to all out war, was a scrappy
understanding. If it would last or how long it would last, would be
anyone's guess. With a multinational community, Moon stayed
deliberately out of Earth's bickering and took no sides.
    The solar storm
had finally abated and the freighter was able to communicate
constantly with the Moon. Dillow put the ship into a slow orbit
around Moon.
    'Carlos? Craggy
here. Is that damn cradle ready?'
    'It should do
the job, Craggy.'
    'What do you
mean, it should do the job? Come on, Carlos. Will the damn thing
work or not?'
    There was an
uneasy pause. 'We're reasonably sure it will be okay. The engineers
did what they could, but they're flat out on that new ship.'
    Cragg rolled
his eyes and looked at Dillow. 'Hardly fills me with confidence.
Who's the pod lifter?'
    'Angus
McGee.'
    'Angus knows
what he's doing. I can't understand a bloody word he says, but he
gets the job done.'
    Dillow asked,
'Carlos. When can we unload the pods?'
    'About
forty-eight hours. We're making a few adjustments to the tug so we
can take off the last five pods.'
    'Right. But I
insist we make a landing on the cradle with the ship before the tug
brings the other pods down, just in case it gets damaged
again.'
    'Well. I
suppose that makes sense,' said Carlos. 'I'll see what I can
do.'
    'No, Carlos,'
said Dillow. 'That's the way it's going to be, end of.'
    Carlos
chuckled. 'Consider it done. Over.'
    Cragg looked at
Dillow in a new light. 'Good for you, Fawn. That's how a proper
captain acts.'
    'Thanks,
Craggy.'
    'You're
welcome. We need to think about the first issue. It has never been
attempted before to remove pods in orbit. There's a lot that could
go wrong.'
    'I know. The
tug not only has to take off the rear five pods, but must keep pace
with us in orbit. We can slow down substantially to help with that.
But if there is any damage to the five attached to the ship,
landing on a patched up cradle will be interesting, to say the
least.'
    'Yeah,
but...'
    'What?'
    'Dunno. Not
sure. An idea keeps going around in my head, but I can't quite get
a handle on it.'
    'It'll come to
you.'
    'Yeah.
Maybe.'
     

Chapter
18
     
    'You look
pleased with yourself,' said Dillow.
    'That idea I
was on about. I figured it out last night. So simple.'
    'Good ideas
usually are. Go on.'
    'Pods six and
seven are welded together and are not exactly lined up. We need to
cut five and six free from each other.'
    'We know
that.'
    'True. Once pod
six has been taken off pod five we can safely land, if the cradle
is safe. But the tug can't land with the last five pods connected
with the misalignment. That would be a disaster.'
    'Agreed.'
    'So. If the tug
takes off pods eight to ten, then seven and six, we can land one to
five, then get straight back up there. We can get the last three
pods and bring them down, leaving the tug to deal with six and
seven. Does that make any sense whatsoever?'
    'In Principal.
Let's tell Carlos.'
    'Want me to
talk to him?'
    Dillow said,
'We'll do it together. Come on.'
    'After
you.'
    'Freighter
XB7FG6 calling Moon. Carlos?'
    'Carlos here.
We're on track for you.'
    'We've been
thinking,' said Cragg.
    'Unusual for
you, Craggy. What were you thinking, exactly?'
    Dillow said,
'Pods six and seven are the troublesome ones. If we take eight to
ten off first, secure them with safety line to six and seven, the
tug can wait while we land the first five pods. We go back up, we
reconnect with the last three and bring those down. You get the
cradle cleared while we do that. We go back up again, connect up
with pod six, bring that down, and the tug can bring number seven
down.'
    Impressed with
Dillow's fine tuning of his idea, Cragg said, 'It's a little
convoluted, but it maximises the chances of a completely successful
delivery.'
    'Leave it with
me. I'll call with the details later. Over.'
    'Over,' said
Dillow. 'What are you