Category: Science-Fiction & Fantasy
There was no sensation of weight. Nothing weighed anything. Nothing could be considered light or heavy. The difference in weight between a copper penny and the ship itself was imaginary. They had different masses, but both would weigh the same--zero. McCauley suddenly turned o...
There was no sensation of weight. Nothing weighed anything. Nothing could be considered light or heavy. The difference in weight between a copper penny and the ship itself was i...
2. Part 2But just the same he was almost weak from the reaction to the ending of his fears about what the doctors might decide. He looked at his watch. Just about on schedule. Over in a...
3. Part 3Nobody paid any attention to him. There was nobody left around. In a way it was a relief, because McCauley had experienced much too much attention once upon a time, and he wante...
4. Part 4He waited until the footsteps moved off. Then he swore. He'd put on an act himself. He was ashamed of being keyed up. He'd posed as a man with iron nerves, sleeping soundly befo...
5. Part 5There was silence. McCauley worked on busily. From time to time Furness spoke as if with great effort. He relayed the altitude from the slot radar. He relayed the velocity from...
6. Part 6Steam-jets spouted at the ends of the X-21's rear fins. In emptiness, the ship spun halfway about until the swiftly moving solidity below ceased to move toward the pointed nose....
7. Part 7He threw the rope. Because they were rotating, the first cast was wild. Sammy Breen wasn't where he threw the rope when it got to him. It had McCauley's own speed of rotation, s...
8. Part 8There was no answer. He called again and again. Then he called Grimaldi Base. Again no answer. He was out of radio contact with all humanity on the moon--even his own base ten m...
9. Part 9He waited, listening. He had Repeater One as well as Two set so it would retransmit any local pickup on helmet-phone frequency, but it was half an hour before anything but the p...
10. Part 10There was a long, long pause while he adjusted the nose of the ship with micrometric accuracy to an exact, particular spot and made sure that it stayed there. The ship had drift...
11. Part 11McCauley spoke crisply into the transmitter, sending a tight-beam message back to Earth. It would be minutes before it was received, as against the less-than-two-second lag in a...
12. Part 12McCauley did not contradict him. He shrugged. Presently Randy went out on the surface of Eros. A single incautious movement might send him floating off into emptiness except for...
13. Part 13"He'll be the first man on Mars, at that! But his air won't last all the way. He'll coast in and crash and never know it. But he'll be the first man on Mars!"