Page:Fantastic Volume 08 Number 01.djvu/63

 to fix the radio?" I inquired presently.

"Maybe," he said, "but is it wise?"

"Why the devil shouldn't it be?" I demanded, with some restraint.

"Well," he explained, "they might intercept our messages. And if they learn what a mess we're in it could very likely encourage them to attack."

"We'll have to take a chance on that. The important thing for us now is to get in touch with home, and see what they suggest. It seems to me possible, just possible, that we may be able to get the ship back to the vertical somehow—with the gravitation as low as it is. I can plot the course and time of takeoff, and look after that side, but can we manage her without Raul? He was the one with experience and special training. I have a general idea of the controls, and I suppose you have, but it is only general. This ship isn't built to stand up to the strains of ordinary takeoffs—that's why she had to have a special casing to get her from Earth to Primeira. She must have a specially calculated programme of safe velocities for takeoff from here—and that will have to be amended on account of the atmosphere being denser than was reckoned. We don't want to burn her up, or melt her tubes. As things are, I don't begin to know about her acceleration schedule, her safety-factors. Damn it, I don't even know, off-hand, the escape velocity of Mars."

"It should take you all of two minutes to work that out," Camilo interrupted.

"I daresay, but there are a hell of a lot of things we can't work out without data. Some of it we'll be able to get from Raul's technical papers, no doubt, but there are bound to be all kinds of questions arising that we shall need advice about."

"M'm," said Camilo, doubtfully. His eyes strayed towards one of the ports for a moment, and then came back to me, looking suspicious again. "You didn't talk to them while you were out there?" he asked.

"Oh, hell," I said impatiently, and unwisely. "Look, there is nothing out there—nothing but sand. Come out with me, and see for yourself."

He shook his head slowly, and gave me the smile of a man who knows a trick worth two of that.

I was at a loss to know what line to take next. After I had thought about it a bit, it seemed to me that we were THE TROONS OF SPACE