Shipwreck in the Sky

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  _There is a warm feeling about welcoming back into the pages of a science fiction magazine the work of a writer who is a legend in the genre. So, here's Binder and a neatly wrapped-up package of a folktale of the future._

  shipwreck in the sky

  _by ... Eando Binder_

  The flight into space that made Pilot-Capt. Dan Barstow famous.

  The flight was listed at GHQ as _Project Songbird_. It was sponsored bythe Space Medicine Labs of the U.S. Air Force. And its pilot was CaptainDan Barstow.

  A hand-picked man, Dan Barstow, chosen for the AF's most importantproject of the year because he and his VX-3 had already broken allprevious records set by hordes of V-2s, Navy Aerobees and anything elsethat flew the skyways.

  Dan Barstow, first man to cross the sea of air and sight open, unlimitedspace. Pioneer flight to infinity. He grinned and hummed to himself ashe settled down for the long jaunt. Too busy to be either thrilled orscared he considered the thirty-seven instruments he'd have to read, thetwice that many records to keep, and the miles of camera film to run. Hehad been hand-picked and thoroughly conditioned to take it all withoutmore than a ten percent increase in his pulse rate. So he worked asmatter-of-factly as if he were down in the Gs Centrifuge of the SpaceMedicine Labs where he had been schooled for this trip for months.

  He kept up a running fire of oral reports through his helmet radio, downto Rough Rock and his CO. "All Roger, sir ... temperature falling fastbut this rubberoid space suit keeps me cozy, no chills ... Doc Blainewill be happy to hear that! Weightless sensations pretty queer and Ifeel upside-down as much as rightside-up, but no bad effects.... Takingshots of the sun's corona now with color film ... huh? Oh, yes, sir,it's beautiful all right, now that you mention it. But, hell, sir, who'sgot the time for aesthetics now?... Oops, _that_ was a close one! Tenthmeteor whizzing past. Makes me think of flak back on those Berlinbombing runs."

  Dan couldn't help wincing when the meteors peppered down past. The"flak" of space. Below he could see the meteors flare up brightly asthey hit the atmosphere. Most of those near his position were small,none bigger than a baseball, and Dan took comfort in the fact that hisrocket was small too, in the immensity around him. A direct hit would besheer bad luck, but the good old law of averages was on his side.

  "Yes, Colonel, this tin can I'm riding is holding together okay," Dancontinued to Rough Rock. If he paused even a second in his reports atop-sergeant's yell from the Colonel's throat came back for him to keeptalking. Every bit of information he could transmit to them was a vitalrevelation in this USAF-Alpha exploration of open space beyond Earth'sair cushion, with ceiling unlimited to infinity.

  "Cosmic rays, sir? Sure, the reading shot up double on the Geiger ...huh? Naw, I don't feel a thing ... like Doc Baird suspected, we inventeda lot of Old Wives' Tales in _advance_, before going into space. I feelfine, so you can put down cosmic ray intensity as a Boogey Man....What's that? Yeah, yeah, sir, the stars shine without winking up here.What else?... Space is inky black--no deep purples or queermore-than-blacks like some jetted-up writers dreamed up--just plain oldordinary dead black. Earth, sir?... Well, it does look dish-shaped fromup here, concave.... Sure, I can see all the way to Europe and--say!Here's something unexpected. I can see that hurricane off the coast ofFlorida.... You said it, sir! Once we install permanent space stationsup here it will be easy to spot typhoons, volcano eruptions, tidalwaves, earthquakes, what have you, the moment they start. If you ask me,with a good telescope you could even spot forest fires the minute theybroke out, not to mention a sneak bombing on a target city--uh, sorry,sir, I forgot."

  Dan broke off and almost retched as his stomach turned a flip-flop toend all flip-flops. The VX-3 had reached the peak of its trajectory atover 1000 miles altitude and now turned down, lazily at first. He gulpedoxygen from the emergency tube at his lips and felt better.

  "Turning back on schedule, Rough Rock. Peak altitude 1037 miles.Everything fine, no danger. This was all a cinch.... HEY! Wait....Something not in the books has popped up ... stand by!"

  Dan had felt the rocket swing a bit, strangely, as if gripped by astrong force. Instead of falling directly down toward Earth with aslight pitch, it slanted sideways and spun on its long axis. And thenDan saw what it was....

  Beneath, intercepting his trajectory, coming around fast over thecurvature of Earth, was a tiny black worldlet, 998 miles above Earth. Itmight be an enormous meteor, but Dan felt he was right the first time.For it wasn't falling like a meteor but swinging parallel to Earth'ssurface on even keel.

  He stared at the unexpected discovery, as amazed as if it were afire-breathing dragon out of legend. For it was, actually, he realizedin swift, stunned comprehension, more amazing than any legend.

  Dan kept his voice calm. "Hello, Rough Rock.... Listen ... nobodyexpected _this_ ... hold your hat, sir, and sit down. I've discovered a_second moon_ of Earth!... Uhhuh, you heard me right! a second moon! Tiethat, will you?... Sure, it's tiny, less than a mile in diameter I'dsay. Dead black in color. Guess that's why telescopes never spotted it.Tiny and black, blends into the black backdrop of space. It has terrificspeed. And that little maverick's gravitational field caught myrocket.... Of course it can't yank me away from Earth gravity, but thetrouble is--yipe! my rocket and that moonlet may be in for a mutual_collision_ course...."

  Dan's trained eye suddenly saw that grim possibility. Barreling aroundEarth in a narrow orbit with a speed of something near or over 12,000miles an hour the tiny new moon had, since his ascent, charged directlyinto his downward free fall. It was a chance in a thousand for a directhit, except for one added factor--the moonlet exerted enough gravitypull out of its many-million ton bulk to warp the rocket into its path.And the thousand-to-one odds were thus wiped out, becoming even money.

  "Nip and tuck," reported Dan, answering the excited pleadings andquestions from Rough Rock. "It won't be a head-on crash. I may even missentirely.... Oh, Lord! Not with that spire of rock sticking up fromit.... I'm going to hit that ..."

  Dan had heard an atomic bomb blast once and it sounded like a string ofthem set off at once as the rocket smashed into the rocky prominence.The rock splintered. The rocket splintered. But Dan was not there to besplintered likewise. He had jammed down a button, at the criticalmoment, and the rocket's emergency escape-hatch had ejected him asplit-second before the violent impact.

  But Dan blacked out, receiving some of the concussion of the explodingrocket. When his eyes snapped open he was floating like a feather inopen, airless space. His rubberoid space suit, living up to its rigidtests, had inflated to its elastic limit. But it held and within itsautomatic units began feeding him oxygen, heat and radio-power. He had achance, now, because he had been ejected cleanly from the rocket,without damage to the protective suit.

  The stars wheeled dizzily around him. Dan finally saw the reason why. Hewas not just floating as a free agent in space. He was circling theblack moonlet, at perhaps a thousand yards from its pitted surface.

  "Hello, Rough Rock," he called. "Still alive and kicking, sir. Only now,of all crazy-mad things, _I'm_ a moon of _this_ moon! The collision musthave knocked me clear out of my down-to-Earth orbit.... I must have beenejected in the same direction as the moonlet's course, in its gravityfield.... I don't know. Let an electronic brain figure it out sometime.... Anyway, now I'm being dragged along in the orbit of themoonlet--how about _that_? Yes, sir, I'm circling down closer and closerto the moonlet.... No, don't worry, sir. It was a weak gravity pull,only a fraction of an Earth-g. So I'm drifting down gently as acloud.... Stand by for my landing on Earth's second moon!"

&nbs
p; The bloated figure in the bulging space suit circled the black stonysurface several more times, in a narrowing spiral, and finally landedwith a soft skidding bump that didn't even jar Dan's teeth. He bouncedseveral times from a diminishing height of fifty-odd feet in grotesqueslow-motion before he finally came to a stop.

  He sat still for a moment, adjusting to the fantastic fact of beingshipwrecked on an unchartered moonlet, crowding down his pulse ratewhich might be over ten percent normal now.

  "Okay, Rough Rock, I hear you.... You're telling me, sir?... Obviously,I'm _marooned_ here. No rocket to leave with. No way to get back toterra firma ... what? If you'll pardon my saying so, sir, that's a sillyquestion.... Of course I'm scared! Scared green. Sorry about the rocket,sir, losing it for you.... Me, sir?