The Outward Urge by John Wyndham

American Station, which erupted missiles for a time, both local and earthward-bound, and then suddenly went quiet. The Russian Station kept on sending missiles at intervals for a time, then it, too, went quiet.
    ‘And what were we doing while all this was going on? We were sending off three more medium-sized missiles. And since the Russian Station stopped, we have contributed another three.
    ‘ Nine medium-sized missiles! Our total part in the war, to date!
    ‘Meanwhile, the real war goes on up there. And what’s happening in it? Nobody knows. One minute’s news is corrected, or denied, a few minutes later. There’s propaganda to hearten, propaganda to dishearten; there’s wishful thinking, obvious lying, clever lying, incoherence, and hysteria. There may even be a few grains of truth somewhere, but nobody knows which they are.
    ‘All we do know for sure is that the two greatest powers there have ever been are out to destroy one another with every weapon they possess. Hundreds of cities and towns must have vanished, and all the people in them. Whole continents are being scorched and ruined.
    ‘Is either side winning? Can either side win? Will there be anything left? What has happened to our own country, and our homes? We don’t know!
    ‘And we do nothing! We just sit out here, and look at the Earth, all calm and pearly-blue, and wonder hour after hour - day after day, now - what horrors are going on under the clouds. Thinking about our families and friends, and what may have happened to them....
    ‘The wonder to me is that so few of us, as yet, have cracked up. But I warn you, professionally, that if things go on like this, more of us will before long...
    ‘Of course the men brood, and become more desperate and rebellious as it goes on. Of course they ask themselves what we are here for at all, if not to be used. Why have we not fired our big missiles? Perhaps they would not count a great deal in the scale of things, but they’d be something: we’d be doing what we can. They were the reason we were sent here - so why haven’t we fired them? Why didn’t we fire them at the beginning, when they would have had most effect? The other stations did. Why have we still not fired them, even now? Can you tell us that?’
    She ended, looking at him steadily. He looked back at her, just as steadily.
    ‘I don’t plan strategy,’ he said. ‘It is not my job to understand top-level decisions. I am here to carry out the orders I receive.’
    ‘A very proper reply, Station-Commander,’ commented the doctor, and went on waiting. He did not amplify, and she found the continuation thrown back on her.
    ‘They tell me,’ she observed, ‘that we have something like seventy major missiles, with atomic war-heads. It has frequently been pointed out that the earlier the big blows fall, the-more effective they are in destroying the enemy’s potential - and in preventing retaliation. The aim, in fact, is the quick knock-out. But there our missiles still rest - unused even now.’
    ‘Their use,’ Troon pointed out again, ‘is not for us here to decide. It is possible that the first intercontinental missiles did what was required - in which case it would simply be waste to launch these. It is not impossible, either, that if they are held in reserve there could be a point when our ability to continue the bombardment might be decisive.’ She shook her head.
    ‘If the strategic targets have been destroyed, what is there left for decisive bombardment? These aren’t weapons for use against armies in the field. What is worrying our personnel is, why weren’t our weapons used - on the right kind of targets, at the right time?’
    Troon shrugged.
    ‘This is a pointless discussion, Ellen. Even if we were able to fire without orders, what should we aim at? We’ve no idea which targets have been destroyed, or which are only damaged. Indeed, for all we know, some of the target areas may now be occupied by our own people. If we had