an’ navigator than an injineer, but ye well know each department must be able to handle the work of t’other in emergency, so I will be able to give yez skilled assistance in your task. I’ve enough experience in geegees to know exactly what ye’re doin’.’
‘Guk,’ said Sarmishkidu.
‘What?’ asked McConnell.
‘I said, “Guk,”’ answered Sarmishkidu in a chill voice, ‘which was precisely my meaning.’
‘All aboard!’ bawled the Erseman, and went up the berth ladder two rungs at a time.
Emily hung back. ‘I couldn’t
do
anything about it,’ she whispered, white-faced. ‘He just insisted. I mean, I even hit him on the chest as hard as I could, and he grinned, you have to admit he’s as strong as Herakles and if he would only study classical dance to improve his gait he would be nearly perfect’ She flushed. ‘Physically, I mean, of course! But what I wanted to say is, shall we give up our plan?’
‘No,’ said Herr Syrup glumly, ‘ve ban committed now. And maybe a chance comes to carry it out. Let’s go.’ He took his bicycle by the seat bar and dragged it up into the ship. No Dane is ever quite himself without a bicycle, though it is not true that all of them sleep with their machines. Fewer than ten percent do this.
He had been prepared to pilot the
Girl
into orbit himself, which was not beyond his training; but McConnell did it with so expert a touch that even the transition from geegee field to free fall was smooth. Once established in path, Herr Syrup jury-rigged a polarity reverser in the ship’s propulsive circuits, to furnish weight again inside the hull. It was against regulations, since it immobilized the drive; and, of course, it lacked the self-adjustment of a true compensator. But this was a meteor-swept region, so there was no danger in floating inert; and, though neither spacemen nor asterites mind weightlessness
per se
, an attractive field always simplifies work. No one who has not toiled in free fall, swatting gobs of molten solder from his face while a mislaid screwdriver bobs off on its own merry way, has experienced the full perversity of matter.
‘Ve can turn off de pull ven ve vish to test repairs,’ said Herr Syrup.
Rory McConnell looked around the crowded engine room and the adjacent workshop. ‘I envy yez this,’ he said, with a bare touch of wistful ness. ‘’Tis spaceships are me proper place, an’ not all this hellin’ about wi’ guns an’ drums.’
‘Er –
ja!
Herr Syrup hesitated. ‘Vell, you know, dere is really no reason to bodder you vit’ de yob in here. Yust leave me to do it alone and – hm –
ja
,’ he finished in a blaze of genius, ‘go talk at Miss Croft.’
‘Oh, I’ll be doin’ that, all right,’ grinned McConnell, ‘but I’d not be dallyin’ about all the time whin another man was laborin’. No, I’ll sweat over that slut of a machine right along wi’ yez, Pop.’ He raised one ruddy eyebrow above a wickedly blue sidelong glance. ‘Also, I’ll not be makin’ of unsubstantiated accusations, but ’tis conceivable ye might not work on it yourself at all, at all, if left alone. Some might even imagine ye – oh – makin’ a radio to call his bloodymajesty. So, just to keep evil tongues from waggin’, we’ll retain all electrical equipment in here, an’ here I meself .will work an’ sleep. Eh?’ He gave Herr Syrup a comradely slap on the back.
‘
Gott in Himmel
!’ yelped Sarmishkidu from the passageway outside. ‘What exploded in there?’
An arbitrary pattern of watches had been established to give the
Mercury Girl
some equivalent of night and day. After supper, which she had cooked, Emily Croft wandered up to the bridge while Sarmishkidu was simultaneously washing the dishes and mopping the galley floor. She stood gazing out the viewports for a long time.
Only feebly accelerated by Grendel’s weak natural gravity, the ship would take more than a hundred hours to complete one orbit. At this
‘Guk,’ said Sarmishkidu.
‘What?’ asked McConnell.
‘I said, “Guk,”’ answered Sarmishkidu in a chill voice, ‘which was precisely my meaning.’
‘All aboard!’ bawled the Erseman, and went up the berth ladder two rungs at a time.
Emily hung back. ‘I couldn’t
do
anything about it,’ she whispered, white-faced. ‘He just insisted. I mean, I even hit him on the chest as hard as I could, and he grinned, you have to admit he’s as strong as Herakles and if he would only study classical dance to improve his gait he would be nearly perfect’ She flushed. ‘Physically, I mean, of course! But what I wanted to say is, shall we give up our plan?’
‘No,’ said Herr Syrup glumly, ‘ve ban committed now. And maybe a chance comes to carry it out. Let’s go.’ He took his bicycle by the seat bar and dragged it up into the ship. No Dane is ever quite himself without a bicycle, though it is not true that all of them sleep with their machines. Fewer than ten percent do this.
He had been prepared to pilot the
Girl
into orbit himself, which was not beyond his training; but McConnell did it with so expert a touch that even the transition from geegee field to free fall was smooth. Once established in path, Herr Syrup jury-rigged a polarity reverser in the ship’s propulsive circuits, to furnish weight again inside the hull. It was against regulations, since it immobilized the drive; and, of course, it lacked the self-adjustment of a true compensator. But this was a meteor-swept region, so there was no danger in floating inert; and, though neither spacemen nor asterites mind weightlessness
per se
, an attractive field always simplifies work. No one who has not toiled in free fall, swatting gobs of molten solder from his face while a mislaid screwdriver bobs off on its own merry way, has experienced the full perversity of matter.
‘Ve can turn off de pull ven ve vish to test repairs,’ said Herr Syrup.
Rory McConnell looked around the crowded engine room and the adjacent workshop. ‘I envy yez this,’ he said, with a bare touch of wistful ness. ‘’Tis spaceships are me proper place, an’ not all this hellin’ about wi’ guns an’ drums.’
‘Er –
ja!
Herr Syrup hesitated. ‘Vell, you know, dere is really no reason to bodder you vit’ de yob in here. Yust leave me to do it alone and – hm –
ja
,’ he finished in a blaze of genius, ‘go talk at Miss Croft.’
‘Oh, I’ll be doin’ that, all right,’ grinned McConnell, ‘but I’d not be dallyin’ about all the time whin another man was laborin’. No, I’ll sweat over that slut of a machine right along wi’ yez, Pop.’ He raised one ruddy eyebrow above a wickedly blue sidelong glance. ‘Also, I’ll not be makin’ of unsubstantiated accusations, but ’tis conceivable ye might not work on it yourself at all, at all, if left alone. Some might even imagine ye – oh – makin’ a radio to call his bloodymajesty. So, just to keep evil tongues from waggin’, we’ll retain all electrical equipment in here, an’ here I meself .will work an’ sleep. Eh?’ He gave Herr Syrup a comradely slap on the back.
‘
Gott in Himmel
!’ yelped Sarmishkidu from the passageway outside. ‘What exploded in there?’
An arbitrary pattern of watches had been established to give the
Mercury Girl
some equivalent of night and day. After supper, which she had cooked, Emily Croft wandered up to the bridge while Sarmishkidu was simultaneously washing the dishes and mopping the galley floor. She stood gazing out the viewports for a long time.
Only feebly accelerated by Grendel’s weak natural gravity, the ship would take more than a hundred hours to complete one orbit. At this
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