Isaac Asimov - Lucky Starr The And The Moons of Jupiter

And one hour later the Jovian Moon began a carefully plotted acceleration toward Jupiter, hastening toward the death trap.

They no longer centered the visiplate on any part of Jupiter. Though the latter swelled hourly, the center of sight remained on a portion of the star field a considerable distance from Jupiter's rim. The star field was under maximum magnification. At that point should be Jupiter Five, streaking for its rendezvous with a ship which was hurtling and straining down, down toward Jupiter. Either the ship would be caught by the speck of rock and saved, or it would miss and be lost forever.

"There it is," said Bigman in excitement. "That star shows a visible disk."

"Calculate observed position and motion," ordered Lucky, "and check with the computed orbit."

This was done.

"Any correction?" Lucky asked.

''We'll have to slow down by-"

''Never mind the figures. Do it!"

Jupiter Five circled Jupiter in twelve hours, moving in its orbit at a speed of nearly three thousand miles an hour. This was one and a half times as rapid as Io's motion and its gravitational field was only one twentieth that of Io. For both reasons, it made the harder target.

Major Brant's fists trembled on the controls as the all-important side thrusts bent the Jovian Moon's orbit ever so slightly to meet the onrushing Jupiter Five, slip behind it and round, matching speeds for just those vital moments that would enable the satellite's gravity to establish the ship in an orbit about itself.

Jupiter Five was a large, brilliant object now. If it stayed so, good. If it began to grow smaller, they had missed.

Major Brant whispered, "We've made it," and bis head fell forward into his shaking palms as he released the controls.

Even Lucky closed his eyes momentarily in a land of weary relief.

In one way the situation on Jupiter Five was far different from what it had been on Io. There, all the crew had been sight-seers; the consideration of the heavens had taken precedence over the leisurely preparations in the valley.

Here on Jupiter Five, however, no one emerged from the Jovian Moon. What there was to see, no one saw.

The men stayed aboard the ship and worked on the repair of the engines. Nothing else mattered. If they failed, the landing on Jupiter Five could only postpone doom and stretch it out into greater agony.

No normal ship could land on Jupiter Five to rescue them, and no other Agrav ship existed or would exist for a year at least. If they failed, there would be time enough to watch Jupiter and the vision of the skies while they waited for death.

Yet under less urgent conditions the vision would have been worth watching. It was Io all over again with everything doubled and tripled.

From the point at which the Jovian Moon landed, Jupiter's lower rim seemed to sweep the flat, powdery horizon. The giant looked so close in the airlessness that a watcher would have imagined he could reach out his hand and bury it in that circle of light.

From the horizon Jupiter stretched upward, halfway to zenith. At the moment the Jovian Moon landed, Jupiter was almost full, and within the unbearable circle of brilliant stripes and colors nearly ten thousand full moons Earth variety, could have been placed. Almost one sixteenth of the entire vault of the sky was covered by Jupiter.

And because Jupiter Five circled Jupiter in twelve hours, the visible moons-there were four here rather than three as on Io, since Io itself was now a moon – moved three times as fast as they did on Io. So did all the stars and everything else in the sky, except for frozen Jupiter, which one side of the satellite eternally faced and which therefore never moved.

In five hours the sun would rise and it would be exactly the same in appearance as on Io; it would be the one thing that hadn't changed. But it would race toward a four-times-as-large Jupiter at three times the speed and make an eclipse a hundred times as terri-fyingly beautiful.

But no one saw it. It took place twice while the Jovian Moon stayed and no one saw it No one had the time. No one had the heart

Panner finally sat down and stared out of bleary eyes. The flesh around them was red and puffy. His voice was a hoarse whisper.

"All right. Everyone to your normal stations. We'll have a dry run." He hadn't slept in forty hours. The others had worked in shifts, but Panner had stopped neither to eat nor to sleep.

Bigman, who had confined himself to unskilled labor, to fetching and carrying, to reading dials under direction and holding levers according to instruction, had no place in a dry run, no station, no duties. So he wandered somberly about the ship in search of Lucky and found him in the control room with Commander Donahue.

Lucky had his shirt off and was wiping his shoulders, forearms, and face on a large plastofluff towel.

As soon as he saw Bigman, he said briskly, "The ship will be moving, Bigman. We'll be taking off soon."

Bigman's eyes raised. "We're only doing a dry run, Lucky."

"It will work. That Jim Panner worked miracles."

Commander Donahue said stiffly, "Councilman Starr, you have saved my ship."

"No, no. Panner deserves the credit. I think half the engine is being held together with copper wire and mucilage, but it will work."

"You know what I mean, Councilman. You drove us on to Jupiter Five when the rest of us were ready to give up and panic. You saved my ship, and I will report that fact fully when I stand court-martial on Earth for having failed to co-operate with you on Jupiter Nine."

Lucky flushed in embarrassment. "I can't allow that, Commander. It is important that councilmen avoid publicity. As far as the official record is concerned, you will have remained in command at all times. There will be no mention of any actions of mine."

"Impossible. I couldn't allow myself to be praised for what you have done."

"You will have to. It's an order. And let's have no talk of court-martials."

Commander Donahue drew himself up with a kind of pride. "I deserve court-martial. You warned me of the presence of Sirian agents. I did not listen and as a result my ship was sabotaged."

"The blame is mine, too," Lucky said calmly. "I was on board ship and did not prevent it. Nevertheless, if we can bring back the saboteur, there will be no question of court-martial."

The commander said, "The saboteur, of course, is the robot you warned me of. How I could be so blind!"

"I'm afraid you still don't see entirely. It wasn't the robot."

"Not the robot?"

"A robot could not have sabotaged the ship. It would have been bringing harm to humans and that would have meant breaking the First Law."

The commander frowned as he considered that. "It might not have been aware that it was doing harm."

"Everyone aboard ship, including the humanoid, understands Agrav. The robot would have known it was doing harm. In any case I think we have the identity of the saboteur, or will have in a moment"

"Oh? Who is he, Councilman Starr?"

"Well, consider this for a moment. If a man so sabotages a ship as to insure that it will either blow up or fall into Jupiter, he would be either a madman or a superhumanly dedicated person to stay on board that ship."

"Yes, I suppose so.''

"Since the time we left Io, the air locks have never opened. If they had there would have been slight drops in air pressure, and the ship's barometer indicates no such drops. You see, then, the saboteur must never have gotten on the ship at Io. He's still there, unless he's been taken off."

"How could he be taken off? No ship could get to Io, except this one."

Lucky smiled grimly. "No Earth ship."

The commander's eyes widened. "Surely no Sirian ship, either."