and Alice Kraskow, and Lawler, had been outside. Theouter surfaces of their suits had been contaminated, so they had hadto remove them inside the ship to avoid tainting their surroundings.And in the press of events they hadn't thought to put on otherspacesuits.
In the lounge and elsewhere, fastened against the walls, were sucharmor for emergency use. Bert tried to help his wife get into one. Butshe ordered sharply: "I can do this! Take care of yourself, Bert."
He didn't do that. Nor did Lawler. They ran down a passage toward therent in the ship, intent on stopping the gases that were flooding thecraft's interior. Seconds were important. The radioactive wind, muchcooled during the long journey from its point of origin, but poisonedby invisible emanations, struck their unprotected bodies. Yet theykept on. They dared not breathe or speak; still they worked togetherwith an efficiency of terrible need, stepping over the forms of menwho had already fallen.
Bert found a flat sheet of metal to use as a patch. He fitted it overthe rent, and, while Lawler piled boxes of supplies against it to holdit in place, sealed the edges with a thick, tarry substance.
When the job was done they staggered back to the lounge. Blotches ofcolor danced before their vision. Many corpuscles in their blood hadalready been destroyed by radiation. They sank to the deck.
* * * * *
Bert had a jangled impression of Alice, now in a spacesuit, holdinghis head. He saw her lips mouthing endearments.... Game littleAllie.... His mind wandered off. He was going to die. Maybe everyoneon the ship was going to die. Lauren's last move had been meant toprovide a real disaster, with many deaths! Prove the Big Pill afailure. Make sure that it would be banned for good by the SafeProducts Approval Board. Put the stamp of crime on Doc Kramer, thegentle little scientist who had been murdered! And on him, BertKraskow. And where was the rat, Lauren? On his way to the colonizedmoons of Jupiter, or even Mars, yelling and accusing by radio allalong the line?
As consciousness faded further, Bert stopped thinking unpleasantthings. His mind drifted into Doc Kramer's dream--of the changes whichwould make the near-dead worlds of space really habitable andhomelike, fit for human colonists. It was a beautiful, lost vision.
He was out cold, then, for several Earth-days, and only dimly awarefor many days afterward. He knew that he was in the ship's sick-bay,and that Lawler and other men were there, too. He heard their voices,and his own, without remembering what was said. Alice often came tosee him. Often he heard roaring, watery sounds, as of vast rains.
Gradually he came out of the dream-like period, learning of what hadhappened. Until the time when he walked from the sick-bay, unsteadily,but on the mend.
Alice, at his elbow, spoke: "It was like Doc Kramer planned, Bert,solving the hardest problem."
He knew what this meant. Transmutation, or any atomic process, mustinvolve the generation of much radioactivity that can destroy life. Inthe Big Pill, the problem was to make all the atoms break, andrearrange their components into new elements as cleanly and sharply aspossible, so that residual atomic instability--radioactivity, thatis--would not linger for years, but would disappear quickly.
"Titan's new atmosphere is clean and breathable, now, Bert," Alicewent on. "And likewise the radioactive poisons that made you andLawler and the others very ill disappeared quickly from your bodies.However, two colonists were beyond saving."
Lawler was with the Kraskows. They went out of the ship without thecumbersome protection of spacesuits. A Space Patrolman hovered like aworried hawk, watching Bert, but the latter seemed not to mind.
Far above, replacing the hard stars and blackness of space, common tothe firmaments of all dead and near-dead worlds, were great fleecyclouds and blue sky. The atmosphere, because of Titan's low gravity,was highly expanded and hence thin, but rich in oxygen. The breezesmelled cool and fresh. Overhead was a second sun, seemingly muchlarger in diameter than the distant central orb of the solar system.It crept with visible motion across the sky. It was the molten globeof what had been the _Prometheus_ and its cargo, locked in itssub-lunar orbit around Titan. But it was calculated to providesufficient warmth and light to a small world such as this, for tenEarth-years, without renewal.
Colonists were clearing away the wreckage of the now useless airdomes,and putting their cottages in order. But they still looked around inawe at the miracles that ended their space-nostalgia, making them feeltruly at home here. Down in the valley there was even a great lake ofrainwater from condensed steam--one of the end-products of the processthat had gone on in the rocks of the great crater on the other side ofTitan. That process had died to a sleepy smoking, now; but all overthis moon of Saturn there were many lakes.
Big Lawler chuckled gleefully, the sound rumbling deep in his chest."Rejuvenation of burnt-out spheres on a really progressive basis," hegrowled. "No obsolete, jury-rigged junk! Expensive? Sure! But we canpay for it! Out there are Saturn's metal-rich Rings!"
Bert was thinking that the same trick could be used on any world withenough gravity to hold down a respectable atmosphere. Half-dead Mars.Jupiter's four biggest moons. Some of the other satellites of Saturn.Mercury.
"The one thing that burns me is that my brother, Nick, and Doc Kramer,and those two colonists, had to die!" Bert grated. "Poor Doc. He wasrich from the atomic engines he invented. And I knew long ago that, byhis will, all his stock is to be put in trust for the welfare ofspacemen and colonists. Should we feel glad or humble?"
Lawler's grin had become a snarl. "Damn Trenton Lauren!" he said.
Alice didn't exactly smile. "I should have told you before this," sheoffered seriously, "but death always upsets me. By radio report from ascouting Patrol boat an hour ago, Lauren and his stooges were found,smashed and burned in the crash of their craft a hundred miles fromcamp. Their half-repaired spaceboat killed them."
Bert and Lawler exchanged glances. Their anger faded.
"What's new from the Safe Products Approval Board, Allie?" Lawlerasked at last. "You seem to find things out fast."
"Nothing new," she answered. "The latest messages are much the same asthose from a while ago. Guarded enthusiasm, and the statement that anokay for the Kramer Methods must be withheld pending complete andprompt investigation. Can't blame them. Caution is important."
"Maybe, if you played your cards right, you could become the newpresident of the Prometheus outfit, Bert," Lawler kidded.
But the possibility was certainly there. Bert was proud of what he'ddone. Prometheus owed him plenty. Still, looking across camp pastcottages and shops to the red mud of the once-dry, frigid hills, anddown to the blue lake in the valley, reflecting sky and clouds, heknew that his heart was here in this crescendoing colonial scene.Somewhere a circle-saw screamed. From the metals-shop came theclanging of a mechanical hammer. These were sounds of a great futurehere.
"Nuts, pal," Bert chuckled to Lawler. "I'll leave the officialpencil-pushing to the lab experts. The building and progress are here.You and Allie and I will all be back on Titan very soon."
These three began to be aware that a crowd of still befuddled buthappy colonists were gathering around them. Another Space Patrol manapproached, and said very officially:
"Mr. and Mrs. Kraskow, and Mr. Lawler: Our large ship leaves for Earthin five hours. Be ready to blast off. As you are aware, certain stillvalid charges were lodged against you by Trenton Lauren. You useddangerous equipment, not yet legally approved. As you are also aware,you must go to answer these charges. Sorry. But we of the Patrol knowthe score. In the face of your success I'm sure that this is mere redtape."
Bert scowled until he saw the cop's sly grin.
"Worried?" Alice asked him, smiling. She was pretty. She had courage.She had everything.
"Worried?" Bert echoed. In general he approved the S.P.A.B. "How canwe lose on this last gamble with all the cards stacked in our favor.We even win a needed short vacation on Earth!"
"What are you two gonna bring back for me?" an old man, grimed fromthe forges, demanded, grinning. It
was old Stan Kraskow, who hadburied his younger son in the camp cemetery.
"Hiyuh, Dad!" Bert greeted happily. "What'll we bring him, Allie?"
"Wildbirds, Pop," Alice answered, her eyes twinkling. "You alwaysliked wildbirds. No world is complete without them."
Bert noticed that the gardens of the camp, planted weeks ago underairdomes that were now being cleared away, were now showing a faintgreen. The beginning of a new and verdant Titan.
* * * * *
Thank you for reading books on BookFrom.Net Share this book with friends