PUBLISHER'S NOTE
This novel is a work of fi   ction. Names, characters, places, and incidents
are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously,
and any r Iesemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is
entirely coincidental.
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COPYRIGHT @ 1980 By HUGH ZACHARY
All rights'reserved MRsT PRINTING, NOVEMBER, 1980
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10
-ely on public, transport he if, he had been asked to I     ie trip. He hated
the would have refused to make tl
ed clanking, sooty, coal-burning nnitficarriers crowd,
        He hated surwith their surly Civil Service attendants           the
a,, fnding the , contrast between face travel in gener               Ithe
decaying planot clean, empty reaches of space and to be almost nauseous.
  -er, hold a-belligere"t
not, a, He did          did many spac s@ter all, the source,
She was, af contempt for old Earth.            Ithe mother of all. the only
source Of many things                    ndone
She r eked and rotted and continued to CO horne.    ,e        of Goethe7s man,
so admirable in the overproduction
so deplorable in his mass,* He did not the individual,                    only
her peoPle- He feel contempt for Earth herself,
e by growling obscenities as he showed his impatienc:              at the side
pf the two was forced to the blown dunes rema* ling lanes of what once had
been a f0ur-lane su-
h                passage of a big drone cargo carperhighway to allow
             ehead as he rier.
He mopped perspiration from his for
then steered the antique, waited for the drone to clear,     ad. The auto7s
air-conauto back onto the potholed ro       riot too neatly, leavditioning unit
had been removed,                lining had ing a gaping hole in the dash.,
Most of the
tom from the vehicles roof, leaving only,a. thin been
I
2                     Zach Hughes, ' layer of metal between him and the desert
sun. The en-
gine, modified to bum methane, stank, coughed, wheezed, and strained as he
tried to regain speed. The poorly engineered tank on the back of the car was
definitely not aerodynamic. The dry cross wind made handling a nightmare when,
by coaxing and cursing and pushing to the limit, he once again attained fifty
miles per hour.
When he reached the low mountains the auto inched its way upgrade and bucketed
downgrade with the heavy tank trying to fishtail. He growled grand and manly
profanities at the car, the hot sands, the barren rocks, the decaying road. He
saved a few choice words for the Department of Space Exploration and all those
involved in sending him into the heat of the desert in a ground car which
should have been scrapped a decade ago.
A drone, the second he'd met since leaving the city which sprawled over every
available inch of land from the desert to the,sea, screamed a warning siren at
him. He found a lay-by, just in time, and the drone rumbled by, antennae
wriggling like the feelers of a giant insect. He could see the crest of the
low range of hills. He eased upward, the radiator on the verge of boiling.
Then it was downhill, the engine cooled, and the speed created an illusion of
coolness as wind whipped his hair into his face.
I Heat waves shimmered over the flat lands. He met an auto, a relatively--new
model, probably one of the last production run, making it less than ten years
old. It displayed a government seal on hood and doors. The driver was the
first human he'd seen since leaving the city. He felt a childish desire to
wave.
With easier driving, he allowed his mind to wander from the chore of keeping
the shock-wom vehicle on the road and speculated about the reason for his
being
PRESSURE MAN                          3 -0idered to DOSEWEX, Department of
Space Exploation West. His conclusion was that he had no idea. "Vo, was an
engineer. He was a spacer. It was a
that he was not being called into the desert to be
anded. His record, for the past two years at "Prim lent, was clean. He hadn't
slugged a superior officer :.siace then, and he,had served his restriction
time for _,@@.that one. He'd spent one full year with all the little ox-'
@',tras forbidden, one year during which his special ra-
tions had been divided among the other crew members, one fall year without
ground leave, not even on Moon Base. Then, just when he thought he was set
for. a holiday, and was making good progress with that longlegged
communications officer in L.A. Operations, he got -orders to report, in all
haste, to DOSEWEX, way to hell and gone in the New Mexico desert.
The sun was low behind him,when he reached the outer perimeter of the base. He
got out of the car, stretched, knocked dust off his uniform, and allowed a
detection machine to snoop him. He stood aside as the vehicle was searched and
snooped. It was standard operating procedure. You couldn't control every yoyo
in a population of three hundred million potential nuts, but you could Emit
their access to prime areas.
WheA- he was passed through the perimeter guard post, he saw only more barren
country ahead, but he was near enough to be able to look forward to a drink, a
bath, a meal, in that order. A robot flagman slowed him. He steered the
guto-around-a_line,of construction machines moving-illowly in his own
direction. Halfway past the group of large machines the flagman signaled him
to puff in and he found himself directly behind a
huge transport mounting a hefty crane. The crane transport seemed to be the
control vehicle for the ell-
tire convoy of diggers and earthmovers. It was manned. He blew his hom, asking
for, a little coop    ,eration in
4
Zach Hughes
being allowed to pass. The base was near. He could see, off to his right, the
profile of a,low building. He inched forward to be in position to use the
auto's feeble acceleration when he was given the go-ahead to pass, bringing
the hood of his vehicle under the overhanging boom of the crane.
The operator of the transport seemed to be deaf. He leaned out the window and
yelled, blowing his'horn. He checked the shoulder, to see if he could pull off
and pass on the right. He caught a flash of motion out of the comer of his
eye.
On a scale of ten his reaction time was a ten plus. It wag one of his
best-known abilities, his quickness. More than once lightning reflexes, had
served him well, and they served him again as he slammed on the brakes,
rocking the old vehicle on its worn shocks. At the. same time, foot still
pressed'on the brake, he threw himself to his right and hit the floorboard
just as the falling boom of the crane crushed the flimsy roof. The auto was
being dragged forward as the crane transport continued to move. There was a
grinding sound as metal folded and tore. Smoke came from the locked tires of
the auto. It went on for perhaps thirty seconds before the boom pulled off the
crushed roof to bend the hood. The cooling fan clanked against metal. The
engine sputtered and died. The tar was motionless.
He sighed and relaxed. Then      'he was jolted as the drone earthmover behind
him rammed the car, contin- ,ued pushing until the car slewed sideways to the
blade of the earthmover. He could hear the car falling to pieces. There was a
scrape of protesting metal and another jolt as the forward motion stopped, the
auto rammed up under the boom against the rear of the crane transport,
crushed, heldtightly.
Once again he relaxed. He was alive. He was lying in a constricted space,
the.roof of the car pushed down
PRESSURE MAN                           5
bottom, the sides pushed in toward him. He escaping methane and felt a
tighteningof every in his body, but when seconds passed without
he tried to peek through a tiny slit which once been a window. He heard
movement outside.
ass shards on his face and he was afraid to eyes lest he cause glass splinters
to,fall from d eyebrows into them.
all right?" a voice asked, from outside the" hed vehicle.
gas is leaking," he yelled. "Get some foam on. crate.
teps moved away, not fast. He had a piece of "P, Jagged metal punching into
his back. He tried i move
ease it. He was not badly hurt. He could move legs, carms his back, his neck.
Part of the seat back was on
0
f him, He pushed on it until he could see out of. slit of crushed window. He
heard footsteps co        9
"Get some foam on this wreck before it blows," he
He could see legs in blue work pants and service oes. The man was standing
quite near.
"Yeah, just take it easy," the voice said. He heard a clank, a loud hiss. He
froze.      Gas was now escaping rapidly from the tank at the rear. And there
were more sounds. He froze, not believing it. A small pop. The workman had
just activated a self-igniting cutting torch. "Turn that thing off, you dumb
bastard," he screamed. "The gas is leaking." "Yeah," the workman said.
The blue-clad legs moved. He saw the flame at the tip of the cutting torch and
knew what was going to happen. He braced the back of his neck against the
caved-in roof of the auto and pushed, momentarily
6                     Zach Hughes panicked. He heard the methane ignite,
whooshing, into flame. He felt the heat immediately, and the rank odor of
combustion was in his nostrils. Like millions, billions before him, he was
thinking, "No, not me. Not now. Not yet.21 . Burning paint filled, the crushed
cab with smoke. The heat was a blast furnace. Evil black tendrils of heavy
smoke snaked up into the small area in which he was trapped. A sheet of flame
sprang up outside the slit of the window, cutting off his viqw of the world.
I His mind was surprisingly clear. In a few seconds the entire tank of, gas
would go. At least it would be quick, one massive, blow as the explosion
fireballed up. At least it would be quick.
02o
Barnes was no angel. He never had been and, ss he did a lot of changing, he
never would be. I'V_    ise, calm, methodical, overbearing, yes. Angelic,
Tall, graying at the temples, eyes cold gray behind
o
al rimless glasses,--he towered over the world, n
face just -as remembered, smooth-shaven, mascu-
st handsome. But he was not an angel. Mo
is was evident in a slow swim upward into eness. The world was J.Ps face, and
it was a burning world, and there was a stench of burning gar bage gas. ,zl@-@
His feet hurt. He lifted his head and looked down his body. His feet were
bandaged. "It isn't too bad," J.J. said. "It's painful, -1 know, but the
damage is minor. That sore spot you feel on your ass is the only place they
had to take skin       for grafting.$2
He turned his head and saw a hospital           table with water pitcher, pill
tray, glass, and a small vase of roses. "Are you with me, Flash?` J.J. asked.
The use of his old nickname       helped him bring his eyes into full focus.
"I think so," he said. "That bastard had passed a double screening," M. @i,
said. "Are you ready to hear about it, or do you want to let your head clear a
bit more?"
11W
ater," he said.
7
8                     Zach Hughes "Sure." J.J. poured and lie took the glass,
almost letting it slide through his fingers. "Thanks," @ he said. He felt a
twinge of soreness on his left buttock. The world tilted a little, then
stabilized. He drank, and J.J. took the glass. "OK," he said. "Flash, we can't
keep all of them out. No matter how we try we can't screen all of them out.
There are too many of them. They've been infiltrating too long, and some of
them are damned smart." "Why me?" he asked. "Probably because you had a DOSE
decal on your auto," J.J. said. "Working for DOSE is reason enough.
He was looking at his feet. They were bandaged from the calves downward. He
wiggled a toe and it moved and there was only a small pi mi. He could feel
the:motion, but he couldn't see it through the bandages. "They've got the pain
senders blocked off," J.J. said. "Yeah. I've been burned before." "They're not
as bad as you might think. One spot on the right instep had to have a graft.
With these new methods you!ll be on your feet in no time." -
"I know about bums," he said. "What I doWt know is why the administrator of
DOSEWEX is taking time to hold my hand personally. And I don't quite buy your
reasoning why some yoyo tried to kill me. I cant quite see it as an accidental
selection, based on my being in a DOSE vehicle. And while I'm wondering, I
wonder why said administrator of DOSEWEX pulled me away from my first ground
leave in two years to come out into the desert to be almost burned to death."
J.J. chuckled. "Dammit, J.J.," he said. "I want to know what's going on.'$
PRESSURE MAN Z",
k4WY old ball-carrying buddy," J.J. said, sh"g his
with an uncharacteristic expression of kindliness P
Vs-face. "Just take it easy. Eat, drink, and rest. Itbewalkingin a couple of
days."
turned his head to try to see the sore spot on his It, too, was bandaged.
"When you went back to I should have let those cadets cream you," he
you had, who would have spread your fame as I*e man who pulled the Army game
out of the fire, ex-
e t reference, in A-6? Now you take a nap like a d little aging runn ing back
and I'll see you in two
you didn't send for me just to pay me complits
Dom said. "What's going on?" LJ. put his hands behind, his ears and looked
around 'sage. The hospital- room
room. Dom got the mes @,:'Jiad not been swept. The walls could have ears.
There'll be a couple of base, investigators in here shortly J.J. said. "Just
tell them the truth about what -,happened. Tell them you were coming to
DOSEWEX @,,onthe invitation of your old friend, the administrator,
to talk over old times and have a drink or two. Tell them you have no idea why
you were singled out as a target for terrorists." "Just the truth," Dom said.
"When you're up and around rm sure you'll enjoy our friendly little visit."
Dom sighed wearily. "I was invited by my old classmate, who kissed ass and got
promotions. I have no
idea why I was attacked. That last, at least, is the
th." J.J.'s look was serious. "Just cool it, Dom." Two uniformed security men
stood beside his        bed and asked the same questions repeatedly, getting
the
10
Zach Hughes
same answers repeatedly. Just the facts. Dominic Gordon, Fleet Engineer, DOSE
Spacearm, arrived from Mars five days past for ground leave in the Los Angeles
conclave. Dominic Gordon was to visit DOSEWEX ,upon the invitation of J.J.
Barnes, administrator of that facility. Dominic Gordon had no information
regarding possible reasons for his being attacked. He gave a minute and
detailed account of the events be-
with his overtaking the convoy of construction vehicles. He did not see his
assailant's face, only his legs and hands.
Any friend of J.J. Barnes was treated with great politeness. A friend of the
administrator's could even ask questions. No, they had not been able to
question the assailant. A passing patrol had seen him deliberately ignite the
fuelPand to simplify matters, they zapped the fellow, putting seven slugs into
his chest in one-tenth of a second, covering him and the burning vehicle with
fire foam split seconds later. "Your main problem," a nurse told Dom later,
after a nap, "is that you inhaled some of the fumes from the foam. You'll have
sore lungs for a couple of days."
The nurse was a buxom, motherly, gray-haired lady with infinitely tender
hands. He fell in love with her and, on the morning of the third day, walking
rather well considering his bandages, he kissed her on the cheek and promised
to bring her a carbocrystal next trip back from Mars.
Outside of his room he was met by one of the policemen who had questioned him.
Theymalked down a long corridor in silence, boarded an elevator, exited the
elevator- The security man guiding Dom boarded a tube car, and zipped at
back-snapping speed to 'an unknown destination underground where Dom was left
to wait in JJ i's Outer office. He passed the time by looking at the left
Profile of the receptionist. It was a very
PRESSURE MAN
profile and he wa& in the midst of some interesting
ation when she rose, sniffed, and told him that Barnes would see him now. J I
indicated a chair in front of his desk. Dom sat
leaning his crutch on the chair. There was a hiss a-low rumble as a
blockshield closed down around ',',desk area, putting the two of them in an
impenetrashell. @@"!g__,@You have problems even here?" Dom asked. rin often
accused of being overcautious," J.J. said, .i@'Obut the last time I visited
the White House the media fiad the details of the discussion before I was
back. at ','JAy hotel."
OName dropper," Dom said. He wiggled, trying to @`Oase the weight off his sore
rear. "Plash," J.J. said, "you're just in from Mars. What .,,,Was your cargo?
Phosphates," Dom - said. He knew that J.J. was W ,A are of his ship's cargo,
but J.J. had to work up to
He'd always been methodical. "'Agricultural phosphates," J.J. said. ght "And
the trip before this one?" "The same." "Do you ever think about that?" J.J.
asked. "Not a hefluva lot," Dom said. "Why not a cargo of carbocrystals?" J.J.
asked. "Or refined platinum? Or gold, or radioactives, or even petroleumT2 "I
don't place orders for cargo," Dom said. "If you9re trying to give me a lesson
in the dynamics of .Supply and demand, I know why we carry water out to Mars
and carry phosphates back. Mars doesn't have enough water and you don7t have
enough food. You've let the topsoil wash into the oceans and you've mined
what's left by force farming."
Zach Hughes "I don't like your choice of pronouns," LJ. said. "You. You,
yourself, had- nothing to do with using up Earth's resources?" "I voted for
forced family planning in '90," Dom said. "That was the first,time I was old
enough to vote. I had common sense even at such a tender age. The rest of you
didn't." "I won't bother to claim kinihip by telling you that L too, voted for
family planning," LJ. said. "It's enough to say that the rest of the world
didn't." He lo6ked,.at Dom thoughtfully. "The man who tried to bum you was a
Publicrat, of course." "Worldsaver?" "Party affiliation is public record.
Membership      in, radical and terrorist organizations is not. I would guess
either Worldsaver or Earthfirster. The latter, I suspect, since they're
becoming a bit more bloody lately." "WNch party leader was he registered
under?" Dom asked. '.'Our own lovable senator. The gentleman from New Mexico."
"Do you have any ideas yet why he selected me?" "Not officially. There's
nothing on paper to connect you with me or any aspect of DOSE other than the
Spacearm. However, in the eyes of the Earthfirsters, any man coming into
DOSEWEX is a high-priority target. It's likely that the DOSE vehicle was
enough to make you a target. They're getting less and less selective. Just
being a- spacer is enough to get you killed." "I know that I'm used to
spending'my time in a guarded enclave while I'm on dear old mother Earth."
"And all you want to do is get back into space," LJ. said. "'You know it."
13 PRESSURE MAN
going to take a while," I.J. said. "You're being
pacearm duty and assigned here." )cdoff S Thanks for no-thing," Dom said.
,;AUrnes unlocked a deft drawer and put a player on top of the desk. "I guess
it's time," he said. "Weve ,,'@@ed out    the time lapse between dialogue.@' He
d a button. The sound of deep space filled the room. There was
familiar hiss and crackle of the big emptiness and a
of homesickness hit Dom as he leaned forward. voices were calm and
professional, the voices of c , good at their work, a long way from home,
to Earth only by fragile radio waves. ton Control, this is Callisto Explorer.
Zero-three-five hours CSET. Do you read?"
oa      Callisto Explorer." "Wouston, request check of vehicles in area J-77J.
epeat. Request check of all vehicles in area
43.12 "Hold one, Callisto Explorer. Stand by, Callisto Explorer U.K. ship
Queen Anne is nearest you, beyond your instruments at 186 degrees relative
reference point two-seven-Baker. U.S.S.R. exploration ship Khrushchev relative
your position 313 degrees reference point two-nine-Baker." "Houston, Callisto
Explorer. Request check bearing relative our position zero-nine-seven,
reference point three-three-Charlie. Do you copy?" "Got you, Callisto. Hold
one. Nothing there but empty space."
ItHouston, unless your computer is fouled up, there's a bogie out there."
"Callisto Explorer, repeat please." "Houston, weve got a bogie. Closing on the
orbit of Jupiter. Estimated speed one hundred thousand miles per second.
Repeat, estimated speed one hundred thou-
14
Zach Hughes
sand miles per second. Mass estimated at three-zerozero-zero tons. Repeat,
three-zero-zero-zero tons. Houston, we are tracking. Bogie on collision course
with planetary mass. E.T.A. outer atmosphere four, hours twenty-three
minutes." "Callisto Explorer, are you filming?" "That is affirmative. We are
filming. Is that you, Paul? Listen, this thing is really something. Hold it.
Hold one. Yes, we now have visual. What's that, Dell? Let me see. Jesus, that
bastard is big. Houston? Put this baby on the ground and you could lay four
football fields inside her length. Estimated length, fourzero-zero yards.
Profile cylindrical, tapered at both ends. No visible blast. Possible
thrusters at rear.-She's closing fast." "Callisto Explorer, where is your
bogie now?". "She's going to pass behind the planet relative to us in
approximately five minutes, Houston. Hold it. Dell, did you see what I saw?
Houston, there was some sort of activity aboard the bogie. A glow. it showed
on our visual -and on the heat scopes. Front and relative the planet. Possible
braking activity. Yes, she's slowed slightly. Houston, she slowed faster than
is possible. She. took oft fifty percent of her speed in ten seconds. We're
losing he r now, Houston. Shes getting fuzzy because of the atmosphere. She's
not going straight in, but is approaching in an orbital posture. She's fading
now and we're getting nothing but the planet.-
Dom was sitting on the edge of his chair. He felt an atavistic crawling at the
nape of his neck as his hair tried to stand up in -an age-old response to the
unknown. 11is pulse- rate was up and he was breathing fast. "Interesting?"
J.J. asked, with a wry smile. "What's a bogie?" Dom asked, not familiar with
the term but knowing without doubt that it had been used
PRESSURE MAN
is
refer to an unidentified ship of gargantuan prooor-
Olt's antique slang used by some of the exploration
J.J. said. "It goes all the way back to the wars "0 the last century. I looked
it up once. There was a ow named Bogart who played bad men in filmed
as. They called him Bogie. In the air wars an y fi ter was a bad guy, a
bogie."
i
ship out there, how do you know its a bogie, s
YT'
t @Ve don' . Later pn in time the term tame to be apied to, any unidentified
flying object." "Andis this one stiff unidentified?" Dom asked.
Yes. "It, went into the atmosphere of Jupiter?" "Yes. Two months ago Callisto
Explorer was pulled h mission and sent into Jupiter orbit, closer than
er
ve. en before. It was almost too close. They used much fuel getting out of the
gravity well and We to send a rescue ship from Mars. We'll get theta, they're
stiff in space." "The ship came from outside the system," Dom said. 'twithout
a doubt." "And it's lost." "Not necessarily," Barnes said, tenting his hands
und hi chin. "Quit playing games, J.J.," Dom said. "Listen.
J.J. pushed the play button on the machine. Dom heard the great flare of sound
which is the background noise of Jupiter. "We have to listen closely," J.J.
said.
He heard it then, a thin, weak series of pulses, re-
a few secpeated in the same pattern at intervals of onds. It was difficult to
imagine the power of a
the transmitter which could make itself heard through
16                   Zach Hughes great.rush of Jupit&'s radio output, the
crushing radiations of a failed sun. "Impossible," Dom said. "She'd go right
on down toward the core' 'into a, pressure of one hun'dred thou- .sand
atmospheres. Nothing could withstand such pressure.12, "We've run this series
of pulses through every corn- ,puter in the world," J.J. said. "We've got the
best men in the world working on it, but there!s not enough. If someone who
didn't speak our language picked up one of our ships sending Mayday he'd be as
helpless as we are to figure out what the ship was saying. But we know the
signal is amazingly powerful. It has to be to be heard over Jupe's noise. That
makes us think she's orbiting just inside the atmosphere. After a careful
study of Callisto Explorer's film it seems that the ship went in at the right
angle and the right speed to establish a stable orbit." "How deep?" Dom asked.
"Remember that diving hull you designed?" "It was good to,forty thousand feet
of ocean," Dom said. "Over a thousand atmospheres of pressure." "Youll have to
more than double those specifications." "No," Dom said, shaking his head. "You
quickly get into the area of diminishing returnis.5' "We're talking about
three thousand atmospheres," J.L said. "No way." "There is a way,'t J.J. said.
His eyes were serious. "Tbere is a way because there's an alien ship down
there inside Jupe's atmosphere which is withstanding the pressure." "If
Callisto Explorer's observations were accurate," Dom said, "it's faster and
bigger than anything we've got, or anything we've got on the drawing boards.
It
PRESSURE MAN
17
from outside the system. That means,it has eitraveled a long, -long time, or
they've beaten the tant. Either way that puts them far ahead of us."
if we could lift a what would be the benefit ed million people off the Earth
and establish
lanet of Centauri?" on a life-zone p If Centauri has a life-zone planet."
couple of hundred    million more for each now
scovered," J.J. said. V-@ -141t!s old, old dream," Dom said. "And without a
'tubli t ive, that's all it is, a dream."
at if there's a sublight drive on that alien ship?" Dom shook his head,
thinking of the impossibility of @,.Wnstruction of a hull to resist three,
thousand atmo- @@,@pheres of pressure. ."Do you know how bad it is?" J.J.
asked. "Were
3'.", losing., Were keeping Earth alive by spending the last ,bf our resources
flying back fertilizer from Mars so,that
e can grow
just enough food to keep billions of people just above the starvation level.
You and I know that space should be more, that ies our last hope, but those
hungry people don't see it that way. They look at the space budget imd they
say that the money could be better spent on Earth researching ways to grow
more food, to farm the oceans, to develop the last of the tropical rain
forests and to irrigate the deserts. Weve been fighting the budget cutters
since before the first moon landing. They cut and they slash, and they will
.win in the end. Every second that passes sees a few more mouths to feed. The
Earthfirsters have already put China out of space, and Japan has only a token
program. The U.K. is about ready to cave - in and give them what they want.
Even Russia is having problems. We're fighting now just to hold the current
budget, and thero's not a chance that we'll win. We're outnumbered. The budget
will be cut, and that means an'end
18                    Zach Hughes to exploration and development. All well be
able to do is make the fertilizer runs. ThePublicrats, have an absolute
majority in both houses, and the President is a Publicrat." "I don't _see-@'
Dom began.
X.J. waved him into silence. "The President is a good man. Secretly, he's on
our side, but he can't fight p u'blic opinion. This is an inevitable fact.
They're going to cut our budget. First we lost exploration, then development
of new-programs. The Canaveral site will be,the first to be closed, sure as
helt There will be no more building of ships. There's even a move under way to
close the Academy, to consolidate it with West Point to save money. You know
what that means. They say it's partly for the safety of the students.", "I
heard about.the last incident," Dom said. "Those kids should have stayed in
the campus enclave." "They didn't, and the Firsters got six of them," J.J.
said. "And that seemed to be the first incident in a new wave of terrorism.
The- bleeding hearts say we can stop the bloodshed by getting out of space.
Leave the useless, empty planets alone. Come home to Earth and work together
to make it livable. But we're a little late for that. We've used her up, and
she's just a shell. We've given her too much of a human load to carry. Too
many people, not enough common sense. Do you know that one of the latest
terrorist groups kills lumber cutters in the name of freedom for trees?"
J.J. snorted and continued. "Trees, for Christ's sake. Trees have rights.
Trees have as much right to live as we. I don't know what they expect us to
use to replace the products of the forests, which is the only area where man
ever was worth a damn in competition with nature, in that he figured out how
to grow trees faster than nature. But they want us to quit killing trees.
PRESSURE MAN
19
say it's murder and against the individual It    in acts.%l '-sounds like the
crowded-rat syndrome to me," Apinsaid.
We can see that," J.J. said. "They can't. Space is last hope. We're going to
lose that hope unless we
go down into the atmosphere of Jupiter and bring at ship back with us,"
IA." Dom grunted. "Dom, you're the best hull man in the service, and,
1111!..;,& lberefore, the best in the world. Youre a pressure
If YQU can design a hull for a thousand atmo-
you can design one for three thousand." "There's the matter of power," Dom
said. "We get impossible figures just trying to furnish enough
f such a ship." _power or We'vegot a power plant. It's new and it's untest4
but we've got it."
The newk?" Dom asked. It will be like riding an exploding bomb." "Whee."
"You're the man, Flash," J.J. said. "You're on the spot. You can pull in
anyone you want to work with YM "Art Donald." "He's already here." "Doris and
Larry Gomulka." "Doris is on the way. Larry is finishing a project and will be
here within a week." trl    "That's a good start," Dom said. "The team you
used to develop the deepwater hull." "Will there be budget problems?" "Not on
this one, Flash. We're going to shoot the
works."
clothes at "Good, I'll start by charging some work the company store."
20                  Zach Hughes "They'll be deducted from your pay.,, "You're
all heart," Dom said. "Ohl we're very generous here in DOSEWEX.,11 J.j. said.
03o
@;,,Vbices awakened Dom. He was back in the hospital tate dosage of the dru
which were heahIng his
gs so rapidly that he felt, as -he came out. of sleep,
only an itch under the bandages. His head was He'd taken a sedative to knock
thoughts of a thousand-atmosphere pressure huff from his He was not ready to
open his eyes and face the
I guess he's showing his age," J.J. Barnes said.
said ,.,',Plus atotal lack of alertness and ambition," 'her voice. oo much R&R
in the big city," J.J. said.
opened one eye. They were standing at the of hia bed, I.J. in uniform, Art
Donald in jeans AlInd pullover. Art was a shattered shell of a man who MI
ked as if he might disintegrate at any moment. He vp@     ung             Now
and then a few cells would
had I     problems.
ow a bubble in lung tissue and he'd have a rest in the spital . is hair was
black and lank, his skin pocked ancient acne, his eyes alert. He was smoking.
Art reckless. At parties he courted blowing a lung by @Amokmg, drinking, and
keeping up with the most vigor- ;4_ on the dance floor. He knew more about
metals any man alive. "Nice to see you, Art," Dom said.
21-
22
Zach Hughes
"You want to get out of bed now?" J.J. said, with some irritation. "No," Dom
said. "OK,,if you don't want to      watch a man ride a bomb," J.J. said. "I'd
rather watch a woman      do almost anything," Dom said, but he swung his
legs off the bed and ducked his head down when it started to spin. A nurse
came out of the shadows and attacked him without warning with a pointed
weapon. Almost immediately the. drug began to counteract the sedative.
He -was dressed within mG&es and joined J.J. and Art in the hall. There was no
conversation in the elevator nor in the lower lobby, It was not until they
were riding one of the hack-breaking underground cars that J.1. explained.
"We've got a test vehicle waiting about half an astronomical unit out toward
Polaris," J.J. said. "The new power plant?" "First live run." "Who's on it?'9
"Neil."
Neil was Neil Walters. In space circles it was not necessary to use his last
name. "Couldnt ask for better," Dom -said.
He had not seen the control facility. It was a miniatureHouston, and the
duplication amazed him- He began to wonder what else he didn't know about
DOSEWEX.
J.J. led the way to a good seat directly behind'the contact men and the
consoles. Communications were established. It was that old, old simplicity of
a pilot talking to the control tower. A mid-twentieth-century airlines pilot
would have recognized the form "and the cant Of the exchange, except,
possibly, for a few tech.
PRESSURE MAN
23
S. Countdown was underway. Checklists were
many on board?" Dom asked. t Neil."
risk?" Dom asked. knows it," J.J. said. that smart?" Dom asked. "Neff's
the closest ,to a hero the space service has."
switch on," said a controller.
later, the lag telling of the distance between I ed room and Neil Walters'
precarious perch a new nuclear engine in deep space, his voice calm. His
voice was always calm. "Retro switch -Neil rode a test body all the way down
into the
regaining control just in time to make the crash ble'- and his tone of voice
never changed. Only last moment had he stopped talking his mattert reports of
engineering gone wrong and com-
haywire to perform superhuman things. The padding was impressed with the shape
of his After a few weeks for allowing bones to knit, he a reengineered body
into the troposphere for a run. -f,@ "ItT be about fifteen minutes," J.J.
said.."Want
coffee?" When Dom nodded he snapped his finAl N, @ @ t cadet. ,    aa
0 Y,@,J.J."' Dom said. "We've had this engine on the
ds for years. How'd you manage to get it built when things are tight?" X-'"We
didn't really need it before," J.J. said. "There'd
just a slight increase in velocity, because the harder
push against the constant the harder it pushes
44.And now that we need it for sheer power, how'd @k you manage 019 @"By using
the last dollar of a little cushion we've
24,
Zach Hughes
been keeping hidden just for such an ultimate emergency as this," J.J. said.
"If we can lift three thousand tons of alien ship out of the atmosphere of
Jupiter it will have been worth it." "And the antis have no idea you're
developing the newk engine?" "Our great director has sworn in front of God and
the U.S. Senate!s Space Committee that the newk en-
gine has been abandoned and that DOSE never hides mything from our public serv
 ants." "I'm sure that God has forgiven him his untruthfulness," Art said. "I
thought he spoke for God, himself," Dom said. "And the Senate will forgive him
when we bring home that ship," J.J. said. "Minus ten and counting," the
interior sound system boomed. "So I'm in league with criminals," Dom
said. "Do YOU realize that men have served hard time for lying about something
much less expensive to the Congress of the United States?" "No one lives
without risk," J.J. said. "One thing bothers me," Dom said. "That bogie went
into Jupe two. months ago and yoWve already got a hydroplant out in space
ready for testing. Am I to believe that you built the damned'thing in that
length of tithe?" "We've had the main components ready for years," J.J. said.
"Don't look so grim. It's not as serioui as all that. There isn't an agency of
the government that doesn't do the same thing. If we all stuck strictly to
budget we couldn't even hold the status quo. All the big agencies slip in a
few billion here and there for padding in times of need.,, "How much padding
did it take to duplicate the Houston facility here?" Dom asked.
PRESSURE MAN
25
would happen to all our ships in space if ter got into the Houston facility
with a kilo of
J.J. asked. e from- a few men getting killed," Art said, "it kill the program,
because Cong@ess would see
4    an excellent opportunity to refuse to fund re-
the control facility." dammit, this is just the kind of staff. the antis ut,"
Dom said. "I have to admit that for the I understand a little about the way
they feel."
5     people know about this place," J.J. said.
Vur friend from New Mexico knows. Aside from t that there's no way to hide a
place which sends much communications as we do, it was good for our friend,
since it was in his home state ;,,@,.put a few, million into the economy of
New He was- one of the most sincere supporters of
but only behind the scenes, of cate -facility e!V oes he know about the
hydrogen engine?" Dom
@,'-,!Ve hop4- not. Well know within a few days."
If' the   senator from New Mexico knows, the ters know. If the Firsters know
there'll be a public
at the very least, and at worst an out-and-out ult on DOSEVVEX" i,4;. "'Are
they that strong?" Dom asked.
ger every day. I'd ey re strong and growing stron it's fifty-fifty that
they'll try a frontal attack on
ArEX. It's isolated. On the surface it would seem 'be an easier target than,
say, Houston or Canaveral, when it comes right down to it it would be easier
to
*,uke the Pentagon or Fort Knox. We've got two divins of space marines within
five minutes' jump-
got the latest weap ons. We can fry and slice and
26
Zach Hughes
a few implode and bum and freeze and dope and gas thousand Earthfirsters with
our own security   Iforces." "But you can't keep them out of the facility,"
Dom said, -flourishing a bandaged foot.
The busy routine went on around them. The mechanical voice of the test
coordinator continued the countdown. Dom finished his coffee,. Thecadet was on
hand to take his empty cup.
Under ideal condiitons, every ship in space should be equipped with the
hydroplant. If Callisto Explorer had had hydkopower it wouldn't be sitting out
there in space, a dead ship with the air going stale. The hydroplant was not
absolutely necessary. The old solid-fuel rockets did the job of exploring the
system and running the limited commercial traffic between Earth and Man. Man
could no longer afford expensive programs merely for the sake of progress. The
offshoots of space were, almost exclusively, luxury items which the world
could live without. Teflon, fabrics, micro-electronics, new scientific
techniques, the ability to locate planets for the first time around the nearer
stars-not one of those things put food on the table, and when a man is hungry
he couldn@t care less about a planet orbiting a star so far away that he
couldnt reach it in his lifetime in one
of the present-day ships.
The harnessing of hydrogen power had eased a few pro lems. There was plenty of
electricity in the-industrial countries, but you couldn't use a hydroplant .
to propel a ground vehicle. The best use for portable hydroplants was in
space, and not even almost unlimited power would push a ship past the speed of
light and make the stars possible for this generation.
As a spacer, he would feel more secure in the future to know-that there was a
backup control for Houston. He. was even pleased that the hydroplant was, at
last,
90149 to- be tested. With the world in turmoil, covert
- PRESSURE MAN
27
were the only method available in a continued to conquer space before it was
too late.
antis would point out that only five men were
9 stale air in. the Callisto Explorer as they for a rescue ship, while
millions were starving. ,-@antis would, if they discovered that billions had
spent to develop a space hydrogen engine, mount
s and take to the streets to kill the first spacer they encountered. orn
didn't like to have to think about such things.
to be left free to do his job aboard a good @-and leave the problems of the
planet to the politi-
he'd Before J.J. had called him to DOSEWEX,
that he'd be able to ride the thunderbirds out "O(space for the rest of his
life, even if it meant only Mars run for fertilizer. Sometimes he dreamed
that,
ere, some hidden lab would break the constant his lifetime, but he had little
hope. It would
perhaps. He'could not believe that man had created, or had grown, to be
confined to Earth its immediate family of barren planets. If tiny
ic particles could travel faster than light, there to be a way to make a ship
travel faster than light. "k-If that alien ship out there in orbit around
Jupiter d a key to sublight travel, any deception was justifi- ,4,
Even if the n-dssion failed there would be gain. -'@.bwer would never again be
a problem. There would
be a shortage of hydrogen in the universe.
t .Almos time," J.J. said. "Igniter system go," Neil's voice said, thinned by
ce. "I want Neil," Dom said. "I want him to fly the
92
9. "He's already assigned," J.J. said. So it all depended on- an untested
engine. so far away
28                   Zach Hughes from the control room that, if it exploded
when Neil ignited it, it would take high-resolution telescopes on
.the orbiting observatories tosee the flash of light. "Preheater on," Neil
said.
Now it was all Neil. The countdown was in its last seconds and the time lag
did not allow for two-way communication. "Igniter switch on." The words came
calmly, smoothly, space static crackling among them., "Backup igniter switch
on.
Even as the words echoed around the silent control room it, had already
happened. Neil Walters had set off the bomb under the seat of hig pants even
before his voice counted: "Four, three, two, one, fire."
Dom could hear the blood,pounding in his ears.
Fifty people held their breath. 'Mat is a roger -on ignition," Neils voice
said, so
calmly. A cheer went up in the control room.
"Acceleration factor point-one-oh-five. All systems go. Stand-by for cutoff."
It worked.. In spite of strikes in key plants, in spite of demonstrations at
space facilities and'aerospace plants, in spite of official red tape and the
starving millions and social laws against secrecy in government agencies, it
worked.
Data was still pouring into the control computers when Dom followed J.J. and
Art to a track car which whisked them back to the living complex.
Power was no problem. They would have enough power to jar the earth out of
orbit if they wanted to build a plant big enough. With a ship powered by the
hydrogen engine there would be more than enough power to grapple on and lift
that bogie out of jupitees atmosphere and carry it home.
If the bogie didn't resist being lifted out.
PRESSURE MAN
29
they could build a ship to withstand three thou- ""atmospheres of pressure
without imploding. the Earthfirsters didn't mount an attack and -do.
damage before the pressure hull could fly. @much they didn't all go to jail.
o40
.Doris Gomulka arrived while Dom was watching         Ad Donald run alloy
tests. She came into the lab in her travel clothes, a bit rumpled and dusty,
her hair damp with her own perspiration. Doris was a tall girl, smallbreasted,
thin chest, small waist which flowered into nice hips. Shewas, in Dom's eyes,
one of the more sensuous women of the world, although she made no at-
tempt to exploit it or to enhance her nice face with beauty aids.
Art was about to fire a piece of alloy with a laser. It was an interesting and
precise operation which required Dom's assistance. Keeping his eyes on the
meters gave him time to recover from seeing Doris for the first time since the
water-hull project.
Art- burned the piece of metal, and instruments measured the instant of its
disintegration and fed the results into a computer. Doris stood quietly until
Art was finished. Dom turned and looked at her. He couldn't smile. He tried
and the smile wouldWt come.
He was feeling it all over again and saying to himself, Look, stupid, the gal
is married and happy with it. "I've got a few problems for you," Art said,
with no
other word of greeting. @ "'Right,", Doris said. She liked working with Art.
He was her. kind of scientist. Once a project was under way the rest of the
world ceased to exist for Art. He
30
31 PRESSURE MAN JDps in his field, and she liked that, because -she O",,with a
quiet and unobtrusive confidence, that she .,@Wps in heri. It had been said
that Doris Gomulka
feed random numbers into acomputer and make
the poetry of Emily Dickinson, if she, wanted te time on such a project.
had some problems, too. Unlike Art, he could them over to Doris for the
solving. His probwas that he was in love, had always been in love,
always be in love with a girl who looked on him, @-,Jond of goofy younger
brother. And, dammit,         'he It even younger than Doris. *ice to have you
aboard again," he said.
She gave him a nice smile. "You're lookgood. What's with the feet?"
Firster gave him a hotfoot," Art said. "Have you W from Larry?
this day and time he didn't take his pills and up malaria in India," Doris
said. at we want to do,     Art said, having had enough the Civilities, "is
take the water-bull. formula and run
ugh with a few alterations."
a rest f.rom the trip," Dom said, want to have @"With a couple of the new
alloys I think we can inthe resistance of the old hull about twenty per-
said. .,AA at least let her have time to wash up," Dom
"I don't care if she's dirty," Art said. "Just so she
on a sterile suit." In ready to work," Doris said, smiling at Dom.
old design can be nothing more than a ping-off place," Art said-. "The'Flash
here thinks might be inspired if we go over all the figures again
just add in the progress in,techniques which are-
32                     Zach Hughes "It won!t come close to what's needed@"
Doris said. "We have to start somewhere," Dom said. -rve got a couple of vague
ideas. I want to talk them over with Larry before we do anything significant."
"Hes,no more than three days behind me," Doris said. "Good," Dom said.
"Meanwhile, well have time to go over the old design." Doris came to stand
beside him as he scribbled on a work pad. Art stood on the other side. Dom
gave them a horseback estimate of what an individual hull member would have to
stand for a three-thousand-atmosphere hull, using the initials TTA to refer to
the hull. Art took his figures and began to run with them, and Doris slipped
into a sterile suit and went into the computer room. For them, Dom had ceased
to exist and the only reality was the immediate problem. They didn't eve     'n
look up when he left the lab. If they needed him, they'd remember him and call
him, irritated because he wasn't available on a seeond's notice. He grinned.
With that team you never knew who was the boss, and that's the way he liked
it. Each member was the best. Each member knew the othpi members were the
best. There was. no clash of egos, only a feeling of anticipation and a will
to get on with it.
In his office, he told his secretary that he was available only to members of
the team and the chief, meaning J.J. He poured coffee and sat in       his
deliberately uncomfortable desk chair. Desk work bored him. If he, had kept
the padded, swiveling, seductive chair which came with the office he'd have
spent a lot of time sleeping in it.
- The office was in top-Security country. It wasas well protected as the labs
and the main control room. The labs were adjacent. They contained everything
needed for the preliminary, mainly theoretical work. He could
PRESSUREMAN
33
a M meal from a varied menu at any time of the @r night; and if he desired, it
would be, delivered to
or his quarters
which opened off the other -R,10f the office. The office and the quarters
were
but pleasant. They were so well ventilated and
lit that it was easy to forget that they were hundred feet underground. In
his room were bottles of his favorite brand of bourbon, a which was capable of
receiving topside broadand also offered a selection of taped dramas,
aries, and scientific film. The music system been stocked with his favorites,
obviously from his
list aboard his last ship. -blockshield contained the entire lab-office
com-
Communications out were complicated, except A- private line direct to J.J.'s
office. It was a good
for work. looked over the reports from Neff's engine tests. A_:,           ant
had worked to,design specs, and Nbit
kliti _6      it home to join the construction team out V       A tl,,-. moon,
where the hull would be fabricated.
hull was not even designed yet, but the construecrews were     in place. Dom
had worked under ss!= before, but never like this. He ha been      over the
engine
d                           test data a hundred and he knew he was reading it
again simply to his mind-off the way she looked when she walked the lab dusty
and rumpled from a trip across the "'J#sert by ground car. He kept remembering
the Cape how they had walked under a Florida moon arm in both slightly       y.
And above all he remembered
tips her lips flattened and then resisted under his. I@"e'._And there were
other memories, because that kiss .n.Under the Florida moon had not been the
first. He'd
d her a lot when they were together in the ademy. They'd even plighted a few
troths and made
34
Zach Hughes
a few plans. Yes, a lot of kisses then, and a lot of tears, openly on her
part, secretly on his, when he unplighted his troths and grabbed a chance for
an immediate berth on a'Mars ship. He grabbed it with both hands and let her
hand fall limply from his, leaving her behind. She married Larry Goniulka
while he was on his second Mars trip, after hed told her, as kindly as he
could, that his first love was space and that she'd have to accept being
number two. I, Doris, was not the sort to be content with being number two,
and she was happy, or she seemed to be, with Larry.
Dom could understand why she didn't want to be the few-weeks-out-of-the-year
wife of a spacer, but'he could not understand her being happy with Larry.
Larry stood two hands shorter than Doris and he tended toward stoutness. He
was a small barrel of a man with a protruding stomach and a liking for
ordinary beer. He was a smiler. He was everything Dom Gordon wasn't. He was
the most unlikely candidate for being Doris' hustand, and he was, when Dom
came
home from that second Mars trip. He was, indeed, Doris'husband.
Well, hell, a good spacer doesn't kiss anyone but his ship, except when on
Earthside R&R. He could live with it, or he thought he could until, a little
bit drunk, he kissed her under a Florida moon and found her mouth to be as
sweet as before, but without the respouse.
The kiss took place during the       Iearly days of the water-hull project.
DOSE wanted a vessel to explore the deepest ocean, and Dom was the man. He
picked his team, and Doris was the first to arrive. They found. themselves
with time on their hands. Larry was off, as usual, in some inaccessible place
in Africa or Asia. Art Donald was finishing a project in Seattle.
PRESSURE MAN
35
response, then she Jdssed her, felt a momentary
away. Marriage was still recognized by
tion. There were people as an honorable institu
like Doris, who felt that marriage vows were to In a world where the v Iast
majority of women What they wanted when they wanted it, Doris to what she
laughingly called "middle-class moIs
had never been a pleader. If a girl said no she wasn't interested at the
moment. She'd be interlater, and if she were not, another would be. It tot
eizoism or chauvinism on his part, it was just
things were. He should have backed off when said no, but he was, he realized,
still in love with Ile tried-gentle force, pulling her to him. She was
She resisted silently.
this is Dom," he said. "You know me.
t's the past, Dom," she said. at ' erence would it make?" toul make a lot of
difference to me," she said. on loved me," he said. "It wouldnt be the first
would be the first time since I married Larry," said..Hell, he understood, but
he had to preserve ipride. He stood there thinking of things to say. He W what
he should have said. Ite should have said,    "Doris, I understand. That's
way
I thought of you back at the Academy when C          were my girl. I admire you
for being that way."
Instead, he let his passions guide him, begged her,
a Iprideless beggar and saw, in her eyes, her of respect for him. That made
him angry, and he
the situation worse by saying angry things.
you are not going to force me to pull out of t she said. -rin interested in
it and Larry projec
in it.lt
Zach Hughes
4'rm sorry," he said. "I'mbeing damned unfair. Just put it down to one too
many drinks and lefs forget it."
ITd like that." "It woret happen again. "Thank you, Dom." "It wouldn't have
happened this time," he said, with one last effort to hurt her, "if you hadn't
walked with me.9@ "That won't happen again," she said. "Thank you, Doris," he
said.
It would have taken a' computer and a good operator to figure the miles hed
covered since Florida. Tnberme were always girls for spacers, and then she
walks into a lab and it's all up front again and, goddammit, she wasn't even
beautiful. Her breasts were too small and her hips too wide and she was    'an
intellectual snob and why the hell couldn't he get her out of his mind? "'My
boy," he said, "its a matter of self-control.19
He practised self-control. He picked up Art's notes on a new alloy and studied
them., and then he was into it, going over J.J.'s specs for a ship which would
be impossible to build. They wanted a five-hundred-yard monster with a cargo
hold taking up four-fifths of her volume. "What the hell are we going to do?"
he exp       loded, when he first saw the specs. "Carry the bogie home in her
belly?" "Is that a bad idea?" J.J. asked. "You're compounding the problems,"
Dom protested. "You're giving me an impossibility on top of an
1111Probability. How can I build a pressure hull with nothing inside but a
huge empty spiace?" "You can build as many bulkheads as needed," J.J. said.
"Not if you're going to carry the bogie in the hold," he said.
PRESSURE MAN
37
we've got to make everyone think she's notha giant tanker," J.J. said. -carry
water to Mars?", carry water to Mars. To carry phosphates back. too big to be
built in secret. We've got to have
g of powerful men, even if we keep her consecret from the public. Can you see
the senaNew Mexico buying the bogie-on-Jupe idea? to Mars he can understand.
Even the most rabid
ers are already half convinced of her economic because she, can multiply the
cargo tonnage behere and Mars." ut you caret pressurize that much empty hull
Dom said. "Shell have to be slim. Just about space inside the thick hull for a
man to walk The smaller and tighter she is the easier it will build her to
resist pressure."
has to be a tanker." tanker or nothing?" q-hat s about the size of it."
'VMat's about the most stupid thing rve ever
Dom said. admit that," J.J. said. "But she was     sold to   the
nd shakers as a tanker. If she can't be built, we'll just sit here twiddling
our thumbs and watch whole space program go down the starving throats "ibe
breeding billions in Asia and Africa."
started- to tell him what he could do with his g billions, but instead he went
back to his office, a, drink, and went back to the specs. In the next '.days
he developed a sore neck from shaking hi's in frustration.
a pressure hull was, in principal, a simple er. Man had been, building them
for a long time use in the ocean. In the first of the twentieth-cen-I wars,
German pressure hulls, submarines, had al-
38                   Zach Hughes most won a war for a tiny country in central
Europe, and -the feat was repeated in the second of the wars. Following that,
the art of building pressure hulls was relined for submarines designed to
travel fast and deep and launch nuclear weapons. The Polaris submarine
program, begun in the 1960s, was tied in closely to advances in space. To
enable submarines to cruise submerged for long periods, new techniques of
communication were developed using ultra-low-frequency transmitters whose
signals could. be detected underwater. Refinements of those techniques would
be used to try to communicate from the dense atmosphere of Jupiter. ,
Moreover, much of the guidance work which was done during the Polaris program
was applicable to space navigation. The jump from Polaris to space was a small
one.
There were differences between designing a -hull for underwater use and for
use in open space, but there were also similarities. An underwater hull faces
uniform pressure around the entire huff. Thus, it is simple to calculate the
exact hydrodynamic load for any portion of the hull. Balance hydrodynamic load
against the need for compression inside the hull, and you come UP with figures
for correct proportioning of the structural elements and the required
thicknesses of various parts.
Dom Gordon's pressure hull, which had worked and was still working in
experiments and exploration mi ocean depths of thirty-five thousand feet, was,
essentially, a refinement of the, huff design used by submarme engineers since
1918. It utilized a cylinder of circular section, which is another way of
saying cigarshaped, stiffened by ring-shaped frames with a longitudinal
spacing of from one-fifth to one-tenth of the diameter. Dom's greatest
departure from traditional sub design was in the use of metals which were
quite flexible. As the pressure increased, the external loading
PRESSURE MAN
19
e an entire hull to change shape, thus putting "Vress on certain members than
on others. The "excessive localized strain. the Polaris submarine Scorpion was
lost in implosion of her hull was heard at great dis- @by sensitive
instruments. The Scorpion was opm- a mere ten thousand feet of water, but she
designed to resist even half of that pressure. how much Dom had to go to
design a mobile
able self-powered vehicle for resistance of the and-atmosphere pressure at
thirty-five thout. He did it by holding the size of the cylinder
and holding the spacing of the support to less than one-tenth of diameter. He
moved
hull science ahead in a quantum leap, and Ap was small compared with what he
was being to do now.
they wanted him to throw away all of the
from experience in the past and ge 'gained A monster ship which, first, had to
fly through with a negative loading on the outside hull, since is a near
vacuum, then pressurize itself for Once of not just one- thousand atmospheres,
but
thousand. In addition,, there had to be a slight factor. The hull was to
penetrate Jupe's atmoto three thousand atmospheres, but what if had been a
slight miscalculation and the alien 'lay in three thousand and fifty
atmospheres? To k4t simply, they'd have to turn around and come
if the hull's limit was a mere three thousand atTheres, or they could risk
becoming a Jovian Scor-
and implode. ,11,e more he thought about it, the more it seemed @the task was
impossible-. J.J.'s tanker requirement
unded the difficulties, and the impossible des swirled around in his head and
left him feeling
40                    Zach Hughes defeated. He pondered ways of welding seams
and the construction of hogging girders, metal fatigue factors, twist and
flex, plating thicknesses. The information coming from Art and Doris' work on
the newer hightensile, special-treatment alloys W@as not encouraging enough.
The first process of putting a ship on the drawing board is to draw an outline
of operational requirements. The outstanding and most demanding requirement of
the TTS hull was I.J.'s huge cargo hold. A rough layout of the ship, drawn
around that hold, made her far too big, even without making allowances for
housing other functional requirements. Still, it was
possible to make a drawing. After a few tries Dom had a tentative layout for a
monster the size of some of the smaller Caribbean islands which could be
built,. without the TrS features, at a cost just slightly smaller than the
national debt. From the impossible, he began to think of compromises, working
components into , cramped spaces, overlapping where possible. . The entire
process was an exercise in futility, for the entire design was based on an
illogical premise. It was an'excellent example of Gordon's First Law: "Start
with crap, end with crap."
Gordon's Law of Agitation also applied: I'Tbe more you stir crap, the worse it
smells."
He'd been smelling the mixture for. several days when Larry Gomulka arrived, a
bit yellow from treatment of his malaria but smiling, his round face cheerful,
his short body bouncy, his eyes alert, his brain already at work.
Larry Gomulka was a phenomenon. He was, by training, a physicist. He was
nowhere close to tops in his field as a physicist. Doris was tops in her
field, Art in his, and Dom was the world's leading authority on pressure
hulls, but Larry couldn't. or wouldn't, conduct
PRESSURE MAN
41
experiment with accuracy. Larry hated tedious,
work. His boredom threshold was low. In
Larry jumped. from one subject to ang and confusing many plodding types. bad
once been offered a very lucrative con-, a textbook publisher to do a series
of books
71e Poseur's Guide to Physics, The Poseur's
4
o Chemistry, The Poseur's Guide to Astrond so on down the list of the
sciences. He re- ,because it would have become a sameness after book or two.
He was -lazy, he loved to play, he a subject easily, he drank too much beer,
and in top demand whenever there were problems
ect in any field.
mulka was a man who knew a little bit
He was omnivorous in his continued He was interested in everything under the
"'I d inside the sun, and in the black holes of He was a jack of all trades.
Had he chosen a
d applied himself to it he could, in all probabil-
been a landmark genius. By scattering his inhe was not tops in any specific
field, but he was
at putting things together. Larry was the top solver of the century. Not once
but many -'Larry had walked into a stalled project, talked Owith puzzled
scientists who wondered what that
was doing there, confused them with bad jokes
changes of subject, talking with physicists the properties of antimatter, the
sex urge of the ted Moth, 'and, infuriatingly, without even seemtry, solved
the problem with a simple comment left dedicated scientists tearing their
hair'in frus-
Larry had the ability to put it all together, to the work of one specialist to
others. tine work was impossible when Larry was
When he showed up in the lab, Art and Doris
42..                      Zach Hughes halted their work. The dime of them burst
into Dom% office. Dom shook hands and examined Larry's round, beaming face and
wondered what Doris saw in the, man.
Larry ordered in a vile brand of beer, dominated the conversation with wild
tales of adventures in India, where the government had paid him well to set up
a
workable optional method of family planning. Between tales he threw in a
question or two about the current project, sometimes not waiting for an answer
before burping happily and moving forward into another change of subject.
Dom noted a look of almost maternal adoration in Doris' eyes. He drank too
much, laughed until his stomach muscles ached at Larry's outrageous tales.
When he finally retired to his quarters he fell into. bed with a self-hating
groan, disgusted by his overindulgence. He was I awakened -by Larry's cheerful
whistling from the office.. He repeated the groan which had been hi's last
waking sound, called for breakfast in the office, dressed, shaved. He took his
time, knowing that Larry was at his desk, going over the specifications. He
came
into the office just in time to accept his breakfast tray. Larry had his feet
on the desk. Papers were scattered everywhere. "Crazy design," Larry said.
"Insane," Dom said. "Looks danined impossible."
gilt is." "The impossible takes a little longer," Larry               said. One
of his more irritating habits was the use of                 glib, trite old
phrases. It was just another one of the things you had to forgile if you
worked with Larry.                     -
"Coals to Newcastle," Larry said. "Water to Mars," Dom said,
PRESSURE MAN                          43
41@1'ou carry,water and phosphates in the same ,y
us6 a lot of water here on Earth to wash it
s1        r, you could use the second and t loads of water for agricultural
purposes on ran it through a purifier." hull would hold a helluva, sample of
the atmoJupiter," Larry said. tands, of tons of it?" Dom asked. 'not being
totally open with you, is he?" "t know. He claims that the ship was sold to
makers as a tanker and that if it's built at have to be able to serve as a
tanker." guess we build him a tanker," Larry said. like that."
the torpedos," Larry said. was beginning to feel better with each bite of
ast. "The preliminary layout is neither feasieconomical," he said. prelitnina
layout is junk," Larry said. "If you entire industry to work on it it would
take "just to build the outer hull." there's not much of the aerospace
industry
're making intrauterine devices and toasters," 'said. "It's too big. We'd have
a helluva time just g it to hold together- under its own weight in the
of the moon@ much less Jupiter. The mission is atible with the design. What we
need is a small, .1ull built solidly around a minimum crews quar- :,and the
power plant. Instead, we're thinking of g a pressure hull around a large
volume of
will have to be pressurized." "*,To what?" Larry asked. orty-five
thousand pounds per square inch
44
Zach &ghes
"Jesus," Larry said. Then, "Heres how well do it. You're hung up in the old
forest-and-trees analogy. You're looking on the ship as one unit." "Isn't it?"
Dom asked. "Why should it be?" "It's a ship. It's self-contained. It's a
unit."
"Pressure on the widest portion of the hull is distributed to every other part
of the hull," Dom said. "So we make that force work fqr us, instead of against
us,* "How?" "You ever hear of mush bonding?" "No," Dom said. "They're working
on it at Caltech. Mush bonding. You expand the distance between molecules and
inject alloying atoms. The whole thing compresses under pressure." "I'm
listening," Dom said. "The technique utilizes superheating. Need lots of
power."
C'There's ample power on board," Dom said. "We'll run the seams along the
length of the hull instead of around it," Larry said.
Dom's breakfast, unfinished, was forgotten. The idea of running welding seams
along the length of the hull was damned silly, except that Larry was reaching
for pencil and paper. Dom pushed the wheeled breakfast tray aside and leaned
over Larry's shoulder. "The seams shp over each other," Larry said, "as they
are compressed. The more pressure you apply, the tighter the bond." "What's
the limitation?" "Don't ask me, you're the-pressure-hull engineer," Larry
said. "Larry, get the hell out of here," Dom said. "Get me
PRESSURE MAN
45
,dope on mush bonding. Brief it down for me at with Art when you're ready and
see if the ue can be applied to hull metals."
thinking about taking Doris into L.A.," Larry
a chance."
driver." Dom said.
gratitude. Solve a man's problem and he' you out," Larry complained. I wasn't
listening. He was drawing busily. He even hear the door close behind Larry.
Two @,later he was putting figures into the computer,
the basic research on mush bonding had been into his lap by Larry. He worked
from his desk,
ating with Doris and Art by a closed video Doris' computers hummed and clacked
out es. Art smoked cigarette after cigarette an& "to cough. came out looking
like a ship, with the traditional rical shape, but it would be unlike any
other ship built. The hull would be constructed of mono-
longitudinal sections joined by thicknesses Of bonding. The more pressure was
applied to the, the more the mush-bonded sections compresed, "'.4he stronger
they became. At three thousand atmoS1, the hull would have partially wrapped
around compressing the ship into a solidarity held by e beams across J.J.'s
bedamned cargo hold. It cost billions. It would be huge, but it Would if the
mush bonding worked. ter forty-eight hours with little sleep, Dom threw
11,"Treliminary recommendations onto J.J.'s desk. He
ted an explosion of protest at the Cost and the
h bonding?" J.J. asked.
46                    Zach Hughes stwere going on inadequate data there," Dom
said.
"The technique needs a lot of testing." "Get on it.92 "After I've had some
sleep.'9 "Take a pep put.919 1
"I've taken a pep pill," Dom said. "Take another one." &,I'm not going to be
pushed into becoming a speed freak," Dom said. "Well pay your bills at a rehab
center." 'Tra going to bed," "Well, put the team to work on it." "The team is
already in bed," Dom said. "I'm going to farm out some preliminary tests to
Caltech, where the work on mush bonding is being done." "ThaVs no good," J.J.
said. "Security   on a college campus is impossible." "We can go through a
front organization. They won't have to know that the research is going, to be
ap-
plied to a spaceship." 'All right, but make it open. Try to hide the work and
you'll have every nut in the country onto it. Do it openly and they won't even
notice." "The purloined letter," Dom said. "Do,your correspondence on your own
time," I.J. said.
49.
o5o
cially she was named the John F. Kennedy, beit made for good publicity
possibilities to name
biggest ship ever built after the President who spent money to put the first
American atop a stick of
and blast him a few thousand feet into the The decision about the name was
made at the tOP
SE. Those who                                J.J."s Folly, or
worked on her called her
From the beginning, Folly was a bear, a real bear.
was a -tremendous hole surrounded by a hull. She s the one great example of
political expediency.,
en said good men and good money and goo enals were being squandered on a ship
which d not be able to lift her own weight out of moon
-Dom made one last attempt to change the design. W,         a mockup of an
ideal hull for six thousand at-
did
eres, a sleek, slim, simple hull built to carry a of four, a hydroplant, and a
grapple. His design
have gone deep into the Jovian atmosphere, onto the alien ship , lifted her
out, and had ty of muscle to spare. Hisdesign, which would tand almost double
Folly's maximum pressure would have cost a third less. J.J. said it was a
damned good design, but that it
47
50                  Zach Hughei tryIto cracking in the months after the
Russians sent up, their first Sputnik had there been so much activity in the,
aerospace industry. Long-disused facilities were being reopened. Prime
contractors searched the world for techs and scientists. Anyone who had a
skill and ''wanted, to use it, instead of drawing government welfare money,
was at work. .Dom was accustomed to working under tight budget restrictions.
Once DOSE spent thousands of dollars advWng all personnel to use both sides of
scratch paper in order to save money. Most scratch pads were advertising
handouts from suppliers. He was astounded by his freedom to spend money. If he
wanted to get on the horn and put someone to work, say at MIT, he called and
sent the bills to J.J. Where Folly was con-
cerned, there was no economizing, no compromising quality, regardless of the
cost. Her -.shipboard comp
ters would be the match of anything on Earth, beu cause no one knew how long
she'd be in the murky atmosphere of Jupiter and out of touch with the Earth.
9 won      e e o c ance.        e every opportunity to fulfill her mission. If
it me
spending a few million for a backup system to prevent a one-in-a-million
chance of failure, the money was spent.
It was pleasant and it was sad-sad because although it was beautiful to see
the whole world working again on a vlitallv important projectand impressive to
find that the years of attrition did not prevent the industry from rising to
the emergency, the mission could fail. Or that alien ship inside Jupiter might
not live up to expectations, the implied promise of providing new knowledge,
perbaps'even for faster-thanlight travel. If the mission failed, or if the
knowledge gained from the alien was trivial, the building of Folly would be
the last act in a drama which began when
PRESSURE MAN
51
were shocked by the beeping, sounds of I on October 4, 1957. ',was exciting to
be a part of a project of such magand pride extended downward from the top
to the lowest construction workers. Many Of overtime were put in., not to be
claimed on
c ers. oughout the early stages of the project, Dom7s did not see the light of
natural day, but worked,
es around the clock, in the underground labs offices of DOSEWEX. There was a
feeling of exIurgency. The faint, distant sounds of the alien Istill emanated
from Jupiter, but for how long?
orders went out from Dom's office to be spread ghout DOSE and the i 'ndustry.
'First tests on the
plant were on the nose. The life-support system
assembled in portable units, to be lifted, to ,;,;Iwn when the hull was ready.
The computers being tested by Doris and her team. Hull metals now being cast,
lifted to the moon. Traffic ben the Earthside launch sites and Moon Base was
heaviest in decades. -Several shuttles per day ed from Canaveral, carrying
beams and bolts,
-and food. of the best things about it was the feeling of toess of DOSEWEX
J.J., usually aloof and bed with his problems, would take a moment to pass
time of day with a lab tech. Social barriers were
It was as if everyone were on the same ship, for an uncertain destination and
pleased to have pany. Nostalgia was the order of the day. One
the antique, rhythmic, exciting old names, Yuri n and Gus Grissom, Shepard and
Gherman TiJohn Glenn and M. Scott Carpenter and Neil trong taking that first
step out onto the dry and
surface of the moon, Trelawny on Mars and the,
52
Zach gughes
Jones-Edwin probe to the surface of Venus, Mercury and Gemini and Agena and
Voskhod One, Radeliff circling the rings of Saturn.
But the one prime subject was Folly, frightful Folly, so huge, so complicated,
so utterly stupid; and she began to take shape, so very, very beautiful, the
network ?f interior bracings lacy and geometric, her size becoming apparent as
she grew.
Not one of Dom's crew, with the possible exception of Larry, could have said,
without checking dates, how long they had been underground, virtual prisoners-
of that huge ship which grew, bolt by bolt, weld by weld, in null gravity out
behind the moon. Larry could probably have given'the time to the hour, because
he had performed his main function in the period of one day. He was being used
as a contact man. He was the only one who left DOSEWEX at intervals, and he
would have said that' only those ventures into the outside preserved his
sanity. He was bored and he was lonely, because Doris was deeply involved in
doing her thin at the console of her computer.
The weeks became months which ran togetffiheffr in Do&s mind. It was. almost
time to start moving the crew out to DOSELUN when the Earthfirsters made their
move, announcing their presence with a single mortar round which fell short of
the main gate control tower. That signal round was followed by an all-out
assault from two sides of @ the surface compound.
The sound of the first underground explosion did not register on Dom. The
sound did not come from his own complex, and tests of all sorts were always
being conducted. He went on with'his work until the alert lights in his office
blinked flashing red. It still didn't register, as he looked up in puz2lement,
until Larry Gomolka stuck his moon face in the door, not smiling for once.
PRESSURE MAN
53,
under attack," Larry announced. now," Dom said absently. "I don@t have time
choice, old chum," Larry said, smiling now. "along to the shelter." saw to it
that his own team, which was vastly
by techs, were properly sheltered. He made J.J.'s office, operating the
underground rail self., There were space marines in J.J.'s secd to show his
identity, and when he was ad- *. was not in the o 'ffice. He was advised by a
cadet to return to his own sector and seek shel-
make short work of this, sir," the cadet said @you can get back to work."
walked empty corridors, took an elevator, and 'his way into an observation
tower. There he J. with a set of binoculars to his eyes.
-scale war was being fought at the fences. mated defense system had caught the
first inin charged areas. Bodies lay side by side along -es on two sides.
Marines had been moved in, sound, of their weapons was a continuous roar. OW
many?" Dom asked.
early estimate was about five thousand," J.J.
with a feeling of sickness, thought he could st that many bodies. don't have
any really big stuff," J.J. said, as
d-fashioned BE shell exploded a hundred yards of the tower. "I can't
understand it." can never understand stupidity," Dom said.
first thing I asked was, where was the main J.J. said. "This is nothing more
than a diver-
y bloody for a diversion," Dom said, his eyes
54
Zach Hughes
trying to move away from the strewn bodies along the fence. "We have aircraft
out. They have not spotted any major force, just the two groups attacking from
opposite sides."
It was sheer suicide. What did they hope to gain by attacking a well-defended
major facility with hand rifies: and a couple of old mortars? A diversion? A
diversion from what? "The computer," Dom exploded, already moving. "Cool it,"
J.J. said. "I thought of that first thing., I sent a guard of marines down
there on first alert." "I'll go take a look," Dom said.
The tendency was, after seeing the first interior bracings taking shape., to
think of FoUy as reality, but a few, structural members do not make a ship. At
the Moment Folly existed   only in the abstract, in Dom's brain and in the
brains of Doris and Art, but most of all, existed in one area, in the circuits
of Doris' primaryy computer. In that machine -were months of work,and,
billions'of dollars, and no human brain could recreate., the information
without starting all over, requiring,, more months, Destroy the computer's
memory 'and Folly was a few drawings, a few basic facts in human brains, and
nothing more.
The complex where Dom7s crew worked and lived was in the most secure portion
of DOSEVVEX, buried very deep, encircled by other facilities. It was, served
only by the underground transporation system, Between the hidden labs and the
surface world were, hundreds of feet of rock and soil. This central core w4&,
penetrated by the well-guarded underground in'One place and in one place only.
As the car leaped forward, Dom having properly identified himself as a VIP to
the marine. guards, he told himself that he was worrying for no reason. The
PRESSURE MAN
55
'stop came quickly. He entered a maze of corridors'and .:trotted toward the
shelter, realizing that his months of work had done nothing for his physical
condition. He entered the maze to the shelter, degigned to prevent radiation
entry, and found the inner door- standing open. That door was keyed to pass
only those whose palm prints Were recorded, his among them. He held his breath
and peered cautiously around the door.'
Death was more immediate here, closer, having come to men and women he knew.
Bodies sprawled in grotesque positions, some atop the others. His senses
reeling,, he counted. This shelter room, assigned to top personnel, was
designed for fourteen people. I He counted eleven bodies, recounted to be
sure, his brain unwilling to admit to even eleven.
- Explosive bullets had been used., The floor had a
new red carpet, sticky, odorous. He had to move three bodies to be able to see
the faces. -The eleven dead were technicians and scientists who had been added
to the team. Art Donald, Doris, and Larry were not among them.
He left the bloody room and crept slowly down the corridor toward the labs and
the computer room. At the first turn he found the bodies of two young space
marines. A squad consisted of eight men,. With two dead, their weapons beside
them, that left six marines of the squad sent by M. . Dom picked up an
automatic rifle, a short, deadly, spray-shooting weapon, from beside one of
the dead marines. He listened for a moment, and in that mo-
ment the corridor reverberated to the blast of an auto-
matic weapon. He sprinted ahead and almost ran into death as he rushed blindly
into the corridor leading to
the computer room. The door to the room flew openn and a man in a dark body
suit, his face hidden by a
black hood, sent a hail of fire toward Dom. Dom flung
56                   Zach Hughes his body into a side corridor, hearing the
splat-splat of 'explosive rounds as they whizzed past his head, then the
thunder of their strike at the end of the corridor. He. could not get enough
air into his lungs. He had to force himself to move.
His impulse was to hole up, watch and. wait, but he knew that he had to move.
He went down the corridor to the living area, found Doris' quarters, kicked
her door open. The room was empty. He punched the communicator, It was dead.
There was an alert button in each room in the complex. Any member of the team
could, alert security forces with, a jab of a button. Dom pushed Doris'
private panic button and waited for the flashing lights and ear-piercing
sounds, but there was nothing.
The complex was, quite obviously, -compromised. it was an inside job. There
were eleven bodies back there in the shelter, two dead marines 'in the
c@rridor. How many of them? How many to kill eleven men and women and two
marines and maybe more?
He considered trying io make a break, to seek help from J.J.'s sector. But
they had Doris, Larry, and Art. They were in the computer room
He knew what he had to do, and he couldn't take time to stop and think about
it or he'd freeze. He left Doris',quarters and used branching corridors to
circle the computer room until he reached a smalL flush door which was almost
invisible in a wall. His palm opened it. He climbed a narrow flight of steps,
palmed open a hatch. The hatch led into the repair and service sections of the
vast computer, which towered from floor to high ceiling of the computer room.
He entered at midlevel. He was not in sterile suit, but a bit of dust from him
would harm the computer less than was intended, he felt sure, by the
terrorists. He walked service aisles between banks of equipment in the guts of
the com-
PRESSURE MAN
57
At the front, he could look through the facade the machine through a small
port. There were three bodies lying on the floor, all three marine blue. A.
fourth marine was leaning against a
a white look of shock on his face, his arm blown I& off. The other two marines
held automatic weapons and shared the room with five men in dark body suits
and black hoods.
Doris, Larry, and Art were in a tight grouping, Quarded by the two marines.
The five men in the iartlifirster-combat garb were unpacking back carriers,
StIacking neat packets of explosives. Two members of the Firster team were
placing charizes at the base of the WRL101. console. Already detonators were
in place and activated. The charges were of a type to be detonated by radio
signal from a safe distance. The men          the room below Dom must have
known they. had little chance of escape, but Firsters were known best for
fanat icism. With Firsters, escape would not be the prime obje'ctive. They
would be more interested in selling their lives dearly, although, in Doris,
Art, and Larry, they had very important hostages. It might go either way. They
could try to buy their way out by using three of the most valuable members of
the TTS team for bargaining, or they might use them as shields in order to
take down as many men as possible before they were killed.
Dom had always considered terrorists as the supreme I egotists of the
universe. The elite suicide squads
iff-Mv 'MIM"t. Mr-WoMM.t off some impressive stunts, including the
assassination of a President and a head of the defunct CIA, but how could one
man, or several men acting in concert, believe that sacrificing a life and
then giving their own would change anything? The terrorists just could not see
that their actions as individu-I- __        __ - ---If               -,"
urniiiii nnt
58
Zach Hughes
affecVin any way the inertial rush of society toward devouring itself through
overproduction.
The way Dom - looked at it, man, as a race, li@d enough'against him. He still
had to contend -with the basic forces of nature in the form of flood, fire,
earthquake, snow, hurricane, volcanoes. Nature was capable of making all of
man's bloody past seem amateurish. If natural disaster didn't get you, then
nature still got you in the end. Nature seemed intent on killing the race,
having instilled a lemininglike breeding instinct that wouldift stop until
starvation got everyone. Man had enough opposition without fighting himself.
If death was the only objective, just let old mother nature take her course.
Then, as Robert. Frost once said, death 'Could come along as a nice surprise.
Dom thought he recognized one of the hooded Firsters, as' an electronics
expert taken onto the team on the recommendation of DOSELUN. The man was good,
good enough to have been able to cut off the, communication and alum systems.
The two men placing explosives were moving, shouldering bags of explosives.
They started to mount the crawl ladders on the facade toward an' entry port on
Dom's level. It would take,only three or four charges, placed properly, to
destroy the work done to date on Folly.
Dom concealed himself behind a bank of memory tapes at the entrance to the
port. He was wondering if he was not being as egotistical as the Firsters,
thinking that he, one man, could stop seven armed and welltrained terrorists.
He was a spacer, a hull engineer. He'd had a few weeks On the combat range
back at the Academy, and he'd taken hand-combat courses as a part of keeping
physically fit. But he was no trained killer. In his favor was the fact that
he was still in fairly good shape, in spite of the months of desk work.
PRESSURE MAN
59
he was quick. 'One of the things against him was fact that he'd ngver tried
to kill a man before. -Ile human head is a tough nut. It's built to survive-
which are astonishingly powerful. Dom, knowing overdid it. He swung the stock
of the rifle with all -strength. Both of the Firsters had entered the bowk, of
the computer and moved past him. The head of
trailing one burst, making quite a mess which Fil have to be cleaned u before
the computer
-P .,@-tould be functional again. Dom was moving fast, the backward swing of
the rifle taking the second man as or; turned, a gout of blood spurting
through the)nasal --,,holes in the dark hood. Dom's reaction time, fastest
ever recorded at the Academy, was aiming a second blow lit the falling face
and white teeth flew and there was more tlood and the stock squished. down to
be sure.
He was still crouched. There was no sound of alarm from below.
He was surprised at his lack of reaction to having killed two men. He was
panting as he looked for signs of life. The second man jerked a bit and tried
to breathe through the pulp which had been his face, but then he was still.
Such men lived only to be killed, he thought, and he'd obliged them. The
original mistake in handling terrorists was in not recognizing the basic fact
that terrorists considered themselves to be expendable and this made them less
than human, to be expended by society as forcefully as possible.
But he was not judge and jury. He was not, after all, hardened to killing.
Shock came to him as the second man's legs did a dying tattoo on the padded
floor. And there ere five more of them down below. Also below were Art, Doris,
Larry. All three would die, without iIT;4C$I=I2sT-Jr, MT rMIOMjT*?4TZIE
the quantity of blood in a man's head.
60                    Zach Hughes He stepped over a body and looked out the
port. They were waiting below with an alert but stoic patience. One of the
terrorists was smoking. Dom calculated the chance of taking all five of them
with a blast from the port. No way. The shots would also take one or more of
his three friends. He moved back, jerked the mask from the ruptured head of
the Firster who had been first to die. He cringed at the wetness, but
fortunately the blood was mostly on the back side of the mask. He took a deep,
shuddering breath and pulled it over his head. He stuck his masked head out of
theport and made a hissing sound. They all looked up,At him. He pointed to a
hooded man and made a come-uli-here motion. The man shouldered his weapon and
came scampering up the ladder.
The plan was to have them come up one or two at a time, but it didn't work.
The man on the ladder saw the bodies of his, companions and started to yell-
out. Dom clubbed him., He fell, half in, half out of the port. A burst of
explosive rounds shattered the facade of, the computer. Dom leaped to the view
port and swept the room, below with rifle fire, careful not to fire too close
to the tight group of Art, Doris, and Larry. The two traitor space marines
went down along with two of the Firsters.
Art Donald, moving with surprising swiftness, jerked Doris down, fell atop her
behind a subconsole. They were Out of the line of fire. Larry was not fast
enough. He was seized by one of the two remaining men. The other otte moved to
stand on the other side ofLarry, the three of them up against the control
console below DOM and out of his line of fire. one of the terrorists began to
shoot up the face of the computer with in      thOdical thoroughness. Both of
them stayed close teo Larry. Dom was unable to fire. He had to dodge the fire
which swept. across the facade. The explosive mis-
PRESSURE MAN
61
not penetrate, but they sent small pieces of flying. .41you can't get out of
here afive," Dom yelled. "You @-. -1, Vyou choose." In spite of the fact that
terrorists were not executed,
merely conflned -as if the authorities wanted to them healthy until their
friends could kidnap an MM @ official to trade for the freedom of the im-
ones, they rarely surrendered. "Put down your weapons," Dom yelled. A new
burst of flre was the answer. 'When it died
he looked out the port. There had been a change i strategy. Having failed to
destroy the memory banks,'
would now try to damage, the program by killing lw@-, important people. He
watched helplessly as. one of the surviving terrorists pulled out a grenade
and lifted it toward his mouth to pull the pin. The grenade would take out
Doris and Art, and they had their hands on Larry. Dom had a choice. By leaning
out and, @.pointing his weapon down he could take them, but it would mean
sweeping Larry with the deadly explosive bullets.
The situation moved toward a point of no return in slow motion, for Dom could
not bring himself, not even to save Doris and Art, to kill the smiling little
in= who was sandwiched between the two Firsters. He couldn't do it. There was,
nothing he could do except cry out a protest.
But Larry Gomulka was a problem solver. It was his
I,,#- He, too, watched the movement of the grenade upward toward the white
teeth of the Firster, and the direction of the man's gaze revealed his
intentions. "Stay down," Larry yelled, as he leaned forward and calmly flipped
the manual exploder on one of the charges planted on the console, All Firster
explosive devices were equipped With manual detonators. Public
62                    Zach Hughes suicide was a popular hobby among the
Firsters, and they liked to take people with them.
Dom felt the face of the computer blow inward, heard the concussion, felt
himself falling. He was moving as he fell, scrambling to his feet as the
echoes tore at his eardrums-*Art was moving, trying to lift a portion of the
console off his back. Doris was under him, screaming. Dom could see her,face.
He dropped the rifle. It struck what was left of a body, and rolled to make a
solid-sounding thunk on the floor. The body in the hatchway had been blown
forward by the blast and was minus a leg. The console was a ruin, and a hole
had been blown into the base of the machine. An armless torso rested against
the remains of an overturned subconsole. It was not Larry. The chest was too
big. The black body suit had been blown away to expose strong,. young chest
M'us6les. Dom heaved on the console, and Art was trying to stand up, shaking
his head. Doris was swallowing, trying to restore her hearing. Dom helped Art
to his feet and left him -leaning against the shattered computer face. He
lifted Doris. "Are you all right?" he asked, his voice sounding faint. His
ears still roared with the explosion. @'I can't hear you," she said. She spoke
loudly. "Larry's dead?"
Dom nodded. "He saved your life," he mouthed at her. Her face seemed to melt.
There were no tears, just a heaving of her chest and strangled sounds
Ifrom her throat
The outer door burst open and space marines dashed in, looking young and
impressive and futile. Dom recognized the young cadet officer who had assured
him that the marines would handle the situation swiftly.
.1 1      -
Now came the reaction. He trembled. He felt as if
PRESSUKE MAN
63
going to vomit. He never wanted to hear the Folly again. Whatever she was
worth, she was worth the life of one small, slightly overweight,
w4g_t, smiling man.- H e leaned backward, alfalling before his hips found the
edge of the shatconsole. Doris put her hand on his arm and M at him. "He kept
them from destroying the information
she said. For a moment Dom thought she was I about him, wanted to laugh, but
then he realthat she was thinking of Larry. "He saved the pro-
she said. Dom knew that she'd get it straight in her mind M(&). For the
moment, it didn't matter what she
Larry had saved something far more imporlant to him than the information in
the computer. He Mr4 @ saved the life of the woman he loved 'and the life 'of
a friend.
0 6 -,o
At one end of the room thick plastic ports gave a
view of the stars, bright, undimmed by atmosphere, hard, and sharp points of
light in a pitch-black -sky. Among a small group of'people at the far end of
the room, so that the stars were not visible to them, Dom stood in full dress
uniform. Doris, too, was in the parade dress of the service. Art Donald was,
in fact, the only civilian present as a four-star admiral presented Larry's
medal to his widow. The ceremony was being televised live to Earth.
When it was over and the admiral was on his way back to DOSEAST in Washington,
Dom watched Doris gulp a full ounce of raw scotch. "I don't want it," she
said, looking down at the =all gold medallion in her hand. "I think I know how
you feel," Dom said. "Larry would have laughed his head off at this," she
said. "Yeah." "He would have said, never was there a more unlikely candidate
for the Space Medal of Honor." She smiled faintly, but there was no joy in the
smile. "No man ever deserved it more," Dom said. "Amen," Art said. "Is Your
life worth 'so much?" Doris asked bitterly, "I don't value mine that high.,,
A 11
PRESSURE MAN                             65
t, choked on his drink. "I didn't mean it that
'@Oh, Art, rm sorry," she said. "It's just that I think I ort-, funny. So
very, very f-f-funny.11 '"Easy,"' Dom said, putting his hand over hers.
11here's no way Art could have known that we, i + and 1, have talked about
this very sort of thine'
said. "He said heroism, especially the sort which
the ultimate self-sacrifice, is one of our more
17MM, traditions, beginning with the Spartan boy .z-- let a fax or a rat or
something gnaw out his gu, ts
some reason. Then the good soldier throws himself
the grpnade to save the lives of his buddies at the
of his own. Isn't it very strange, he would say, itiw the top medals, the
Congressional Medal of Honor
the Space Medal of Honor, are so often awarded ""Posthumously?"
- "I think if you'd asked him how he really felt he would have explamed that
top medals are awarded posthumously to show our great regard for individual
life," Dom said. "When a man gives all he has, his life@ for a buddy, or his
country--2' "Then let's give the Congressional Medal ofHonor to all,of the
Earthfirsters who commit suicide," Doris said. "It isn't the same," Art said,
weakly. "No, it isn't," Doris said. "Because they're not dying for what we
happen to believe at this particular time." 'Do you doubt that Larry died for
what he be- lieved?" Dom asked. He knew she was on the narrow edge, and he.
thought perhaps it was time someone or something pushed her over. She had
submerged herself ff',T41 MT,               the attack on DOSEWEX, first in
repairing the computer and then in the project. "But that's it," she said, her
face puckering as she lt%nlrini at Win "nnn't vnzi rep.? ".qtle it " qbi* hnd
to
66                     Zach Hughes swallow and work her mouth before she could
continue. "If I could believe that he did it for the project, for the world-"
"He had that in mind, too," Dom said. "You know how fast his mind worked. He
measured all of -it, the project, the effect on the future. He put all of it
into his mind as a problem to be solved and he solved it. The solution called
for him to punch a button on a detonator." He was doing it deliberately. She
had not cried, to his knowledge. Not once had he seen her show emotion, not
until she was holding a small piece of gold in her hind.
Art, not realizing what Dom was trying to do, looked uncomfortable. He tried
to get Doni's attention,_, to tell him to be quiet.
- "He added it all up," Dom went on. "He added in the lives of Doris Gomulka
and Art Donald, the ship, the alien out there in @ the atmosphere of Jupiter.
He balanced all the factors against the life of Larry Gomulka, and it evened
out. And if you try to take out even one element of that decision, the life of
Doris Gomulka, then you're robbing Larry of his last successful problem
solution. You're saying that he failed, because he had it figured wrong and
his death is not evened out by your being alive and the project continuing. If
your life isn't worth the value he assigned to it, he gave more than was
gained."
He was still holding her hand. She tried to pull it away. She was breathing
hard. "Larry died so that, among other things, ypu might live. You have to
admit -that, Doris. Give, that to him. Don't try to take that away from him,"
It came out of her in an agonized, low-pitched wail, a river of sadness..She
made no attempt to cover her face. Her lips distorted, her eyes closed, sq
Iueezing out tears. Her face was dramatic in itQ "n-rPva;^n -f --
PRESSURE MAN
67
sound of her sobbing was too much for Art.
7C the scene. She gulped air and sobbed. Dom led .- ,toward the couch and
pushed her down. Her W@-were clenched at her,sides. She wept with great
noise, not neatly, not at all ladylike. There
and huge gulpings and hoarse, grating"' %           4., and grunts of pain. TW
it;), the worst was over he positioned her on the
and covered her with a blanket. He left her still
but more@ quietly. o@- he changed in his own quarters and went into the
to don the heavy suit, he felt a little mistya-eycd FTA            for Larry
would have enjoyed the sight of
hanging up'there in    space. He wondered      if he' r- have been fast enough
and decisive enough to L, what Larry had done if he'd been in Larry's place.
didn't know. But he would never again ask himself I I F-Tv'y -s death had been
worthwhile.
He took a jumper up to the construction site. The Mq-, were going on over the
interior skeleton. Mo-
required the near vacuum of space. He see miniature stars where the welders
were at It was all done in an eerie silence in the airlessit4&. The stars were
a quiet audience.
A good spacer has a celestial clock- of sorts in his Mro, He knew, as he
watched from a short distance, the relative position of the planets in their
orbits. Mars there, finely visible. Jupiter was hidden, if he had been
a telescope, behind the bulk of the moon. But the signals still came. Their
strength was un-
not quite strong enough to be easily detectfrom Earth. They were being
constantly monitored
the moon and from ships in space.
77777-V$TMT14-V11s=- no, 'W416MMIhmi@ which was the hall-
mark of the project extended outward from the con-
68                    Zach Hughes for the entire service. The necessity of
monitoring the signals sent ships out, and while they listened, they did
useful work which had been planned but unfunded for decades. Once again the
gathering of space data was a going industry. Men practiced science for the
sake of science, just to scratch that persistent human itch for the knowledge
of what lies over the next hill.
A ship monitoring the signal, from Jupiter Could be taking magnetic
measurements or aiming shipboard telescopes out beyond the system or picking
up asteriod $=Ples or doing any one of hundreds of small research projects
which would add to mans knowledge. Even the critics were sold on the extra
research in order to make the most out of the necessity -of having ships in
space.
Dom's presence on the moon was not essential. His work was done. But it would
have taken an act of Congress to get him away, even if he.did not particiPate,
actively in putting together the Tinker-Toy construction which would become
the John F. Kennedy. (If he thought of her as Folly, he added the word "Grand,
in front of the epithet.) There were ongoing crises and decisions to be made,
but he could have made them from DOSEWEX or DOSEAST. On thee other hand, Doris
was valuable and Art Donald's team was needed to run a series of tests on
construction as it went into place. . She grew rapidly. There wasn't another
building project under way anywhere in the world * The department was
concentrating all its manpower and most of its available money on'the Kennedy.
She was the topic of conversation wherever DOSE people worked, from Earthside
to the last Picket ship out near the in= of Jupiter.
The grandeur which was a ship, took shape in her own element with the nwirt-A
mnn. .4 +u.
PRESSURE MAN
69
and g as her backdrop. It made for a serene w@        9411.1 picture. Sitting
in a jumper five thousand
from the Kennedy, it was difficult to imagine the "NII,     &I   ing on down
there on that blue-and-white
90 #1M was the home planet. There, governments ej-@ changed. Fighting varied
from savage and V(0311 acts of terror by the Firsters to the highly
2,@
atmosphere of the Senate, where radicals were in
combat with the outnumbered men who bein a future for man which did not entail
buttonR1         and
toughing it out on the home planet. R 1 weeks -a debate raged over the battle
of P'@
where thirty-two hundred Earthfirsters
U
The    ruling party, the Publicrats, received, the
0 .1711- f an attack from rabid, self-confessed Firs.ters -T    Worldsavers.
Liberals wept openly on the Senate
-,,-j as they bewailed the mass slaughter of humanity
DOSEVVEX, and, in their zeal against the @death
for terrorists, they called loudly for the pitiless
of all those responsible for the, slaughter of terrorists who were merely
using their First
M., to express dissatisfaction with space
Only once did a courageous man stand up to remind the Senate that two dozen
civilians died at DOSEWEX,
with over a hundred space marines. He was -.@hooted into silence. On the way
to his fortified apartMent, he was attacked by a teenage Firster girl in a
iexy little dress which concealed a bomb in an over-
bra. The bomb ruptured the brave senator's left -eardrum and killed two of his
bodyguards. Thus were ,courageous and commonsense views silenced, without
regard for First Amendment freedoms.
It was almost as if the majority of Americans felt
for taking the government's cradle-to-the-grave
70                   Zach Hughes security at the expense of individual freedom
and wanted to be punished by the Firster knife or bomb@ Overpeopled, underfed,
the country was one teeming Warren of interconnected big-city heaps where
people suffering the traumas of crowding seemed all too eager to die and saw
no promise in tomorrow.
Earthside was such a turmoil that. there was no ground leave. The limited
facilities of the moon were taxed by the construction crews, and spacers. in
from Mars or the Jupiter surveillance run sometimes had to 'spend their ground
time aboard ship. Their bitchings were surprisingly good-natured, for they
could see the Kennedy as she grew.
Dom spent a lot of time with Neil Walters, who would test and pilot the
Kennedy. Although he was older, Neil war, a perpetual boy of twenty-five in
appearance. He stood six-four and was toppe   Id by a mop of blond, curly
hair. He had deep, laughing blue eyes and a classical angularity of face which
went with his daring and his reputation. He liked talking about flying only
slightly less than he liked flying. He set out to learn the Kennedy from the
smallest component upWard. He was good company, for the Kennedy had become
Dom's main reason for living.
When she flew, Neil would be in command. He had a sharp Mind, and Dom never
had to explain even the most complicated technical details. In fact, Neil
posed questions which put Dom back into the lab, Doris With him at the
keyboard of a computer, to,check and recheck. Neff's questions were basic and
penetrating. They caused Dom to check all the important calculations and the
thinking which went into the revolutionarY concept of the folding hull. Dom
discovered nothing serious wrong, but he did make slight changes here and
there.
PRESSURE MAN                             71
I kil- main criticism of the plan was that it would be
sl(;@ to test Kennedy's hull under pressure. MN it works When we get down into
Jupe or it
Dom said. it only has to work once," Neil said,      with a gnu. M be reading
the stress on the hull as          we go
reading it carefully and following it all the way," iiIsaid. "We'can always
turn back if something be-L- , to. give. Neil laughed. "One good thing abou
   .t this one. If
I goes whango I might have time to spit right or;I@ designees face before I
check out." Neil was stimulating, but not even talking with Neil
tt fill all the hours. There was not a 'lot to do on iii-@, moon. Drink was
expensive, because therewere no
4MI IM014.1 on the moon and booze was a luxu        ry item
included in rations. Dom,*spent a lot of time in the . i-r-, He played some
bridge. He explored a but once you've seen one acre of the moon's surki,i;@
there is a sameness. One crater is like every other . , just a bit bigger or
smaller. He also did a lot of reading. But still the days dragged and the
weeks were
"endless and the months were eons. The ship grew, and that was the main
pleasure, just going out there to see
what work had been done in the past twenty-four hours.
It was interesting when the monowelders began to join the mush-bonded
collapsing seams to the plates. It ,,.went ust as predicted, with no problems.
Doris had her work. She kept busy, finding time for dinner with Dom only
occasionally. When they were
alone Dom was careful to stick to business and keep the conversation away from
personal things. After that bull market of weeving on the dav she received
Larry's
@72                   1 Zach Hughes medal, she could talk about him without
pain. It was no longer necessary to remember not to mention Larry, because she
often did. As if Larry were merely off somewhere on one of his jaunts, she'd
say, "I wonder what Larry would think about that?" He lived in her memory, but
he did not become an obsession. Dom suspected that her grief was not totally
spent, but it was not a festering sore. She could laugh at a joke, be
sentimental about a love song, muse over hei memories, all without giving the
outward appearance of a perpetually grieving widow.
J.J. made regular trips to encourage, investigate, cheer, and urge on. He was
on the moon the day air was pumped into the hull and for the first time
workers could operate inside the Kennedy without    : life-support gear. Work
on the fittings and finishings began to go faster.-I.J. sat in the Pilot's
seat and examined the instrumentation spreading be-fore him. "I'll have to
take a refresher course,' he said. "For whatT'Dom asked. "To be able to fly
this mother." "You?,$ "I'm copilot," JJ. said.
Dom considered the advantages and the            disadvantages of that. "I
can't think of anyone I'd      rather have," he said. "Bless you, my son,"
J-1. said airily. "It will be understOOd, Of course, that I am senior only in
rank. in ship operations I'll be second in command to Neil and you, and only
you will have the final say about safqty." "Bless, you," Dom said.
J.J. looked ahead , out the front port. "Flash," he said, "it's all going to
be in your hands there on Jupe. We're shooting the works, all of us, on this
trip, but there's no need for us to die needlessly. if it works,
PRESSURE MAN
73
If it fails, no one will ever be V. get credit for it. to tell you I told you
so, But remember, if we 'if it doesWt work, the whole silly damned human
prime loser." I'TOR-f. had no comment to make on that.
0 . 7o
Dom was having dinner with Doris the night J.J. called from DOSEWEX to, order
him to report to DOSEAST to testify in the matter of Larry Gomulka's death.
It had been a nice evening.,For once, Doris had no pressing problems involving
the Kennedy. The shipboard computers were being installed and the components
which were already in place were working beautifully. She was relaxed. She was
ten 'pounds lighter than she'd been when she walked into the lab at DOSEWEX
with travel dust still on her clothing. She was slim and elegant in her
uniform. The lines around her eyes, which had appeared after Larry's death,
were fading. She looked younger.
The evening came about by accident. Dom happened to be walking past the lab
when Doris decided to call it a day. Dom offered to buy her a drink and she
accepted. They sat in the canteen and listened to music which was more for
background than for listening, both of them comfortable without talking.. When
they did speak it was shop talk.
Dom suggested that they call Art and have a threesome for dinner. Doris
agreed, and went to make the call. "He's tied up," she said. "Have to be just
the two of us.11
74
i'v p               PRESSURE MAN                          75, 'Wh"bungry
enough to eat Art's dinner, too," Dom li,@'VVhere? Here? The food's not bad."
OF, like to be able to hear myself chew, or think, or or whatever," Doris
said. "'ihat rules out the cafeteria as well," Dom said.
71711 make the supreme sacrifice," Doris said. "I
just two steaks left from the last ration. Real
7. CiGreater love hath no woman," Dom said, rollig A- eyes. "I believe in
buttering up my boss," she said. "I'll pay you back, swear." He held aloft a
Boy
sign. ."Put it in writing." "You question thehonor of an officer and a
gentleman?lo
learned to question the honor of officers, male of-' Ls, when I dis covered
that-the chief engineer on my first ship had altered the combination to the
palm. lock on my cabin door," she said.
Dom grabbed a napkin and wrote: "I owe Doris Gomulka one real steak." He gave
her the napkin. "You didWt sign," she said.
He jerked the napkin back and scrawled his signature. "You are a person with
very little trust." "Not where steaks are concerned."
Doris' quarters were on the frontside. Earth was almost full, low on the
horizon. The richness of her, blue and white, made her a jewel in the sky. "My
God," Doris said, halting as they entered to see
the great living globe hanging there in the window. "It's, always new, seeing
it like that." ."So, beautiful," she said. "You know, I'd like for all of them
to be able to see that, to see how small and goddamned vulnerable she is,
hanging out there. Maybe them'd flilAr n little. mnre. n1enrIv. Show them a
closeuP
76                    Zach Hughes view of Mars, or Mercury, worlds -totally
inhospitable to man, and therL show them that. How can anyone fight over
anything so beautiful?" "Actually, I guess, in a way, we're the new nobility
so few of us have seen that." I "Thank God you can't see what we've done to
her from up here," Doris said. "Strip mines and underground nuclear tests and
radioactivity in the air and sewage in the oceans. Andshe still manages to
support all of us, after a fashion."             I       II "And only now and
then strikes back with an earthquake or a drought," Dom said, grinning. "'OK,
cynic, you make the salad."
The salad greens were grown hydroponically on the moon and were plentiful. The
steaks were great treasures and were strictly rationed. @ Doris put on a
couple of antique music, tapes, the sound turned low. They talked small talk,
working side by side in the kitchen,. having a pre-dinner drink. The steaks
were cooked very, very carefully.
Doris ate with an eagerness which was fun to watch. She ate like a hungry man,
no talk, no nonsense'. Finished, she wiped her lips on her napkin and breathed
a deep sigh of contentment. The few dishes were handled quickly, the washer
turned on, recycled water doing the job. Doris poured brandy.
Earth was thirty degrees high, and to see all of her they sat side by side,
facing the viewport, silent, the music soft and nostalgic. Dom had never felt
better. The ship was coming along. The steak had been delicious. The brandy
was one of the better synthetics. Doris leaned back, the long line of her
throat a delicate curve. Her hair fell into sort of a frame for her face. She
was wearing the short uniform. Her long legs were tanned by hours i'n the
exercise room. She swung her crossed leg in time with the music. ,
PRESSURE MAN
77
was something about the music which was f am   iar,
ili   and they both noticed it at once. She had b VV4   quietly, now and then
voicing a phrase, Was aware of her as a woman. He had to clear UT Me. and look
away. M_ been a long time since I've heard that one      she V as the song
ended. It had been their song. They'd
to it many times during the Academy days. r;-,' Stood. He had to move or he'd
do something
port, and' they'd both regret. He stood @beside the came to him. As she passed
the playor. she .,,the volume up slightly. Another old, familiar was playing.
He sensed her neqrness, felt her against him. W e danced a lot to        that
one, too," she      said
He looked down at her. Was it possible that she felt ii;@ same thing he felt?
She was humming again, swayiw` her body to the music, looking up, and out to
MWTMTLI@ old Earth up there in the sky. The music changed to upbeat. "Hey. I
can't stand that," she said, putting down her glass. She took Doms glass and
put it down and lifted her arms. He took her 'hand and began to dance. He got
the feel of it aftcr a few steps and they reminded each other of the old steps
laughing as it came back. Fads in music and dancing changed so fast that Dom
couldn't always remember which type of dance went with which, but Doris was an
authority.
The music went soft and slow. Dom felt the warning bells go off as she came
into his arms, put her cheek @@Ao his, and began to dance, close, dreamy. She
was a
perfect fit, almost as tall as he, a size to cuddle in his arms. He had to
remind himself that women looked on '@,dancing as something almost impersonal.
To Dom, IF.%,+ An"rina WAQ bimpino Qat tn milsic. Women seemed
78                     Zac* Hughes to attach less sexual significance to
dancing, but to Dom body to body while swaying with the music was just as
thrilling as body to body under any other circumstance. Ali, she was good in
his arms, and he didn't turn loose as one song ended and another began. He
turned his head slightly and kissed the smooth, soft curve of her neck. She
sighed.
It seemed to happen naturally. Lips to lips, they stopped dancing and the kiss
went on for eternity and there was promise in her response'. He. had wanted th
    'at kiss for so long, dreaming of it for all of the long years since he
said goodbye to her and went off on his first top to Mars. @ "Stay down,"
Larry yelled, bending quickly to trigger the detonator.
Dom broke the kiss, pushing her away. "I'm sorry," he said. "Earth got in my
eyes." "I know," she whispered, leaning toward him. "I wanted you to kiss me."
His heart leaped. He moved toward her. She put her hands on his chest. He
looked into her eyes in question. "I'm not saying no," she said. She looked
away, biting the corner of her lower lip in thought. "I want to be sure to
-say this right. First, it's been a long, long time since you kissed me like
that, and I liked it very much." "I hated it." He grinned. "But I think you
were feeling the same thing I can't help feeling when you pushed me away," she
said. "I was thinking about Larry," he admitted. "Yes," she said.
He turned to face the port and watched a surface crawler moving across his
field of vision. He was still thinking about Larry. He tried to view the
situation from Larry's viewpoint. thinkinanf bim -               _-
PRESSURE MAN
79
able to look back and see what was Problem: a young widow. Solution: a man,
just any man, a man who would love her and lz4.. He turned to look down at
Doris' profile. k you think I was being silly as hell if I said I IV
would approve?" he asked. she said. "He knew about-you. If be was ever
my, uh, having given myself to you first, he said so."
uke
to know what you think," he said. u-, be
en intimate with two men in my life," Doris "And I loved you with a big love
once, damn
1
1 ed you since the first time I saw you,"           he
14, ov
'M you loved space more."
I suppose. I'm older now. Were together." VT_=1 that to think about," she
said. "We've got a
of us. We're going to be in crowded quarters sk, with others." vtr;4c@ is
that," he said. lot@ lady is not saying no," she said. .')Mgt wait a while,"
he said. "We could get mar-
"We could." :"But you're not so sure?" he asked. She sighed. "I feel like a
silly and indecisive teen-
:,"Can you love me,.again?"
4 @Oh, I've always loved you, too. As a young girl -14.- in the deepness of
first love, as a sister loves, as a
Z@ loves."
few nat wasn't a friend or a sister kissing me a
(4., ago," Dom said.
Imiabeii 'Innm if vni, wnnt tn mske. love to me
80
Zach Hughes
you'll find a most willing participant." She looked him straight in the eyes.
"Do you want to?" '5Yes!' He shrugged. "All right, dammit, you must have
infused me with your middle-class morality and your sense of responsibility.
You are infuriatingly right and I hate you, you smart-assed female." "There
will be time," she said. "When we get back from Jupiter.' "Years and years,"
he said, kissing her lightly and pushingher away as she went molten in his
arms.
Wit@in twenty-four hours he was on a shuttle. He carried with him sworn
depositions from Art and Doris, who could not be spared from the Kennedy
project. Neil was supervising in-place static tests of electdcal systems and
the power plant. He resented being pulled away, leaving the team working, but
he went down, roaring into the muggy atmosphere, noting double security at the
Cape. He flew a carefully guarded jet to Washington.
The hearing was held deep inside the main DOSE installation outside the city.
Dom made his statement and answered questions. Nothing new came out of the
piles of paper which were the result of the hearing. However, Dom was reminded
of the ability of the Firsters to penetrate the most secure installations.
Since all of the inside team of terrorists had been killed, there were
unanswered questions. No one could suggest how.the explosives were smuggled
into DOSEWEX. It was possible that the traitor space marines could have done
it, or one or more of the technicians' who were Firsters.,
J.J. expressed the doubt. "We are reluctant to admit that there might be
high-level traitors among us. You and 1, Dom,.are more or less sensible men.
We can think that it took someone with more clout than techs
PRESSURE MAN                             81
PIT* to place     so many Firsters on your lab
your office which cleared each one of them," They were having a meal in a
secure hotel VMD *i waited for a flight back td the Cape.
office," J.J. raid, "consists of more than just a Al",     C involves a couple
of hundred people. They've
nvestigated backward and forward, an i
   d, I
1M bet my life on the loyalty of,,more than a
of them. Some minor clerk somewhere could F 't
shuffling of papers. N,i-r@@ ascreening with a deft
7gott-, in higher -authority could bringpressure on' ,@,@NSIM-_, 'elsewhere to
get a particular man into
Personally, I don't think the raid on the could have been planned without
someone of administrative rank pulling strings, and that ILI such a vast array
of possibilities that I don't dare
an investigation. One thing for damned sure, -going to have to be one hundred
percent sure of person aboard the Kennedy." "I should hope," Dom said. 'We're
sure of so few," J.J. said. .,-Me. you, Art, Doris, Neil," Dom said. :"Are we
sure of all of them?" if we're not, we're in so much trouble we might as
1: give up," Dom said. "I've been thinking a lot MM the crew list, J.J. In
addition to the basic five, it
for a cook, a powerplant engineer, a survival-sysspecialist, and a medical
tech. I think we can
1@ the list down. We can take turns with the cookWe can risk going without a
medical tech. We've all
around, enough to have learned, basic medicine,
0 . aid, treatment of minor ailments. If something ma-
comes up a medical tech might save a life, but
-a risk I'm willing to take. That would leave us
only two people in addition to our hard core
82
Sach Hughes
PRESSURE MAN
83,
of five, an engineer and a survival-systems specialist." "I've been thinking
along@ the same lines," J.J." said. "Any suggestions for the two we need?"
"Paul Jensen and Ellen Overman," Dom said. "You've worked with both of them, I
think." "I've been on two tours with Paul. He's a damned -fine engineer and he
hates radicals of all sorts. The last time I was in touch with him he was
going to ground on Mars to supervise the installation of a new generator. He
said he was doing it because he got so goddam mad each time he came back home
and saw what the world was coming to.', ."He's still there," J.J. said. "Ellen
was with me on the Saturn expedition and on one Mars M. She's good at her
job." "I'll Aaft 9* checks on them," J.J. said. "What about E11601 kkow
Jensen, but I know her only from her service fecord." "She's the independent
type, the complete woman. I don't know a lot about her. politics, because
I.wasn't that close to her." "Would you personally vouch for both of them?"
"For Jensen, yes. I'd like to know more about Ellen. And I'll qualify my vote
for Jensen by saying that I'll vouch for him as much as you can vouch for
anyone these days. As far as his abilities go, Id put'my life in his hands in
space." "You'll be doing that if he's chosen," J.J. said. "Anyone aboard could
abort the project or destroy it completely. You know how many ways there are
aboard ship to do damage."
Dom nodded. "Still, you have to have crew." "Have you had a briefing lately on
the world situation?" He continued without waiting for an answer. "The
Worldsavers are in complete control in China. -They're waining an army. Japan,
is pulling out of space
asion from China. The government fell mv
    in
and the new prime minister has put both M*'%+Nc@ and Earthfirsters in his
cabinet. France is
Germany is going through the, throes of iwa of individual rights in an effort
to wipe out (4w there. It's civil war for all practical pur-
e Russians are compromising with their own
41K, They've pulled five exploration ships out of W_ and are refitting them
to carry phosphates." -NTM here?" Dom asked.
7 M, strangely quiet," J.J. said. "There hasn't been a
Ls) mci
dent in months, not since the battle of DOAIJ*4*@ It's, as if they're
mustering their strength.
the usual claptrap in the media and in
but the killers are being quiet. A lo.t-of
Inc                     wo
luding the FBI, are      rried. Hedges reports from over there that several FBI
plants have -@@4e exposed and -killed in the last month. He thinks ift
has a top4evel traitor right in the Washington office,
he's working desperately to find out what's going so -His privat theory is
that there'll be one major
u before we can take off for Jupiter." "Any guesses as to what kind of push?"
"Maybe revolution," J.J. said. "It's that bad?" @,'7ake one small unit," J.J.
said, "thaf squad of *16r.- mannes at DOSEWEX. It was fifty percent infil-
v. How many Firsters are in a company of the .'A dozen men could wipe out a
company if theya barracks in the middle of the night, killing men itc thought
they were buddies."
ou think armed revolution would succeed?" don't know. No one does, because-we
don't know strength. There are times when I feel that ninety
Of the population must be radical or radical in w., but the great and unwashed
masses are still
84                    Zach Hughes a question mark. Would they -support a
radical armed revolution? In spite of what's been done to democracy in the
name of equality of opportunity and freedom from want, there just might be a
strong, hard core of democracy in the masses. It's impossible to guess how
the@ public would turn. They hear political promises day after day, and day
after day their food gets worse. They might buy the Firsters' propaganda. Get
the world out of'space and the milk and honey will flow." "But, damnit,
phosphates from Mars fertilize, the fields which feed them," Dom said. "We
know that. Tell it to a welfare bum in Detroit who wants real steak every day
instead of once a month. The Firsters tell him they'll develop better
agricultural methods with the money now wasted in space.29 "Is anyone thinking
of a    preemptive strike against them?" Dom asked.
We think about it, but they're spread all over the country. They mass only for
   specific attacks, such as
on DOSEWEX. They have no strong, individual leaders.. They're splintered.
That't the thing which has saved us so far. There's almost as much blood shed
in fighting between radical groups jockeying for power as
in their attacks on the government. If they ever form a united4ront, it will
be big trouble, and that's one thing .,they might be doing now. If they were
having internal consolidation meetings, that would account for the quiet."
"I've got a flight to catch," Dom said. "There's time," J.J.' said, looking at
his watch. "Dom, -when you get back, I want you to take charge .of the
security forces on the moon. Start a system of rotating teams, the membership
changing each day at random. If they're planning something there it might
22 help break up their organization.
RkESSURE MAN
85
thoughtful. "You know, if we could just "A world we'd break the radicals in
five years. certain strength in what has often beenealled
man. All he wants to do is live a peaceful life with enough food on the table
to feed his 'if       d programs on the tube, a few luxuries. YOU I N i this
mess really started? It started when the "'N
of petroleum took the citizen's automobile
him. That is the dominant factor in -our cures. The automobile gave a man
freedom. was at the wheel of his own vehicle., he could he was in control of
his own fate. He had of movement. In his car, he was isolated from
freed of his worries. That's when the disconX,@
when the oif ran out. That left room for the e people who have such
overwhelming egos
think they're more capable of running things
e else. They don't care how many people ow many are killed. They just want to
give orey want to instill fear in others. We've had Earth since the-earliest
recorded history, since
Conqueror, of old Ur. The power types. A s two books and thinks he knows how
to run d. The idealists, the nuts, the sadists, the outpsychos. They're joined
by shiftless malcono are interested only in loot and plunder. If we
the world there'd be support against them. use the common decency of mankind
to
111.@ the Sargon complex and then man would be
arrived on the moon hours after two Earth- .ed in a soundless explosion while
trying to ^v"Irmirpe intn tht-. qhuttle nrea. He nut J . J.'s
86                   Zach Hughes orders into.effect. Things were quiet for
days. Kennedy was nearing completion.
The big boom came on a Sunday morning. It came m' the form of a small
freighter which had been Earthside, for repairs. The incident demonstrated the
most frightening penetration to date, for the small nuclear bomb aboard the
freighter must have been placed there at Canaveral base. .The ship approached
the hinar base on schedule, in contact with control, and veered off at the
last minute to accelerate into a suicidal collision course with the Kennedy as
she orbited, huge and vulnerable. A missile from the surface got the freighter
while she was still far enough away so that the explosion did no damage to
Kennedy. The Bash lit the surface of the moon and blinded a few workers, who
happened to be watching the freighter.
I The near miss inspired Dom. He knew that it was going to give J.J. a bad
moment, for he did not want to risk compromising his plan through
communications which could be intercepted. He stopped all ffights from the
Moon to Earth and sent down the news that radical terrorists had destroyed an
experimental ship, the John F. Kennedy. The news was, greeted with public
cheers and private gloom on Earth, and it brought J.J. on the next ship.'He
looked ten years older. "How bad is* it?" he asked, when Dom met him at the
landing pad.
I hated to do it to you," Dom said. "She's all right and untouched."
J.J. used choice parts of a vocabulary built from years of service and, having
let off steam, took a drink and whooped in relief. He had to admit that it was
a good idea. Now there would be no further attempts on the Kennedy from
Earthside and they merely had to control the underjeround meinhe'rQ nn th'.
mr%nn T-Y.
PRESSURE MAN
87
sending down a one-man courier ship to give A, VIM 7-vu top DOSE brass.
was were allowed to go out to Earth., Travel All #r'.
Marine guards stood watch over all communifacilities, their individual members
shifted in s7a patterns.
i carrying the two remaining crew members
to, land. Dom's first choices had checked e engineer, Paul Jensen, was short,
dark, a man *in his fifties. Ellen Overman, life-systems
Was in her thirties, a tiny woman, small in, .,,4Q,, respect, but perfectly
proportioned, dark-haired, ',Of eyes, a beautiful woman; she was talkative and
M', U, . being a part of the project.
down word that the Firsters had destroyed sent
U 8 water supplies,, built up over a period, of
constantly recycled. A fleetof tankers years and- _-01" to arrive, supposedly
to replenish the moon's
but actually to fill the Kennedy's hold with
6,). it was against all common sense to take an un- i        Ship into space
with a full cargo, but as Dom
to point out, she would work -or she r, FV, and if she couldn't carry a load
of water she jnrvrU@ go down into Jupiter's atmosphere. The water
r- @ be avaluable bonus in the operation. Taking it Ziioiz@ would add only a
few days to the trip, since planets were in the proper configuration, and it
re be a boon to dry Mars. The Kennedy's cargo r, represent a yeaes supply of
water for the planet. ZM Walters pronounced the Kennedy as ready as
ever be without extensive in-ffight testing..He,
4% disliked carrying a full cargo, but he shrugged and
- -'T&at the hell?" If she could fly at all the weight
IT@: water was insignificant. She had enough power Vtq'@ a hundred times the
weight without strain. If she
it urmild nnt 1-w fnr I nAr nf nnw#-.r
88                    Zach Hughes J.1. called a briefing in his quarters. He
was in field uniform.He had two comets on his collar.
I Dow saw the new insignia, "Congratulations, admiral27
69 lust a, belated recognition of ability, Flash," J.J. said. "When'we bring
home the bacon I'm going to see to it that you get one of these little
dooda(is." He ,tapped a comet insignia. "You're all @ heart," Dom said,
remembering that it was J.J. who had refused his last chance at promotion
because he'd happened to take a swing at a stupid and inefficient one-comet
admiral. "Meantime, you're promoted to captain," J.J. said. "'You deserve it
and the Kennedy deserves it. I wouldn't want her to be c6minanded by a mere
commander."
The others arrived one by one. J.J. went through the chain of command aboard
ship, although all were familiar with it already. Dom was in overall command.
Neil was flying captain. J.J. was third in command, second to Neil in flying
matters, to Dom in matters of ship's operation and safety. When the briefing
was completed, J.J. made a little speech. He concluded by saying that things
looked good. "We'll announce the truth when we're in space," he said. "Right
now the rads think their lousy, suicides blew up the Kennedy. We've announced
major cutbacks in the space program to give them another victory and, we hope,
keep them quiet until we get back. We turned a billion and a half dollars back
into the general fund. That made a big splash." ..So we're burnig our bridges
behind us," Doris said. "Exactly," J.J. said grimly. "We bring bome the bacon
or we forget the space program. If we come back without it well becut down to
the Mars fertilizer M14 and that won't last lone before we'll he forced to
PRESSURE MAN
89
ir- ships home and close down the Mars base.
to be done, We think they were on the verge revolt, and we weren't sure we
could win.
poured some oil on the troubled waters. -1, think they have unlimited time
now. And well
11@ with something which will knock them on and-have the whole world on our
side." I could be as confident as you," Dom said.
to be confident, Flash," JJ. said. "If I didn!t way I'd strap on as much
plastique as I could V walk into an Earthfirster rally and pull the
PRESSURE MAN
91
o8o
A million and one things can go wrong with a collection of complicated
components, and the Kennedy was -the most complex ship ever constructed. Every
system aboard haq been tested time and time again, but never in flight with A
of them operating to move a huge mass of metal and a cargo of water. . '
Just in case, the entire backside of the moon was evacuated. Dom said a,
silent prayer, and he was sure that each of the others aboard were doing the
same as Neil, buckled into the pilot's chair, finished the last preflight
checklist and looked over at J.J. and winked. Neff's blue eyes were squinted
and his mouth twisted into. a grin which was not amusement, but his way of
showing tension.
There was no dramatic countdown. When all systems were ready   and all the
thousands of little things checked out, J.J. gave a thumbs-up sign and Neu
pressed a switch which ignited the preheater. Down in the engineroom Paul
Jensen saw the light go on and ran a visual of the automatics. The sound of
the preheater was a muffled rumble in Jensen's ears. There was a tiny
vibration which only a trained man would notice. It came up to his senses
through the soles of his feet. "All right, baby," Neil said. "Do it for old
Neil."
When the awesome power began to build there was
on
ise o
nly a small hum. The sensation of there, however, and something in the closed
of the ship seemed to absorb it, to become t. There was,a charge in the air, a
tingling beyond skin-deep to become a part of the
system. ower overcame inertia. Slowly the' heavily ter of a ship moved, the
force which powers ilding, building, as crew members checked
and it was "Go. Go. Go." es flashed back and forth among an array
which read stress and loading on huU components. Inertial strain registered
and but she had been built wel built with pride care by men who felt that she
might be, the
ed, the last ship they'd ever build. ou was smooth and more rapid than a
rocket. The moon!s gravity was a mere rce to be brushed aside by the brute
power Y drive.
t she went smoothly. Neil goosed her, and acceleration pushed the crew
against the ieir seats. She was in position to turn, to as.tance for the long,
hard drive for acceler- ,1 would take her to a rendezvous with Mirs. ith only
a fraction of her available muscle, of free space, proud, beautiful, huge.
There e crew examined her from stem to stern. she handled like a dream and was
do Walters was still aware that he was flying an ip with a crew aboard. He
knew that Kencen a crash project, and he didn't like flying of crash projects.
He knew his space history. -ash construction project produced the Vanos of
rockets, and he'd seen the old films of
melting down on the launch pad. Crash
92                    Zach Hughes programs did that. In the 1950s, the United
States had pushed hard to catch up with the Russians, Who had Put"a. dog,
Laika, into space,with a total payload-of over one thousand pounds. Up to @
that point the prestige of the United States hadrested on a super job ;f
jury-rigging by a crew under Wernher von Braun. 'Theynsed   spit and scrap
wire, antique rockets, a lot of determination and imagination, and placed
thirtypoint-eight pounds of payload into orbit with a,tiny Jupiter C.
Von Braun proved that crash techniques do not alW Iays fail, but still there
was the Vanguard, which blew with spectacular regularity to prove that if you
persist iw crash -techniques in, things as complicated as space hardware
you're going to have a few loud'bangs. 'Ae big question in Neills. mind was
this - @ Was the Kennedy an inspired 'job of jury-rigging in the von Braun
mold, or was she a Vanguard? If she stayed in one plece'and performed, future
historians would call her a technical miracle. if she blew, or simply fizzled,
brought down by the failure of one tiny and relatively insignificant system
somewhere deep inside her, @they would go back to calling her what she was
called in the Y,v inn' Folly.
9MM91 She checked out. Doris' computer ticked out, for the automatics, course
settings and power settings and thousands of pieces of individual information
which -formed the word "Go."
Neil missed the familiar bellow of burning rockets, soundless i4 space, loud
and all-pervasive inside a ship. His eyes squinted again as he activated her
and started her on that long, long drive. His,voice was
professionally'calm@Nis words went to the crew and on a tight beam back,to
Lunar CoutroL "All systems normaL all systems go!$
The next pucker period 40g* an attempt to get the
P
ESSURE MA                           93 R
.-Juriu cruising speed without blowing her wide was more than just opening a
throttle, but it
in its complexity, by the shipboard com- @matching,power to stress, every
action moma half-dozen w
ays, both electronic and visual. hummed with that inaudible energy and
@bei-aeltli, faster and faster, the acceleration creating
gravity pushing the- crew me
inbers backr;.)*k. seats. didn't blow. Neil kept the crew working        long,
,during that initi period of, acceleration She
al cruise speed sixty-five, percent faster than con-,
ships and was moving faster than anything had built Every, system was checke
    d    and
tested in flight. 'N           INeil was satisfied. Rotating watches began,@
ast -st;@ of the crew had time for nap. The, Ke -
a                 n Me 'vo7o-W as if she'd gone through the most thorsi@
testing. took first watch. Dom, who had the         second knew he would be
unable to sleep. He stayed
panel, checking stress and loading. Paul Jenan eye on
the powerplant. Only Doris and Art to their cabins. was J.J. who took the call
from Lunar Base. Even o, the message was complete, his hand flicked an
and the lights. flashed and the alarm whoope MM- the ship.
the crew at emergency quarters, J.J. fed the g;@ from the base into the sound
system. ldw@ F. Kennedy, this is Moon Control." rers)v Control, this is LF.K."
:.K., Admiral Pinkerton speaking. Please alert crew. We. have ceived a bomb
threat. Repeat,
re is a bomb threat directed against the Kennedy."
94
Zach Hughes
"I am now going live to Moon Control," J.J. said. "Moon Control, this is
Kennedy. Details, please." 'I.F.K., a team of Earthfirsters have seized
control station eight-five with its communications intact. We estimate the
number of terrorists at five. We are, in contact 'with them. They have made
two demands. One, the Kennedy returns moonside. Two, we broad. cast, and I
quote, 'our guilt,' unquote, to the world."
J.J. shook his head impatiently. "Details on bomb threat, please." "Stand by,
JYX The following is a recording of our communications with the terrorist in
control of station eight-five.'
TWre was aclick and then an excited young voice. "Moon Control, Moon Control,
this is the voice of freedom. Listen carefully. We are in control of station
eight-five. We are heavily armed. We can resist any attack. Listen carefully.
The folly of imperialism, the spaceship you call the John F. Kennedy, will be
des,troyed unless You meet the following requirements. One, you will order the
Kennedy to return to Moon Base immediately. Two, @ou will broadcast to the
world an abject apology for your wastefulness in'allow'ing such a crime to be
perpetrated on the people of the Earth, for using materials and money which
should have gone to feed our starving millions. Three, you will, provide a
ship of the Explorer class to transport this group of freedom fighters to a
free port Earthside.11
The voice of Admiral Pinkerton was back. "We had them repeat it!He repeated it
word for word as if he were reading." "Moon Control, did you. ask for details
about a possible bomb on board the Kennedy?". "That is affirmative. They
merely read the message again.9v
Dom cut into the communinsitinnQ
PRESSURE MAN
95
Me Metwo. Can you patch me into direct contact I--- terrorists?" iJQk%TT is
affirmative, Captain Gordon. In fact, they 'the facilities to monitor this
channel in station
tended to forget his new rank. IN Vill,
to speak with them direct, admiral,"he said. M, re- one. You will be notified
when    we've es-
contact." 'O'Doin waited, the others were already in action.' m4 Kennedy was
the most instrumented ship ever ' I ,,@L and it was. possible to check every
inch of her IN
instruments. Signals were sent. Servos probed and
41 ITTTMI Every gram of material aboard theship was
Ms. carefully in Doris' computer. She worked
She had the computer check everything aboard, Oil ., personal effect,
supplies. Every gram aboard
and two checks did not find even a. tiny MfnOW amount of mass. The check was
complete ow. the radio patch was made.
Doris said _. "There's nothing aboard thiswe don't'know about." "Unless it was
integrated into a structural piece durconstruction," Dom said. "Then it would
show as a Ioo of the original mass." '7Ay guess is that they're bluffing,"
J.J. said.
a good possibility, but can we gamble on it?" Vii-i #,,asked.
-11 we give in and take her back, she'll never leave
7@@ moon again. If we make that broadcast to the jPwe d
to it will have the same effect as blowing her up in ;@ 19 J.J. said. "With a
small difference," Neil said. "If we take her
74", we'll be alive." ,"Do you think you'd enjoy life as a groundling,
96
Zach Hughes
PRESSURE MAN
97
"Yqu'vp got a point," Neil said. "Jensen," Dom said into the communications
system, "I want you to go over the engineroom with everything you've got,
including your fingertips. The rest of us win use portable sniffers. Tune the
sniffers to plastique. That's the material most used by the Mrsters. Ellen,
you take the food supplies. If there's a bomb aboard, my best guess is in
supplies. If it was built into the ship, then I'd say they'd afin for the
engineroom, where it would do the most damage. Doris, run me this problem.
Give me a reading on what it would take to make it, seem that the Kennedy is
decelerating and then turning back to the moon. They might be measuring the
strength of our radio transmissions. We want them to think we're following
their orders, at least for a while. Unless they carried it in iwith them,,and
it's unlikely9 they don't have visual equipment in station eight-five."
It took Doris three minutes. "I've set up an automatic power curve into the
radio. The signals win grow slightly weaker at a decelerating ratio and then
grow stronger.21 I "J.F.K., this is Moon Control. Ready on your radio patch.
Go ahead station eight-five." "Gordon," said the young and tense voice, "this
is the voice of freedom." "The voice of a punk, you mean," Dom said. "I want
you to listen and listen carefully. We're caning your bluff. We've checked
every atom of weight aboard this ship, and you're lying. There is no bomb
aboard. We're heading out and we"ll continue to accelerate. I just wanted the
personal satisfaction of telling you, because in about one minute I'm going to
order Moon Security to blast station eight-five with one small newk. Bum
happily, punk.,,
He wafted,,eyes troubled. The Young voice seemed tn I-P ;,,a+        -s
i@, the punk, Gordon. YoWre the one who is robIt-- people. Youre the one who's
going to die, you
1, the other parasites aboard. We can detonate the
7from here, or if you use your newk on us it win 't@"VM its own'thner. Either
way you're dead. This @17 @tk last chance to turn back. You'll bod given a
fair
M (0) o:;r a tribunal of the people."
Dom said, "you have about one minute to JI     'jps L
You don't seem to understand that we're wise to Youlrer all mouth. Theres no
way you punks klf@ get, a bomb aboard. No way. Goodbye, punk.
4@03,, Control, this is Captain Gordon. I order that in
one minute you send one small nuclear warright down the gut of station
eight-five. J.F.K. and out." @iz- next'voice was different, low, smooth,
unexV,4-71 "Good try, Captain GordoA," the man!s voice "'We who love freedom
don't believe in needless @
7 blood, nor in the waste of resources. If we Iwould push the button myself.
However, we I- like to salvage the Kennedy for scrap to build A* g
i(,) - for production of consumer goods for' the (;@, 01
"'A yone
m    recognize the voice?" Dom asked, over the
o@ circuits. assure you, Captain Gordon, that there is a bomb that it will go
off at a time of our choosing. I can (;I;; that the Kennedy will be destroyed
totally. I f, promise you that she'll burst open like a melon and N      all of
you will die with her." 'Y ve got him," Art- said into Dom's earphones.
service, in charge of loading the water. His name
Wllt;@ damned water," Dom said, throwing aside the
1@,Wai;k% "It's in the damned water. He said wed burst
... IA@4 I%vv
98                     Zach Hughes this ship open unless the force were
compressed by a large volume of water. Let's go." "Captain Gordon?" the
smooth, calm voice- said. ,Dom went back to the radio. "Go ahead." "I am-
pleased to note that in spite of your brave talk you are presently
decelerating.` . "You have radio scanners, then," Dom said. "We do. We
estimate full stop and turnaround at
2130 Zulu." "Hold one," Dom said. Then, leaving the commumcator open, "Please
give me an estimate of turnaround time.20 "2134 Zulu," Doris said. "Station
eight-five," Dom said,    "turnaround time. is
2134 Zulu." "Noted," Bensen said. "And now Admiral Pinkerton will make his
broadcast to Earth."
Dom said, "The broadcast will be made at 2134 Zulu, our turnaround time."
There was a silence. He could imagine the terrorists consulting among
themselves, trying to figure out why he insisted on waiting two hours and,
forty minutes before making the broadcast. Evidently they decided that the
delay could do their cause no harm, since the Kennedy was obeying orders.
"That is agreeable," Bensen said. "It will give us time to pass the text of
the statement to be broadcaust to the people of Earth to Moon Control." "J.J.,
take communications," Dom said. He grinned. Hell, command was not so difficult
after all. "Neil, it's you and me. We have two hours and thirty-nine minutes
to find that bomb." "I'm with you," Neil said.
Neil was into his suit before    Dom. He had more practice. He checked Dom's
life-support gear and turned to allow Dom to check his backnack. T.-,-,q thnn
PRESSURE MAN                          99
(;T. had elapsed when they entered a lock offering access to the hold, that
vast space
up the main volume of the ship and which i i Me, with thousands of tons of
pure water from
It--' purification plants.
i e d a where to start?" Dom asked, his internal she, on open channel to be
broadcast throughout
,v TF estimated that it would take a minimum of (w of plastique to, blow her,"
Doris said. Her
1.5' was cool, professional. "However, with the
4
I'm dealing with in the hold I can't distinguish I a weight. The problem is
compounded by a difference in temperature in various hold secA
A,- enough to vary weight per unit of water."
n a note of that," Dom said. "In future well Ze be able to scan the interior
of the hold. Right '-i;@ have to figure on combing every inch of the 'rjght?"
i -- afraid so," Doris said.
effect would be obtained by placing the !4;;,, near the geometric centei,"
Neil said.
0,V thinking," Dom said., "We'll start from the
4-1@L bulkheads and work toward bow and stem. I'll
Neil. I'd say check the hogging girders M&M.Mr, supports first. Bensen must be
sharp
to realize that convection currents will be set in this mass of water, so if
he wanted to keep his
near the center of mass, he'd secure it so that it rarW_ float around on the
currents." I MW a roger," Neil said. o;@ lock filled and opened into the hold.
Dom could the psychological weight of tons of water on him
moved out into the vastness. Ile blackness was Their lights made lances of
brightness into the pit M6 @* @U- rM-               U- @M. flirnildh hivYA
100                   Zach Hughes bays of the hold and    reached the center
after what seemed to Dom *to be miles of swimming. They were
At back to back for a moment, light beams pointing in different directions.
Dom moved off, moving his head to direct the light. Reaching the fast system
of supports, he began a swift but careful search. He noted the time required
to completely examine the bulkhead and did a       IN calculation in his head.
At that rate the bomb would :explode, estimating that the terrorists would act
when the turnaround time came and went and no broadcast went out to Earth,
before they could cover half of the hold area,
He had     never liked being underwater. He was a creature'of the openness of
space. He wanted space around him, the reach,of interplanetary distance, not
  ''F the oppressive weight of a liquid. He fought the urge to swim upward,
although there was no up, to reach for the surface and,for air. Even in the
smallest Nhips he had never felt so confined as he did by the dark weight of
the water in the hold. He forced himself to breathe evenly, for he tended to
pant. He swam onward toward the next set of girders. "I spent too much time at
that first bulkhead," he said. "Roger," Neil answered. "And ditto." "And if we
just hit the most likely places we could miss the mother," Dom said. "There's
no choice. We just have to search carefully'and hope that he put it near the
center so that we'll find it before turnaround time.12 "Captain Gordon," Ellen
Overman said, "I am qualMed for life-support-system work." "Do you remember
from your        indoctrination how the internal supports are constructed?" Dom
asked. "Roger," Ellen said. "Suit up, then," Dom said.    "Come in thronfrh
Ine.1-
PRESSURE MAN                        101 move toward the bow. If you see
anything a handle it yourself." also qualified to handle explosives," Ellen
Art said, "I can suit up, too."
Dom said. "Not with your lungs, it," Art said. where you are, and that's an
order," Dom
&     i-- been down fifteen minutes," Doris said.
and twenty-four minutes to turnaround. < might i e us a few extra minutes,"
Dom
giv@l
11 count on it," J.J. said. "Wed better figure
panic when we don't start    that broadcast on
that time that bomb had     better be in free mir- way from the hull. If Bensen
and his nuts idea we're trying to be tricky they'll push the wi*thout a
moment's hesitation." 't figure why they want the Kennedy to return moon
anyhow," Paul Jensen said. "It would be
advantage to blow her up in space. Then they ;W,:;@ sure she'd never fly again
I I the way I bad it figured," Dom said, "when them we wouldn't broadcast
until we were I figured tbpy'd blow the bomb the minute the M- was mer. I just
didn't want to worry anyone,
fe tii two are little rays of sunshine," Neil said. %)'I*f-- wa swimming
around and through a maze of a*
girders. His light picked up dozens of little which would offer excellent
spots to plant a,
we cae figure it that way," J.J. said. "The t--- broadcast is finished, they
bust the button."
102
Za@h Hughes
PRESSURE MAN
103
"'My God    " Ellen Overman said, as she emerged from the lock into the hold.
"It's big." "There are no sharks,' Dom said. "That's in our favor. Move
forward. You'll make visual contact with a girder system." '@Got it," Ellen
said, "Don't worry about me. I just felt lonely there for a second."
'.'Twenty-five minutes," Doris said.
The pattern was set and would continue with mounting tension for the next two
hours.. Doris called out the time used at five-minute intervals, and Dom began
to match his movements to five-minute units.
By turnaround,time just over half of the hull supports would have been
examined.
At the end of the first hour, Dom began to fear that he had bet the lives of
his crew and the existence of the ship on a snap judgment that the terrorists
would have tried for maximum force by placing the charge near the center of
mass. Doubts made him sweat inside his suit, and the fluid reclamation system
had to work hard. He and Neil continued to work away from each other, moving
away from the center. Ellen was forward, working in the same direction as
Neil. At the end of one and a half hours, Neil reached bulkhead seven-three,
where Ellen had begun her search. He resisted an urge to check behind her. If
she missed it, she missed it. It was all a guessing game anyhow. There was
always the chance that the charge was not even in the hold, but elsewhere in
the ship. He swam rapidly and caught up to Ellen within a few minutes. "Nice
to have company," she- said. "We'll try it together and see if we get in each
other's way," Neil said. "You go port on the next bulkhead."
They moved faster than Dom, who was still working alone. J.J. announced the
passage of one hour and fif-
The huge central area of the ship seemed long. tiv@ a very interesting
phenomenon," Doris said.
ovements send energy     impulses against the
f 't readings when     all of you were swimam and now with Neil and Ellen close
together generated by their. movements is strong register well.$t Dom asked.
really," Doris said. "But based on        the I'd say that the hull could take
an explosion
one and a half kilos of Dupont XP with-
n:dght be encouraging if we knew that the ex-
merely Dupont XP and not more than one
9.1 kilos," LL said.
4,
had the new Germ n stuff in the Gulfport month," Art said. "It's twenty-five
percent ent." leave it to the Germans," Dom said.
XP is the standard explosive used on the Doris said.
not clutch at straws," Dom said. "I think our
is to find the charge and get it off @ the
if time runs out?" J.J. asked.
o@ the ship," Dom said. "J.J. and Doris in one. Art and Ellen in the Pilot's
capsule with go with Paul in the stern capsule, but I'm gosk you to be
prepared to stay longer than the Paul, to give me all the possible time down
!,A% two minutes for emergency capsule Q          nd enough time to allow the
capsule to clear,
ave to start out the locks no later than fifteen to zero," Doris said.
104
Zach Hughes
"I can pop out the stem lock," Dom said. "Well be launching away from the
direction of thmst, so we'll cover distance faster with the ship pulling away.
I can take an extra five minutes." "That's,cutting it too close," Doris said.
"No heroes on this trip, Flash,"' J.J. said. "I want you in that capsule at no
less than zero. minus twelve minutes." "Roger," Dom said. "We'll start,a
countdown at zero minus forty,". J.J. said. "At zero minus fifteen, all,
aboard the capsule except Dom andPauL At zero minus twelve, Dom and Paul board
and launch. We rendezvous in the capsules on my signal on band
seven-oh-three."
- "This may be a stupid question," Paul said, ."but how about opening the
hold. and letting the water out into space? We could search it in a fraction
of the time." "Good thinking," Dom said. "But if we vented through all loading
hatches it would take five and a half hours." "Sorry," Jensen said. "I'll
stick to the powerplant." "As a matter of fact, Paul," Dom said. "I want you
to leave the powerplant now and run a visual and man- ual on the compartment
bulkheads. If we have to abandon ship there's a chance she'll survive a small
explosion. Be sure they're all closed." "They read fine," Doris said. "IM feel
better if they're checked," Dom said, swimming as rapidly as possible toward
another bulkhead grouping- "On my way," Jensen said. "Dom, you've used one
hour and thirty-nine minutes," Doris said. I'Sixty minutes and counting.", .
"Captain Gordon," Jensen said, his voice grim, "are you a practicing psychic?"
PRESSURE MAN                        105 a practicing pessimist," Dom said.
"Give it to
Utch locks on the redundant bulkheads are
n said. "And the mains would have Jense any strain alone.
1@ things were working when we checked said. j     i.- not working now,"
Jensen said. %QMTse M: bulkheads were safety features. Be-
ii- hold and the compartments forward and aft t, sets of bulkheads. The inner
wall had no lm%@, locks. The outer, or redundant, bulkhead
allowing access to the air space between ,g
M shatk, are normal," Doris said. "That clever
-had to be built in."
happened since we checked," Neil
acid charge next to the wiring," J.J. said.
1-i do it." means we had Firsters working on the ship,"
4" "It would take an instrumentation tech and I-P.M.Pis working together to
install acid vials and Mw to overlook them."
how many more-        J.J. asked, his voice W L frustrated anger. give Paul a
hand and get cracking on thosecontrols," Dom said. "Get them closed and lock T
'T of the metal pieces which formed the internal
4.
sj"ik- had begun to look alike, giving Dom the fear IN had forgotten to move
on and was pulling him-
using his hands for help, over the same Ii   time after time. He was getting
very tired.
easilv. He mnwro- tirpil mktakes rnme more
106
Z4ch Hughes
didn!t want to overlook some small package, and he didn't want to have to slow
down. "'Forward hatches closed and locked," Paul Jensen said. "Moving to the
stern." "Roger on that," Dom said.
Suddenly he was -wishing for Larry. Larry could put himself inside the head of
that sonofabitch back there on the moon and it was eighty to twenty that Larry
-could send searchers to within a hundred feet of the charge. Larry would
think it over for a few minutes while telling bad jokes and then he'd say,
"Hen, it's simple."
So try to put yourself -in Larry's head, he told himself. Make it' simple.
What are the, factors? A hint that .the bomb was in the hold. Sabotaged
hatch-closing controls on the safety bulkheads. "Hell," he said aloud, "it is
simple." "What's so simple?" Neil asked. "They had to plan this thing well in
advance," Dom said, his voice showing his excitement. Even as he talked he was
moving straight down the center of the hold, swimming for the stern bulkhead.
"They wanted an explosion andthey,wanted it to do maximum damage. So they
fixed it so that the safety hatches wouldn't close, 'so that the explosion, if
it didn't rupture the outer hull, would do maximum internal damage. They want
water in the forward quarters and in the engineroom." "Sounds logical," J.J.
said. "Neil, you and, Ellen stop where you are and swim 'like helt to the
forward bulkhead." "Forty and counting, Flash," J.J. said. "Are you ready to
bet it all on a hunch?" "That is affirmative," Dom said. "We'll find it on the
.stern bulkhead or near it. Just in case they got two' cliaraes. T want NA,
ainA 'Pil.- 4 - -- - - - - - - I
PRESSURE MAN
107,
@A        My bet is that they're aiming at the engine
pictured it. The main bulkhead ruptured, water
into the engine compartment through the open c hatches' It wouldn't. even have
to be a huge y A small shaped charge would punch a hole in
said, ."We're moving. I think you're right, Dom.
I o=3 M6, hole punched in the bulkhead would do
5- near a seam," Doris said. Dom was gasping. The beam of his light sliced
the. (;4 ahead. The minutes seemed to race by. When he
to @ see the, distinctive contours of the stern bulkhead slowed and allowed
his heart       Ito catch up, gliding
on inertial momentum. The bulkhead was with diamond-shaped reinforcement for c
He came onto it at the approximate center. It -Me up and down and out on all
sides, a large --iiw of potential hiding places, and each reinforcement
KroTiolTi, offered multiple planes for planting a charge. "We're under way up
here," Neil said. "Ellen, go to
71the outer hull and start clockwise. Next to the outer
bull would be a good place." "Thirty-one and counting," Doris said. "Paul and
Art," Dom said, "when            we find this mother we'll bring it out, the
nearest lock, so stand by to get there fast. Paul on lock controls,' Art on
the nearest outer lock. Everybody in life-support gear now. When we come out,
I'll want a section closed off so W .11, vt
that Art - can have the outer lock already 'open. Got that?" "Roger,"Art said.
"Abandon-ship stations in fifteen minutes," J.J. said. "Thirty and counting,"
Doris reported.
f^ "000 en rm;Ar1v TMin
108                  Zach Hughes 'was- moving rapidly over the bulkhead,
checking each depression between reinforcing diamonds, running his hands over
the reinforcements themselves. Neil and Ellen reported no find. I The charge
on the stern bulkhead was mounted a few inches from the outer hull on a flat
surface between two reinforcement diamonds. it filled the space neatly. It was
held in place by four gleaming nuts on studs into the bulkhead, itself.
"Neil," Dom said, "concentrate on the second row of depressions at six
o'clock. I've got mine." "Roger," Neil'said. "Twenty and counting," Doris
said. "Nothing here," Neil said. "Take five more minutes, spend it down low,"
Dom said. - "Paul, I need a half-inch power spanner and a two-foot repair
limpet at the port stern lock. Start the lock cycling now. I'm betting that
this thing is rigged to detonate if it's removed underwater." He waited near
the inner lock door. "They went to too much trouble not to booby-trap it."
.47he lock is flooded and opening," Paul said. "We're negative UP here," Neil
reported. "Roger," Dom said. "You and Ellen get out." Dom grabbed the repair
limpet and the power wrench as the lock door opened. "Sixteen and counting,
Dom," Doris said. "No change in orders," Dom said, as he swam back toward the
charge. "Take abandon-ship stations." "'Change of orders," J.J. said. 'Tm
staying aboard. We'll get it off in time, Flash." "This is a matter of
safety," Dom said. "You're going off, admiral." "Aye, aye, sir," J.J. said
bitterly.
Dom Was inflating the repair limpet, pumping water from around thA rh orm.
um.- .4 _ - __ -i - - - -a t .. .,- 1
PRESSURE MAN
109-
jz@@, limpet be inserted his hands and carefully used the
a    cloths to dry the charge and bulkhead around He inserted the spanner,
activated it, spun off one of .,T;@ nuts. "Fifteen and counting," Doris said.
"Capsules ready I    hin 19 aunc 9Two nuts were off. A third was coming-
"Number one launched," Doris said. "Pilot's capsule launched," Neil said.
"Well expect to be back aboard in a few minutes, Dom." "That's a hopeful
roger," Dom said, spinning off the last stud and removing the spanner.
"Standing by," Paul Jensen said. "It's just you and me, Dom."
He allowed the capsules forty-five seconds to clear the ship, at least by a
few hundred feet. Then he pulled un the charge. It came and his heart thumped
as he waited for it to blow. It stuck. He used the spanner as
a pry and it came off the studs and was in his- hand inside the repair limpet.
He turned it. It was rigged to explode upon contact with water. He closed a
watertight bag over the charge and removed it from the limpet, letting the
limpet fall away. "Stand by to operate the lock, Paul," he said'.. He swam
into the lock and the door started closing behind him. The explosive device
was sophisticated. It was
equipped for detonation by radio signal, and it was standard to have the
circuits rigged to explode if there was tampenng. "Four minutes and counting,"
Doris said. "I'm in the lock and I have the charge," Dom said. But he knew as
well as they that it took five minutes to empty the lock and another few
seconds to open the outer door, run down the airless corridor and send the
charge into space.
J.J. said. "Moon Control is on. They have
110                   Zwh Huglws been warned that if the broadcast does not
start exactly on time the charge will be detonated." "J.J., goddammit, you're
suppose@d to be off the
tp ship. "Put me on report," J.J. said. "You'll make it." "Stall them. Tell
them to stall somehow. All we need is another couple of minutes," Dom, said.
The water was being pumped out of the lock with a terrifying slowness. 'The
heavy charge in his hands seemed so inert, but it was death, not only for him
but for the ship.. "Three minutes, Flash. Moon Control says stalling is out.
They've been warned against it." "All right," Dom said. "Tell them to start
the broadcast on time. It should Iasi a couple of minutes, at least. That just
might give us time."
The water was only down a couple of feet from the ceiling on the lock. Seconds
ticked off his wrist chronometer. "Those miserable bastards," J.J. said.
"Those mucking, murdering bastards. Dom, it has been decided at the top level
that the service will not appease the 4errorists. They will not start the
broadcast. We have two minutes and-fifty seconds."
Dom was feeling panic, but his mind, worked, envisioning the layout of the
ship. The hold lock and the outer hull lock were almost opposite each other
across ,the narrow walkway    'alongside the hold, nothing more than a tunnel
connecting th6 forward compartments with the engine areas. "Paul," Dom yelled.
"Can you override the safeties on the hold lock?" "Affirmative." "Do it. Outer
hull lock open?" "rm in vacuum. Affirmative." "When I give the word, brace
yourself in somewhere
PRESSURE MAN
ill
ow the door to this lock. Doht get in the way. A of water will be sucked out."
@"Tve got you," Jensen said. "Take a minute." "You have just over that," J.J.
said. -Safety off," Jensen said. "Clumsy. It win take a IMI t- repair."
"'We'll worry about that later," Dom said. "Blow this gNrej- as fast as you
can, right now."
He placed himself against the door, the charge in its
M bag held down toward the deck. When the
up, the vacuum in the corridor and all the started
would suck the water out of the lock with tw1k, force. "Here we go," Jensen
said. The door started upward. There was      a roaring hiss As explosive
decompression started in the lock, sucking Water under the door opening so
rapidly that Dom alq@'Most went with it, catching himself with one hand on a
support as the force tore at him. The charge* was ripped from his hand. It
banged against the rising door and then shot out and then with the same
suddenness with which it began decompression was complete and there was
silence. Dom closed his eyes'and waited for the explosion. The lock door
continued to rise. He looked out into the tunnel and saw Jensen still clinging
to supports. If there was another charge it would go about now.
He did not hear the explosion when it came, for it came in the vacuum of space
fifty yards away and slightly astem of the open outer lock. The blast which
would have been so deadly in the filled hold was puny in the emptiness of
space. Later, an examination showed a few pinpoints of damage on the skin of
the hull.
formally and very softly, "you may close hull."
112                   Zac,h Hughes He went forward to discover.that each
member of the'crew was in his or her place, that the reported launchings of
the escape capsules had been faked for his benefit. He was both angered by
having his orders disobeyed and touched to know that each of them had risked
his life to stay and do whatever was possible to save the ship. "What can I
say?" J.J. asked. "'Good work' would be a feeble way to express it." "You can
have your say when I put you on report for ignoring a ship captaini s order,"
Dom said.
He felt a sudden weakness in his knees and sat down. Doris, handed him a cup
of steaming coffee.        - "I think I've created a monster," JJ. said. "Give
a junior officer a bit of authority and it goes to his head." "Save it," Dom
said. "You'll need the energy. We're going to go over this ship. I don't want
any more little surprises. I want every circuit, every component, every inch
of her checked."
Doris was watching his face, a strange little simile on her lips.
11 "And you," he said. "I thought you were safe in the capsule."
-rm sorry," she said. "I couldn't. There were several reasons." 'Dom, Neil
said, "there wasno way any of us were going to let this ship die and go back
to the moon on a rescue ve@sel."
Dom was thinking about those several reasons Doris had for staying on the ship
as long as he was there and in danger. @ "All right," he said. "I suppose I'm
supposed to be grateful. I am, personally, but as captain of this ship I want
it to be known that this is the last mutiny. Understood?" "Yes, sir," J.J.
said, grinning.
PRESSURE MAN
d. You, Dom said. "Let's get starte
s in M with the heads."                                 ir, fflirs, even the
heads were checked during the next exhausting days before they were satisfied
that the
held no more unpleasant surprises for them. that the circuits to the hatches
in the redunbulkheads had been burned with a delayed acid
was correct. The damage was minor. Within, *ic, after the explosion of the
bomb in space the men -qs- had seized station eight-five on the moon were
Meanwhile, as the check of the ship continued, grew' from a star to a small
globe on the a;A-u- and the unimpressive, red disc grew 'rapas the shipboard
activities settled into a routine.
090
In deep space a ship becomes a small world. While there is radio contact with
the moon and with the more powerful stations at Houston and DOSEWEX, that
contact is limited to official and functional communications. Radio messages
from the Kennedy should have been less limited than those of an ordinary ship,
for the Kennedy had as,much computer power as either of the two main control
stations. But since anyone on Earth with a powerful receiver could monitor
ship channels, the Kennedy was limited in the information she could safely
send.
Still when things settled down and the watches became long and boring, a
favorite form of entertainment was to listen to traffic between ships in space
and the home control stations.
To be in deep space wasto be cut off from any aecurate knowledge of affairs on
Earth, for the daily broadcasts to spacers were from government-controlled
stations. Much of the news content of such programs was shameless puffs of
current Publicrat policies, promises of the Utopia to come. There was no
mention of the attempt to destroy the Kennedy or of the death of the
terrorists on the moon.
In the early days, when a few brave men were the focus of the attention of the
world, nothing was too good for spacemen. On the first Mars flights the hours
of boredom were partially dispelled by broadcasts-'on a
PRESSURE MAN,
115
channel, news, music, and even long chats with w;k and friends of the men who
were riding the i- through a long, tedious flight. Now, in the name of
broadcasts were limited and co
pisted mostly
No, one aboard the Kennedy bothered to listen to the *TMIM11- stations. The
ship carried a sizable film liand good music tapes. Because power was
unlimthere was a decent library of real @books, plus a @4;)- one of microfilm.
Still, one of the favorite forms passing time was to listen to the cool,
professional
of spacers sending reports to Houston. Fur, essential communications, the
Kennedy was
VA    with a squirter, a device which compacted messages into a split-second
burst of energy and beamed the messages down to DOSEWEX, where they 'Were
recorded, stretched,,and decoded. Messages were received in the same way, and
only J.J. had access to the decoder. He held briefings on important
communications. He was concerned by a new, all-out attack on the space
program. Budget cutting in Congress was, only Ione symptom. There was nothing
definite as yet, but the FBI reported an apparent lessening of competition
among the various radical groups. One indication ,was an attack on the DOSE
communications station during which both Earthfirsters and Worldsavers had
been killed.
One of the persistent questions sent by J.J. asked who had made the decision,
at the last minute, to reverse a continuing policy of appeasement in dealing
with terrorists. I "It is very strange," he said, "because for years Ive
advocated a get-tough policy. I have always said that it would be best, in the
long run, to sacrifice a few lives by refusing ransom demands. Sure, it would,
be rough on the victims, but it would save lives over the long
116                    Zach H@ghes period. For years I've been overruled from
the political side. A gang of terrorists takes a hostage and demands the
release of imprisoned terrorists, or money, or some political objective. In
the past the, bleeding hearts have, forced us to give in in the name of saving
the life of the hostage. Then, all of a sudden, when theres more at stake than
there ever has been, when the Kennedy herself is the pawn, when the last hope
for space is the prize, we embark on a new policy of, non-negotiation." , "A
political decision?" Dom suggested. "Because the politicians really wanted the
Kennedy to be destroyed?" "I've asked repeatedly," J.J.'said. "I get no
answers. My main question is this. How' did the Earthsiders find out about the
situation when the moon was blocked off from any communications?" "Any one of
a dozen facilities could have broken radio silence," Doris said. . "Or
someone in Washington could have known in advance about Denson's bomb," J.J.
said. "Someone at a high level had to be involved to get a bomb into
-Canaveral for that first attempt, and ditto to getting Bensen assigned to
load the water." "Admiral Pinkerton?" Neil asked. "He has only a couple of
years to go before retirement," J.J. said. "He's had a good career. I don't
see him as a traitor to the service." "That's the problem," Dom said. "Who can
we trust? There had to be a relatively high-level traitor at DOSEWEX to
arrange the raid there." "We have one advantage," J.J. said. "We know we're
fighting for survival, not only for the space program but for all of humanity.
I seem -always to be giving pep talks, but what the hell. It all boils down to
seven people, us. We bring back the bacon or that's it for space. The
Kennedy,will make a few Mars runs
PRESSURE MAN
117,
Inlr4p@ she'll be scrapped. The Mars stations will be
Eventually even the moon will        be closed and I all be down there breeding
ourselves into starva-
What follows will make the Dark Ages seem like era of enlightenment."
makes you wonder, doesn't it?' Jensen askeedd.
I think what we need is a man on horsea real leader." "A military takeover of
the government?" J.J. asked
"What government?" Jensen snorted. "That bunch ,,of idiots in Washington?" .
"Are you saying that you feel       democracy has out _MT-41 its usefulness?"
J.J. asked. "There ne er has been true         democracy," Jensen
v @said. "And certainly not in recent years. Not with ter- "forists depriving
people of their right to live,their right to make their own decisions."
7    J.J. nodded grimly. "There have always been crimi-
nals among us, but when the cities grew too large to be governed properly the
criminals were more free to act. Sensible citizens locked themselves in their
apartments when they were deprived of the right to walk the streets in safety,
and the early efforts to remedy the situation were one hundred eighty degrees
off target. The bleeding-heart school of sociologists said that the criminal
was merely a product of his environment, that he was to be pitied. Criminal
penalties grew steadily less severe. A man can commit murder now and either
walk free or serve no more than three years in a governinent detention home
which is much like a country club. When the bleeding hearts finally pushed
through
1!lsis@ and confiscated all firearms from lawful citizens, they left enough
arms in the hands of criminal types to start a revolution. Then the terrorists
gained a foothold in the twentieth century. At first
118
Zach Hughes
there was no international condemnation, because certain groups of terrorists
had the secret support of certain countries. The individual had no protection
against violence. Government failed to live up to the obligation to protect
the people. Sensible men refused-to remember that -since the beginning, force
can only be coun-' tered by force. Man has always been a predator, merciless
to his fellow men. Anq when the majority lets a minority composed of predators
control policy and topple governments, it's all over." "You're saying that
most of us have become overciv-, lized," Doris said. "Or soft-headed." J.J.
sighed. "Sure, it's humane to feel pity for the unfortunate and to help when
it is ' possible. It is damned well not possible to give to every *individual
in the world the luxuries which, in the past, were the rewards for achievers.
Take one absurd example. There just isn't enough gold in existence to give
every person on earth a gold ring. There isn't enough of, several commodities
to give every woman a washing machine, a dishwasher, a toaster, a television
set. The world was not meant to support so many people. And I think there is
an overall design in the basic reality that the world alone cannot provide the
ideal life for eight billion people." "The old argument for space," Ellen
said. "It is man's destiny to go, into space, since his small world can't
satisfy his needs." "I think man's place is in space," Neil     said, "but I
don't belive in some predestined force.       I think the stars are just there
and it's immaterial to the universe whether man reaches them or not." "There
are still those who think we're going to come face to face with God Out there
in 'Space and be blinded," Art said. "Let's get back   to Paul's suggestion of
a man on
PRESSURE MAN
119
leader did @ arise. Neff said. "Suppose a he built an organization which
could take over the United States. If he had one goal and one goal 'only, and
that was to restore law and order, what ac-
us would he take, and how far would people like us
him?" "I'd want to know that sooner or later we'd return to
7 a form-of democracy," Doris said. "I'd grab a weapon and enlist in his
force," Paul
said. @"Ild try to become an intimate of his and have a saf in things." J.J.
laughed. "But then I've always thought that a benevolent dictatorship was the
finest and most e cient form of government." ffi * "As long as I'm the
benevolent dictator," Dom said. "But I'd back the riot man, I guess. I know
that things look bad, but we're not finished, not yet. Like Doris, I'd want to
return to being a republic, not a democracy. No heirs to the great man
allowed, to give power time to corrupt." "I can think of a dozen men who'd
handle things better than the politicians," Paul said.
I"The sad thing is that the revolution, if there is one, is being run by the
wrong people," Dom said. "Perhaps, if we finish our mission, there won't be a
revolution," J.J. said. "What we'll bring back will be revolutionary, but for
the better. But Neil asked a good question. How far would we be willing to go,
how many personal freedoms would we be willing to put into storage, in order
to. restore a bit of sanity in the world? Would we send armed soldiers to
break up
0-no a-famm, 1"M M., witlemT=rv, "Would it be a loss?" Paul asked. "rd send
them with fire guns," Neil said. ,ace "I would first give them a chance to
disperse pe       -
fully," Ellen said.
120                  Zach Hughes "Hell, exterminate them where you find them,"
Neil said. "My husband met force with force," Doris said. "He d1ed.9t
There, was a moment of silence. "We're a fine, bloodthirsty crew," Dom said.
"If I decide to start a revolution I'll recruit all of you." "Would it be
inhumane to kill the terrorists in order to have peace?" J.J. asked. "You're
being very persistent with that question, aren't you?'.' Ellen asked. I "I'm
curious," J.J. said. "Is it wrong to put the welfire of the race ahead of
temporary considerations- of,"", personal freedom? Would we be- labeled
monsters by history if we killed thousands in order to make life better for
millions?" "That question is too big for me," Dom'said. "Because it could come
to that," J.J. said. "You may be forced to take sides, to fight. Space and
future hope, or Earth in isolation and slow rot. The future or the present. A
loaf of bread for each citizen before starvation or some starvation now and
plenty later." "I can hope for a loaf now and more loaves in the future," Dom
said. "I can hope that that alien on Jupiter has a sublight drive and we pull
him out and heshares his secrets with us. I can hope that we'll build a Beet
of starships and start sending out colonists to grow good wheat so that every
man does not want for bread." "I can go with that," J.J. said. "But what if
the bogie is not a sublight ship? What if it is merely an unmanned probe which
has been traveling for centuries? Sure, a sublight drive would solve all our
problems, Provided that there are rich, uninhabited. planets out there. But
what would solve our short-term problems and
PRESSURE MAN
121
US an opportunity to develop our own starships? L hat's simple," Ellen said.
"Food." "Food," J.J. said. "All our recent efforts have been
toward providing more food. Were going to N to try to salvage an alien ship in
the hope that will enable us to move the race to a new food supply.
is the key. The man, or group, of men, who #(;o the world with food can
control the world mon armed revolution. Do you agree?" "Meaning that if we, as
you say, bring home-the
the service will have a strong voice in, policyr Doris asked. "Shouldn't we?"
J.J. muntered. "So we!re going to Jupiter so that we can tell other :men what
to do?" Doris asked. "Hell, no," J.J. said. "We're going to Jupiter to get a
few loaves of bread." He spread his hands. "But when it comes down to it, who
would you rather have run-r
ning things, service people or men like the senator from New Mexico?" "Knowing
some high-ranking service people, that's not much of a choice," Dom said.
"Flash, you wound me," J.J. said. He smiled. "There's been a method behind my
madness in this discussion. I mentioned the gentleman from New Mex1co-, As of
this morning, Pacific time, he announced that he has been the controlling
force behind the Earthfirster movement. Further, he said that he has effected
a
union of all radical forces, with the two main groups being Firsters and
Worldsavers, and that he intends to take over sole control of the government,
either by peaceful means or by armed force." 'My God," Doris said.
Dom felt a cold chill run up his spine.
J.J. said. "When we return, we'll have to take sides."
122                   Zach Hughes "If it isn't over when we get back," Neil
said. "Who the hell will fight them?" Art asked. "Not the government in
Washington." "The Department of Space Exploration has joined with all branches
of the service to declare loyalty to the government," J.J. said. "The
government is riddled with Firsters and Worldsavers," Dom said. "The radicals
walked   out of Congress, declaring it an instrument of totalitarianism.
There's no one left in Washington but the President, a few members of his
cabinet, and a few very brave liberals." "What a choice," Neil said. "The
terrorists or the bleeding hearts."    -
"It's the only choice we have," J.J. said, "but you can easily see that if we
muster enough force to beat them, we'll be running things when it's over. I
mean the combined services," "Has fighting actually started?" Ellen asked.
"It's fairly unorganized, for the moment." J.J. sighed. "There is a main force
of radicals pushing eastward from California, picking up recruits as they
move. Their target is probably DOSEWEX. A couple of the southern bases, one
army and one naval base, have been taken. But mainly the losses have been in
the northeast. The southern arnny and sea marine bases are furnishing most of
the loyal troops. There's a defense line being drawn up running roughly from
Chicago to the Texas gulf coast." "Can it be held?" Neil asked. "That remains
to be seen. As it looks now, the services, with the exception of the space
arms, which have a higher percentage of loyalty, seem to be divided about
fifty-fifty." "We could newk the bastards and get it over," Paul said.
PRESSURE MAN
123
"And poison our own country," J.J. said. "Leave it so battered that the
overseas radicals could walk in," Neil said. "Right now we're fighting a
limited war," J.J. said. "It's tough to slaughter your own people. You don't
use nuclear weapons on your own country. You try to hold the damage down and
pray that old John 0. Public will come up right, as he so often does. The
unwashed masses. Sooner or later they're going to pull their heads out of
their TV sets and realize that someone is shooting at them. The way John Q.
moves will decide it. Right now there are two relatively small ar-
mies shooting at each other." "The public will decide the issue on very
intelligent thought," Paul said. "Like which side has the most photogenic
generals and the prettiest uniforms." "Maybe, maybe not," J.J. said. "One of
the first results of the war will be the destruction of the distribution
system. People will be scavenging for edible weeds in the fields. When that
happens, we'll get right down to the nitty-gritty. If we can convince the
public that hunger is the result of a war started by the radicals, they might
come in on our side. Our mission takes on a new importance. Because if we can
go back and promise them the stars-" "And once we're in control give them the
stars," Neil said.
Dom was numb. He kept hearing that phrase in his mind. Once we're in control.
It was almost as if-but it was Doris who voiced his suspicions. "J.J., you
knew it was coming, didn't you? Your whole plan was built around a coming
revolution     '" "I can say this," J.J. said. "We are important, very
important, and we have the support of what's left of the government and of all
the services."
122
Zach Hughes
'If it isn't over when we get back," Neil said. "Who the hell will fight
them?" Art asked. "Not the government in Washington." "The Department of Space
Exploration has joined with all branches of the service to declare loyalty to
the government," J.J. said. "The government is riddled with Firsters and
Worldsavers," Dom said. "The radicals walked out of Congress, declaring it an
instrument of totalitarianism. There's no one left in Washington but the
President, a few members of his cabinet, and a few very brave liberals." "What
a choice," Neil said. "The terrorists or the
bleeding hearts." "It's the only choice we have," J.J. said, "but you can
easily see that if we muster enough force to beat them, we'll be running
things when it's over. I mean the combined services." "Has fighting actually
started?" Ellen asked. "It's fairly unorganized, for the moment." J.J. sighed.
"There is a main force of radicals pushing eastward from California, picking
up recruits as they move. Their target is probably DOSEVVEX A couple of the
southern bases, one army and one naval base, have been taken. But mainly the
losses have been in the northeast. The southern ariny and sea marine bases are
furnishing most of the loyal troops. There's a defense line being drawn up
running roughly from Chicago to
the Texas gulf coast." "Can it be held?" Neil asked, "That remains to be seen.
As it looks now, the services, with the exception of the space arms, which
have a higher percentage of loyalty, seem to be divided about fifty-fifty."
"We could newk the bastards and get it over," Paul said.
PRESSURE MAN
123
"And poison our own country," J.J. said. "Leave it so battered that the
overseas radicals could walk in," Neil said. "Right now we're fighting a
limited war," J.J. said. "It's tough to slaughter your own people. You don't
use nuclear weapons on your own country. You try to hold the damage down and
pray that old John 0. Public will come up right, as he so often does. The
unwashed masses. Sooner or later they're going to pull their heads out of
their TV sets and realize that someone is shooting at them. The way John Q.
moves will decide it. Right now there are two relatively small ar-
mies shooting at each other." "The public will decide the issue on very
intelligent thought," Paul said. "Like which side has the most photogenic
generals and the prettiest uniforms." "Maybe, maybe not," J.J. said. "One of
the first results of the war will be the destruction of the distribution
system, People will be scavenging for edible weeds in the fields. When that
happens, we'll get right down to the nitty-gritty. if we can convince the
public that hunger is the result of a war started by the radicals, they might
come in on our side. Our mission takes on a new importance. Because if we can
go back and promise them the stars-" "And once we're in control give them the
stars," Neil said.
Dom was numb. He kept hearing that phrase in his mind. Once we're in control.
It was almost as if-but it was Doris who voiced his suspicions. "J.J., you
knew it was coming, didn't you? Your whole plan was built around a coming
revolution." "I can say this," J.J. said. "We are important, very important,
and we have the support of what's left of the government and of all the
services."
0 10 0
t to Mars was always an *46011oll-11-
perience for Dom. The negligible atmosphere of the planet allowed a clear view
of the surface. A dust storm was blowing in a cyclonic pattern west of the
Hellas plains in the southern hemisphere. The film of ice deposits in,the
northern polar area gleamed, a white jewel atop the globe. Doris was by his
side, keeping an
avid eye on the viewers, since it was her first trip to Mars.
Although she was arid, cruel, deadly to an unprotected man, Mars was Dom's
second home. In recent years he'd spent as much time there as he had on Earth.
He was proud to be a part of a service which made human presence on Mars
possible, and he was bitter because events on Earth now threatened, more than
ever, the developments which bad been scratched and dug out of the planet at
the cost of much labor and some human life.
During the days in which he watched the planet grow from a bright star into a
disc and then into a huge, dominating sphere hanging over the Kennedy, he
talked with Doris about his feelings. Mars policy was made on Earth, and it
was contradictory and confused. "Take the Kennedy," he said. "For what she
cost we could have supplied plenty of water for the entire planet for all
time."
PRESSURE MAN
125
He pointed out the ice deposits at the north pole. "There's enough water there
to change the face of the planet," he said. "If all the water in the ice
deposits could be released, the planet would be covered in water to a depth of
ten meters, about thirty feet. That's a theoretical figure, and it would be
accurate only if the planet were a smooth globe. The point is, we've spent
billions building this ship to carry water out here and all the time there's
plenty of water already here if we
Mminw-7-mgm-In            1111,14111MArtram- ff=7@
but a smooth planet. The huge shield volcano, Olympus Mons, showed on the
horizon. Even from height and distance Olympus Mons was impressive. "Two and a
half times as high as Everest," Dom said. "Fifteen miles high." "Quite a
mountain," Doris said. "I don't think I'd want to try to climb it." "It's not
all that tough," Dom said. "Remember, it's less than half Earth gravity. The
only tough part of the climb is in lower altitudes, because of the winds. I've
seen winds of two hundred miles per hour on the lower
slopes. But no one climbs the thing. It's too easy to take a jumper and set it
down on the peak. If we find the time I'll take you up. I think you'd enjoy
it."
From space, Mars looked like a planet stripped down to its skeleton. An
ancient riverbed, with tributaries branching out like small veins from an
artery, lanced across a flat plain pimpled by meteorite craters. The effects
of the Martian wind could be seen in the dark tails extending outward from the
craters, marking the deposit of bright dust particles. As the rotation of the
planet brought the canyon area into view, Doris was, again, impressed. The
giant rift covered an area as long as the distance from New York to San
Francisco. The main chasm, Tithonius Chasma, would have made
126
Zach Hughes
the Grand Canyon of the Colorado look like a small creekbed. The stark and
terrible beauty of the planet misted Doris' eyes. She leaned against Dom, her
hand on his arm. "I once hated her," Doris said. "Why?" he asked, not
thinking. "Because she took you away from me." "That was a long time ago," he
said. "I can understand why she draws men," Doris said.
I "I can -see why, once you've seen her, you have to come back." "There are
ten thousand people down there," Dom said, pointing out the high volcanic
plains in the Elysium area. "They live in quarters which would give most
Earthlings claustrophobia. They breathe reconstituted air which they've made
themselves by breaking down the oxygen from rocks and what little water can
be pumped from the ground. They're dependent on Earth for most of their food
and manufactured materials. There are marvelous things on Mars, minerals,
jewels, metals. She'll never have to worry about over-
population, because she wasn't meant for man. But she can give to man. There's
enough raw material there to ease a lot of shortages back on Earth. And what
do we carry when we send a ship back? Fertilizer." "I've always thought Mars
policy was penny-wise and pound-foolish," Doris said. "We have the technology
right now to change the entire Martian environment," Dom said. "We could use
the hYdro engine to shift the two moons just a little, just enough to change
the motion of the planet to give more sun heat at the poles. The caps would
melt and the planet would be wetter, warmer, and that would make her almost
sel&sustaining." "Can you imagine the screams from the nature worshipers?"
Doris asked, with a laugh. "Can you imagine
PRESSURE MAN                        127 the lawsuits which would be filed if
the department an-
nounced that it was going to change the sacred ecology of an entire planet?"
"The battle cry would be, 'Lichens Have Rights,"' Dom said.
The Kennedy's huge powerplant was thrusting against her motion, slowing her.
Mars hung over the ship, huge, red, beautiful. Landing preparations went
smoothly. Although the ship was huge, she had the power to go in and come up
on her own in the light gravity of Mars. Neil put her down as if he were
handling a scout ship a fraction of her size. Men began to @offload the water,
which would strain the storage ca-
pacity of the tanks. It would be a long job, since existing pumping facilities
had been designed for much smaller quantities of water.
Dom introduced Doris to old friends, guided her through the museum to see the
scanty remains of the primitive extinct animal and plant life. The museum
always made him feet sad. It told its story only too well. Mars had once been
a living planet, both geologically and biologically. Scientists were still
discussing the cause of her death. Currently, the most favored theory pointed
to a varying sun. That school of theorists said that tens or hundreds of
millions of years in the past, the sun had radiated more energy. At that
far-distant thne, the water now encased in the polar icecaps had been free,
the atmosphere more dense, the whole planet wetter, allowing the development
of both plant and animal life.
Dom wasn't too happy with that theory. it could neither be proved nor
disproved. The nature of a star
is such that in a body the size of old Sol, energy re-
leased at the sun's core requires some eight million years to work its way to
the surface, where it is then radiated to the planets within minutes. Activity
at the
128                  Zach Hughes UVFM=1TW4P!V& represented what had happened
inside the sun millions of years ago and provided no clue as to the activity
at the core at the given moment. However, if Mars had been affected by a
change in the sun's energies, the Earth would have felt the same effects. Of
course, there was plenty of evidence of changing conditions on
Earth, but the evidence was subject to a variety of interpretations.
Depending on one's personal choice, fossil ferns a   'fid corals in arctic
areas could be explained in several different ways, solar variation and
continental'drift being the two most favored theories. Solar variation was in
current favor, since that theory also'served to explain the change in Mars
from a living planet to a desert of waste with lichens the only form of life
to be found when Trelawny first landed on the red sands.
Dom was not fully convinced of either theory to explain some things on Earth.
The presence of mam-
moths in the ice of both Siberia and Alaska, some frozen so rapidly that their
flesh was, after millions of years, used as food for sled dogs, had never been
explained by advocates of either theory. In fact, most scientists simply
choose to ignore the puzzle of the frozen mammoths.
Perhaps, Dom felt, the true explanation could involve a combination of both
factors, plus some things not yet theorized. He., himself, could not guess at
additional factors, but he believed that continental drift had a definite
part. The evidence cited by those who studied plate tectonics was very
convincing.
It was one thing to study the past on Earth, and another to see it in skeleton
form on Mars, to see the pathetic remains of life as evidence that something,
some terrible force, had turned a living planet into a dead one. The old,
romantic notions of dead civilizations on
PRESSURE MAN
129
Mars were long since discredited, but there had been life, life very similar
to that of the Earth, and all that life, except for some hardy lichens, had
been wasted.
Doris seemed to sense Dom's mood of melancholy. She suggested a meal and
coffee in the main cafeteria. It was good to be with people again, to hear the
talk, to smell their presence.
The meal was cultured protein, the coffee hot and strong. They chatted with
two phosphate miners seated at the next table, lingered over cigarettes, and
then made their way topside for a jumper ride back to the Kennedy. The
twenty-four-hour Martian day was endmg as they boarded. Ellen and J.J. were on
watch. They were eager to take their turn at going into the domes. It was
merely changing one closed environment for another, but it was a change from
shipboard life.
Alone on the ship, they sat in the control room, the view being better there,
had a glass of their own personal alcohol ration, watched the small moons grow
brighter in the swift darkness as the planet swung them mto nightside. In the
darkness, neither of them having activated the lighting svstem, Dom felt a
growing awareness of Doris' nearness.
She came into his arms without protest. Her lips were sweet. He felt a new
sense of possessiveness, a
sense of wonder. She was his, his girl, his wornan. The hostile world in front
of the viewport seemed to em-
phasize their aliveness. They were alone, only their lives, their two separate
entities, belying the dead world outside, the cold, airless surface. Far way,
their own
world was being torn apart, once again, in strife between men. Still farther
away was a bloated gas giant with a killing, crushing gravity field and
monstrous pressures. Strife and uncertainty behind them, danger ahead of them.
The kiss reaffirmed the fact that they
130                   Zach Hughes IMEMNCIMw@ moment at least, alive. But there
was an
agreement between them.
He pushed her away, his breath rapid, his pulse pounding. "Girl, you'd better
run for your life," he whispered. "No fair," she, said. "Don't try to force me
to have enough willpower for two." "Women are scarce on Mars," Dom said. "So
they make things as simple as possible. There's no waiting period for
marriage. We don't believe in wasting a single moment." "Wonderful," she said.
"Huh?" "All right, I'll make it perfectly clear," she said. "So that even a
man can understand. Yes." "Yes?" he asked. "Y-e-s," she spelled. "Yes."
"You're sure?" "Now you're sounding as though you're not sure," she said,
hitting him lightly with her fist. "Look, I feel very, very small and very,
very insignificant. I want reassurance. I guess I'm all female, because what I
need is the safety and the security of your arms around me.
He held her happily for a few moments. Then he contacted ground control and
stated his needs. The minister was aboard Kennedy within the hour, scarcely
giving Doris time to put on her best uniform. The brief ceremony was
witnessed, in the absence of the rest of Kennedy's crew, by two men from the
landing-pad staff. The bride was toasted in clear, cold water.
Once again they were alone. There was, at first, a shyness between them. They
were in Dom's quarters, since it was, as the captain's cabin, the larger. He
helped her move her few personal possessions into the room, they used another
bit of their wine ration, and
PRESSURE MAN
131
came together to g!ve mutual assurances against the long and lonely night
outside. She was more than he remembered and all that he'd ever dreamed. i In
the early morning Dom lay awake listening to her soft breathing. Now and then
she made a tiny little purring sound. He felt a great welling up in his chest,
and he smiled as he looked at her face. His eyes misted in sheer gladness.
The ship muttered and whispered around them. A servo cut in somewhere deep
down, and be could feel the sense of well-being which comes from being on a
living ship. The ship did have a sort of life. She functioned, giving herself
orders through the complicated circuits, the miles of wiring. She lived and
she allowed the crew to live. But only so long as man-made machinery did the
job of purifying air.
He felt a fear. Doris, beside him, stirred in her sleep and one of her long,
soft legs came over his, so smooth, so warm, so terribly vulnerable to the
harsh and uncaring emptiness of space. Doris lived, but she lived only because
the ship which he'd designed provided her with a suitable environment. As long
as his hull held out cold and vacuum, as ]on- as his hull resisted the
crushing pressures of the Jovian atmosphere, she would continue to live.
It was not a prophecy, It was not an omen. He didn't believe in premonitions.
The ship would take them there and it would bring them back. But had he made a
mistake? Should they have waited? Having known the little hot slicknesses of
her, the cling of her, the hunger of her lips and body, would he err on the
side of overcaution, thinking of her?
So it must have been, he thought, in the first days, when the first man looked
at his woman and desired her to the point of fear of losing her. So it was in
the dawn-age civilizations, when the first cities offered
132
Zach Hughes
some protection against the fierce and warring savages, Throughout history,
and in prehistory, a man looked at his sleeping woman and knew the same fears,
dreamed the same dreams, facing death but dreading its coming before the
appointed time. Dawn-age man protected his woman from the beasts, from the
desires of other men, and Dominic Gordon, lying awake in a huge spaceship on
Mars, vowed to protect his woman from the hostile environment and from other
men. He would protect her with fang and claw and with his skills, and he would
take her into the high pressure of the Jovian clouds and expose her to great
danger, and then if they lived they would face the renewed savagery of the
barbarians of Earth. How he would protect her he was not sure, but he would.
He would make a safe place for his woman, and for all women.
He went to sleep with fierce half-dreams of blood and killing, mentally
devastating Firsters and Savers and all others who insisted on turning his
planet into a bloody arena, fierce man dreaming of wrecking havod on other
fierce men.
As light grew on the eastern horizon the servos of the Kennedy compensated for
temperature changes in the hull. The sun, shrunken by distance, was still a
powerful force as it rose above the harsh and eroded mountains.
"I am shamelessly happy," Doris said.
The jumper sat atop the fifteen-mile height of the ancient crater, Olympus
Mons. "I will not feel guilty for being happy," she said. "I know," he said.
The news from Earth was bad. In the west, terrorists were gaining steadily.
The valuable space facility at DOSEWEX was besieged and was being sustained by
airlift. There was talk of evacuating DOSEWEX, to concentrate the defense in
the east. Should DOSEVVEX be abandoned, everything of value would have to be
destroyed. The waste would be horrifying. Moreover, with DOSEWEX gone. one
lucky hit on the Houston center would leave DOSE without communications with
its ships in space. JJ. sent down word to hold DOSEWEX at all costs.
DOSE was, of course, in command of the moon. A command post had been set up
there. To compensate for the possible loss of DOSEWEX, powerful commu-
nications equipment had been lifted from the Canaveral base, and it was now
possible for Kennedy to communicate directly with the command post.
Dom was surprised to find that J.J. was considered by those on the moon to be
quite powerful and very valuable. JJ. received regular reports on the
situation.
Althouah the situation was not good, it was enCOur-
134
Zach Hughes
aging that the vast masses of the people still seemed to be content to sit
back and watch without taking sides. Both sides were leaning over backward to
treat the populace with the utmost consideration. Refugees from battle zones
were living in more luxury than most of the citizens who had not been driven
from their homes. Both forces shared food and supplies and medical treatment
with their refugees. The alliance between the remnants of government and the
armed services had seized vast stores of materials and food and were less
strained than the rebels.
At times the fighting was deadly and fierce, but the real battle was being
fought in the minds of the uncom-
mitted masses. The propaganda flow from both sides promised milk and honey in
the future.
Dom knew exactly what Doris meant about feeling guilty. While the world faced
the crisis, he found the days of waiting on Mars to be the happiest of his
life. While they were not pulling watch they were free to explore. The trip to
the top of the planet's highest mountain was only one of several excursions
which they enjoyed while the water was being offloaded. Since a jumper is
self-powered by the heat of the sun, it was
not at all wasteful to travel. Dom was an old Mars hand, knew the best times
to view the huge rift system to get a maximum show of light and shadow, knew
the best vantage point atop Olympus Mons, and enjoyed it anew because of the
delight which Doris showed.
There was time, during the waiting period, to talk with the crew of the
Callisto Explorer, who had seen the alien ship dive into Jupiter. Those men
had seen the ship, had heard the weak signals which were still being
transmitted from just inside the gaseous atmosphere. On watch, Dom could speak
directly to the picket ship on duty out near the gas giant. While keeping
radio watch on the signals, the ship was taking at-
PRESSURE MAN
135
mosphere samples from the larger moons of Jupiter's thirteen-satellite system.
Dom often talked with the skipper.
The signal was too weak to be picked up by Kennedy's receivers, but the picket
ship could relay it. Dom made dozens of recordings for study. The alien was
broadcasting on one of the natural frequencies,
1420 megahertz. The signal was simple and brief, so brief it still defied
attempts at decoding. Still, he felt closer to the goal to be able to listen
to the relay from the picket ship.
In talking with crew who had done picket duty, Doris was impressed by the
words of one young spacer. "When you're in close," he said, "she swallows up
all of space and looms over your head so that you wake up in a cold sweat
thinking that she's come unstuck and is falling down on top of you."
Every man who had been near Jupiter had been awed by her.
One of the things Dom liked best about Mars was
the feeling of togetherness which permeated the population. Everyone felt the
friendliness-temporary visitors, spacers, permanent settlers, scientists. The
harshness of the surface, the millions of miles     which separated them from
home, the odd, small look of the sun, covering only two-thirds of the area of
sky    which an Earth-viewed sun covered, all seemed to draw people closer
together. In spite of the armed       guard which surrounded the Kennedy at
all times, it was difficult to believe that the Earthside war could affect
Mars. Dom expressed the belief that if a Firster fanatic could penetrate the
service and get all the way to Mars he would be imoressed that feel the sense
of accomplishment share@ by all spacers, would forget his beliefs and become
just a spacer. That he was wrong was evidenced by an attempt to attach a
limpet mine to the
136
Zach Hughes
Kennedy's number four port thruster by an enlisted spacer with twelve years'
service. Caught in the act, the man took two space marines with him into the
small but growing Mars Station Cemetery.
The incident seemed to kill the glow of contentment and happiness which Dom
had felt since Doris said yes that night in the main control room. To think
that the lunacy of Earth could contaminate Mars depressed him. He was glad
when the hold was closed and pressurized and the Kennedy once again stood
ready.
The longest leg of the journey lay ahead of them. Roughly, they had traveled
one half of an astronomical unit to reach Mars, about one half the distance
between Earth and the sun, or about forty-seven million miles. The distance
between Mars and Jupiter was
roughly three and three-quarters astronomical units, in the neighborhood of
three hundred and sixty million miles. When dealing with such figures the mind
refused to accept the vastness of space and tended to think of the journey in
terms of months. Distance becomes relative when expressed in terms of time.
Dom liked to remember that it had taken the pioneers almost as long to travel
from the midwest to the Pacific coast by wagon train as it now took a ship to
move from the orbit of Mars to the orbit of Jupiter. Kennedy, with her
unlimited power for acceleration, was at her best over long distances. She
could pick up speed faster, cruise faster, and slow faster than conventional
ships.
After a thorough inspection of the ship, although no Mars personnel bad
boarded her, they settled into the comfortable routine which had been
established during the last weeks of the run to Mars. Jensen's powerplant
pushed and then rested. Acceleration continued well past the midway point. A
picket ship was still on duty near Jupiter, and the watch on both ships, glad
for company in the vastness of space, talked back and
PRESSURE MAN
137
forth, using relatively low power as the distance between them grew steadily
less, so that their often informal conversations could not be monitored back
on Earth. .
At turnaround time, Neil and Jensen swung the mass
of the Kennedy and the reverse thrust began to kill the forward speed.
On Earth, the situation had reached an uneasy stability. Both sides had
suffered heavy casualties. The defense line was holding on the Chicago-Corpus
Christi line, and DOSEWEX was holding out. The propaganda war was still
raging, and the masses were beginning to mutter about the shortage of food and
consumer goods. Some of the most severe battles had been fought in the grain
belt of the great plains. Large areas of fertile farmland had been devastated.
There would be difficulty in planting spring crops.
It was no longer possible to brush off the senator from New Mexico with
contempt, for he had emerged as the man who was clearly in control of the
radical forces, and he was now more often than not referred to by his name,
John V. Shaw. He bad proved himself to
be not only a skillful organizer, but a brilliant military tactician. Shaw was
preaching the gospel of revolt to
the masses, promising to pull in all the slackers from space, to beat the
spaceship bulls into plowshares in
order to produce food under a new form of freedom. The exact form of this new
freedom was not spelled out. It was clear, however, that the senator's message
was a vital one as food supplies became more and
more scarce,
It seemed to the crew of the Kennedy that it was only a matter of time before
the hungry millions began to flock to Shaw's cause. Starvation is the most
powerful of persuasions, and vast segments of the metropolitan east faced
severe hunger as winter approached.
138
Zach Hughes
Time was critical. J.J. talked of a swift completion of their mission, a long
run home, an arrival during the Christmas season. "I think you're being
optimistic, JJ.," Dom said. "You're allowing only a short time for the descent
into the atmosphere, the location of the ship, and bringing her out." "We'll
do it," JJ, said. "It's a big planet," Art said. "We can home in on the radio
signal," J.J. said. "We won't have any trouble locating the ship." "There's
always trouble in a new situation," Neil said. "Keep in mind that we'll be
testing a new and untried ship under severe conditions." "What's to test?"
J.J. asked. "It's a very simple proposition. She does it or she doesn't. She
goes in. That much we know. She'd have to go in to test the hull, so why fool
around? We go in. If she doesn't implode, we come out. Why worry?" "That's
fine to say," Ellen said. "We will not dive in without testing the hull," Dom
said in a firm voice. JJ. looked at him. "I'm not going to lower myself to the
level of a Firster," Dom said. "I value my life. I value each life aboard this
ship. So we'H poke our nose in, test the compression qualities of the hull,
and then we'll lower in easy stages." "And if every little thing doesn't
please you?" J.J. asked. "My decision," Dom said. "I will take the
responsibility." "I just wonder if it would be worth going back if we fail,"
J.J. said. "It's human to cling to life even when there is no hope," Dom said.
"Especially if you've just been married," J.J. said.
Dom looked at J.J. levelly. "I resent that, J.J. My
PRESSURE MAN
139
private life is my own as long as it doesn't keep me from performing my
duties. I defy you to point out one instance of my private considerations
having affected my judgment or the performance of my duties." "Sorry, Flash,"
J.J. said. "I'm worried, that's all." "We all are,'-'Doris said.
Dom set the crew to work on dry runs of making the descent run. It was a
little early, but they were getting edgy and the rehearsals kept them busy.
Privacy time was cut. Dom and Doris deliberately avoided being alone together,
as if to prove to the others that their changed status did not affect
performance.
Three days before time to go into orbit around the gas giant, the Kennedy's
RDF locked onto the signal from the alien ship. It seemed to be a miracle that
the signal was still steady, still the same strength as it was so long ago
when the Kennedy was nothing more than a dream and some often-conflicting data
in the DOSEWEX computer. The fact that the ship was stiU down there, beeping
away, reinforced the theory that she was trapped and incapable of escaping the
gravitational and atmospheric fields of the giant planet. "If there is anyone
or anything aboard her," Art
said, "he, she, or it will be happy to see us.
Doris was very busy in those last days before going into orbit. She checked
and rechecked all data. The task of putting the ship into orbit and then
lowering her gently, oh so gently, into the fringe of atmosphere was Doris'
baby. Her fingers an       ata from the shipboard computer had to be right,
had to feed the right information into the automatics and to Neil.
They passed the last picket ship and received a good luck from the crew. As
space distances go, they were
right next door to the smaller ship, but they did not get a visual on her. The
picket ship would stay on orbit to
observe as Kennedy went down.
140
Zach Hughes
PRESSURE MAN
141
They were there. The mass of Jupiter covered half of space. Moons were visible
to the naked eye. The ship moved swiftly around the planet, subjected to ra-
diation, the electrical field, the gravity of the giant. Kennedy functioned
flawlessly.
Because of the speed of Jupiter's spin, and the vast forces of her gravity,
Kennedy would have to go in very, very hot. Power would be constant to
counteract the gravity. When last-minute drills had been performed there was
no formal order. The computer picked the time and Neil's hands did not touch
the controls as the ship began to spiral down.
She was dwarfed by the mass of the planet, a mass which measured two and a
half times as heavy as all the other planets of the solar system combined.
Slowly, slowly, she went down toward that roiling surface, speed and power and
rate of fall regulated by Doris' computer. Those inside her bad the feeling of
falling into a hell of bright yellow fire as they orbited on the
sunside and began to see with the naked eye the giant hurricane in the
southern tropical zone, the Giant Red Spot, blowing for centuries at a force
of hundreds of miles per hour.
The bands of atmosphere showed tremendous wind shears as atmospheric movement
tossed and buffeted the insignificant mass of the ship. Each of them was
aware, as the ship went down and down, that should
eir power at ,    e s ip wou     e seize   y sive gravitational force, yanked
through the thin layer of outer clouds to drop, pulled by a force of three
Earth gravities, the pressure outside building as they fell through a zone of
frozen ammonia crystals, then into liquid ammonia and the zone of colored
compounds which gave the atmosphere its distinctive yellow covering. They
would, as they were being pulled inexorably downward, pass frozen crystals of
ice and
then a zone of water vapor, and they would all be dead before the crushed
remains of the ship fell into the zone of liquid molecular hydrogen and
continued to be compressed as pressures mounted to three million atmospheres
at the transition zone between liquid molecular hydrogen and liquid metallic
hydrogen, and the temperature would be rising to melt the remains of the tiny
Earth ship and the even smaller, more thoroughly crushed Earth people. On a
model of the planet the size of an apple, the zone of operation of the Kennedy
could be represented by the thickness of the apple's skin. Below that very
thin layer of operations lay instant death as the hull imploded.
The size of the monster! It was psychologically suffocating. It swallowed the
whole of space from the viewports. It had the weight of a sun which failed. It
was of incredible mass. It loomed above them as down became up and they felt
dizzied. Ellen hid her eyes in her hands as the giant reached out for them
with pressure and gravity and electromagnetic discharges registered by the
sensors. The Kennedy went down near the orbit of the innermost moon, Amalthea.
The moon was above them now, and slightly ahead, the ship between the moon's
orbit and the uppermost layer of cloud. A vast discharge of electricity came,
lighting the area between the small moon and de planet, sound-
I            , sudden, startling, and, had the ship been struck, deadly. Again,
as Dom held his breath, the tremendous bolt leaped from planet to Moon. "I
think it's trying to tell us something," Neil said, in an awed voice. "Old
Jove, the god of lightning," J.J. said. "He's saying, 'Look on my majesty, you
puny mortals, and despair.' "
Dom was moved by the vastness of the Jovian mass. It was heavy over him,
seemingly over his head, and the Kennedy went down, measuring herself in a
thousand ways as she lowered. Hull sensors sent the first recognition of faint
traces of atmosphere. Slowly, slowly. She was doing well. Instruments worked
and measured and gave their readings and the computer hummed and now scattered
molecules of frozen ammonia made for a gradual lessening of vision. The
Kennedy continued to fall into a murky sea of crystals. Her hull melted
crystals. Temperature was going up, but it was well within operational levels.
"Level her off," Dom ordered, when the outside pressure was one Earth
atmosphere.
Neil took over from the automatics, to get the feel of the ship in case of
systems failure. The ship was in a stationary orbit, moving with the surface
rotation. Pressure was as predicted.
It was time to test one of the ship's most crucial weapons for doing battle
with the gas giant. Dom ordered two atmospheres in the living compartments. He
felt his ears pop as the pressure built. Huge pumps moved clean air from the
hold, and to take its place in the hold compartments, the poisonous atmosphere
of Jupiter was let in.
Satisfied that the internal pressure system was working properly, Dom ordered
a descent until pressure equalized. And then, time after time, the process was
repeated. In the murky atmosphere the ship saw only by her instruments,
keeping position directly above the alien ship, guided by the continuing
signal. That signal, that ship down there, that was the purpose of it all. It
had drawn them onward, had inspired a last-ditch crucial effort on the part of
the space industry. Only that signal and what was sending it justified the
cost of the
Kennedy, the risk involved, the use of scarce materials.
And the signal stopped when the Kennedy was only six atmospheres deep into the
clouds.
The Kennedy became, in that sudden silence, a dinosaur. She had no purpose.
"Check equipment," Dom ordered. "All check," Doris said. "Check manual," Dom
said. "Hold this position."
He himself ran a manual check on the receiver. It was operational. A radio
check with the picket ship confirmed that the signal from the alien had
suddenly ceased. "Damn," Dom said. "We were halfway there." That was in
distance, not in pressure. "We'll hold here for a few hours. Maybe it will
start up again."
Four hours passed, during which the ship functioned perfectly. There was no
break of the radio silence from the alien ship. "Maybe he heard us coming and
doesn't want company?" Doris asked. "No, it just went dead," J.J. said. "It's
a damned miracle it has lasted so long. The ship's still there." "For. all the
good it does," Dom said. "We have its position," J.J. said. "We can lower down
right on top of it." "Not likely," Neil said. "Even under power these winds
move us around, Without the signal it would be Only a guess to put us within a
hundred miles of her." "The descent is predicted on the computer," J.J. said.
"We can estimate corrections, We can get within a few miles and do a search."
"We might find her if we bad a hundred years to look," Dom said. "All we have
is time," J.J. said. "We have the power. We have air and supplies." "J.J., we
built this ship for stavinQ a limited time in
144                   Zach Hughes three thousand atmospheres," Dom said.
"After ten days I wouldn't want to bet against metal fatigue in the mush
bondings." "All right, we have ten days," JJ. said. "We can at least use it."
"We can at least gather some interesting data," Art said. "I want to point out
that we will be exposing this ship and her crew to unnecessary danger," Neil
said. "It is my opinion that going deeper into the atmosphere is now useless.
If I were in her alone I'd take her down to three thousand atmospheres just to
test the design, but I'm not alone. It's one thing to risk the life of a
professional test pilot in experimentation, another to risk the lives of a
crew." "We hold for one more hour," Dom said.
It was a tense hour, and when it was over JJ. paced the control room
fretfully. Dom had spent the hour with Doris, directing her through some
calculations. 'J.J.," he said, "if we had one chance in a thousand of finding
the ship I'd take her down, but I've run it through and the odds are a billion
to one against finding her. I've also done some calculations on the length of
stay at three thousand atmospheres. After eight days, the chances of failure
increase to a point of risk. I think we're worth more alive, and the ship is
worth something for the Mars run. In short, I'm giving the order to take her
up and out." "Then I am forced to ask you to relinquish your command," JJ.
said, "No," Dom said quietly. "I am in command. I built her and I know her
limitations." "You have no choice," J.J. said. "As your superior officer, I
hereby inform you that I am taking command. Mr. Walters, make preparations to
take her down to three thousand atmospheres."
"With all due respect, sir, I decline," Neil said. "I
don't agree that Captain Gordon should be removed from command."
J.J. was facing them, his hands behind his back. He looked down at his feet,
turned slowly, hands still clasped behind his back. He stood there, his back
to them, for a long time, and then he turned quickly, his hand moving to point
a small but deadly splatter gun at them. The weapon was designed for close-in
killing in delicate areas. The blast of multiple projectiles could be fatal to
anyone within a few feet, but there was not enough force behind the
projectiles to, for example, hole the hull of a ship. "I'm sorry it's come to
this," J.J. said. "But we're going to do the job we came out here to do." "Not
this way," Dom said. "You leave me no choice." "You're one against six," Neil
said. "You can't stay awake forever." "J.J.," Dom said, "put that thing away.
If you're so
convinced that we should go down, we'll go down. We came out here together.
We'll go down together." "You have my sincere thanks," J.J. said. "Gun or no
gun, we'll stay down no longer than seven days. Is that clear?" Dom asked. "I
agree,"J.J. said. "Is everyone in agreement?" Dom asked. "We take the ship
down to do what she was designed to do instead of risking someone's getting
killed if we try to overpower J.J.?" "I am shocked," Doris %aid, "but I'm for
-going down."
The others agreed. "Stations," Dom said. "We're going down. We won't come up
with anything but a few million cubic feet of
146                   Zach Hughes Jovian atmosphere in the hold, but I intend
to see that we do come up."
They did it slowly and carefully. The crew worked smoothly, the incident with
J.J. seemingly forgotten. Dom had to admit to himself that he'd wanted to go
down all along. Fully alive, moving into an area where man had never been, he
could almost feel the pressure on the hull as he rode herd on his instruments
and the ship sank, buffeted by winds of hundreds of miles per hour, only the
brute power of the drive holding the Kennedy against them. Only once did the
ship drop down a wind sheer before the automatics compensated.
The hull sensors told of the changing atmosphere. Frozen ammonia became liquid
ammonia, and then they were in the zone of the yellow compounds. Always,
inexorably, the pressure built. At two thousand atmospheres the air inside the
ship seemed to be sticky, heavy, oppressive. But the ship reacted sweetly to
the incredible forces, the mush-bonded seams compressing, folding, the
instruments recording within the limits of safety on all hull areas.
Signals went out from the ship, seeking, searching. They found nothing but
increasing density of atmosphere. The danger below was beyond imagination. The
distance traveled, as the ship orbited, matching the speed of rapid rotation,
was not a factor. The winds of Jupiter blew against them with a solid force.
And her gravity tugged on them, always ready to seize them, should the power
fail, and pull them toward the core of the planet.
The living compartments of the ship were now between two pressures, the
outside weight of atmosphere and the compressed bulk of Jovian atmosphere
inside the hold. Kennedy had multiplied her weight by taking in the Jovian
gases, but the power plant was not even strained.
PRESSURE MAN
147
At three thousand atmospheres Neil began a search,
4. 1.   .    .* back and forth at the same altitude. Preliminary analysis of
the atmosphere at three thousand atmospheres showed an interesting array of
hydrogen and carbon compounds, confirming advance theory that such matter made
up the bulk of the yellow layers of Jupiter. In order to obtain pure samples
of the yellow layer, the hold was bled and cleaned of the noxious ammonia
taken in at the upper levels.
The search continued without success. J.J. took a personal interest in venting
the poisonous gases and liquids from the hull, leaving only material collected
under maximum pressure in the yellow zone. He seemed to be much too cheerful
for conditions, for the search for the alien had produced nothing. When he was
satisfied that the huge hold contained only yellowlayer material he came into
the control room with a pleased grin on his face. "Flash, you can take her
home anytime you're ready," he said.
It had taken three Earth days to vent and fill the hold. "We've got a few days
left," Dom said. "We've got what we came for," J.J. said.
Dom wondered if the strain had blown his mind. "I don't see signs of an alien
ship in the hold," be said. "There is no alien," J.J. said. "Want to repeat
that?" Dom asked. "There never was an alien," J.J. said. "The signal came from
an Explorer class ship, a drone." "At three thousand atmospheres?" Dom asked,
examining J.J. closely. "At a mere ten atmospheres," J.J. said. "But the
picket ships measured-" Dom began. "What their instruments were rigged to
measure," J.J. said. "And the transmissions were halted on my orders."
148                   Zach Hughes
4@1'rn trying to understand some of this," Dom said gnmly. Neil was listening
with a frown on his face. "You're telling me we built this ship just to come
out
here and get a load of Jovian muck?" "We came out here to win a war," J.J.
said. "Now as I read your specifications, we can vent the load in the hold
down to an interior pressure of two thousand atmospheres and go home." "I'm
waiting for an explanation," Dom said. "Did you ever read the Bible?" J.J.
asked, grinning. "Some." "Remember the part about manna, my boy? Manna from
heaven?"
Well, he was obviously mad. Dom felt a heavy weight of sadness. It was all for
nothing. All the work, the brushes with death, the death of Larry, those
terrible moments when he felt sure the Firster bomb would go off in his hands
before he could jettison it into space, all of it had been done for the sake
of a man who was obviously mad.
Manna from heaven. Venus torn full-grown from Jove's brow. "Neil," Dom said.,
suddenly feeling very tired, "let's take her home." "Roger," Neil said,
looking at J.J. with a mixture of puzzlement and anger.
o 12 o
The ship faced one final test. She had passed many tests to bring them
millions of miles on a madman's quest. She had lifted thousands of tons of
water out of the moon's gravity well. She had brought them through space, and
she had resisted the force of pressure. The last test was as crucial as any.
If she, failed to fight her way upward and beyond the gravity of the gas
giant, all the others didn't count.
Until now her power had been used only to neutralize gravitational attraction
in orbit. Now she was called upon to overcome the pull and apply enough force
to the hull to move upward and then to attain escape ve-
locity, at more than twice the speed it would have taken her to leave Earth.
Most important, she had to stay in one piece, and, if the madman was to be
humored, she had to do it with thousands of tons of Jovian atmosphere in her
hold.
The computer gave angle of climb, increments of power, times, and the
automatics fed it into the engine. Neil followed the motions with his hands,
just to get the feel of it. There was a different pitch to the quiet
background hum inside her. The acceleration was slight at first. Only
instruments could feel it. The ship mushed slowly upward, Full speed could not
be attained in the drag of the atmosphere. The upward flight was slow and
tedious. It was monitored by thou-
150                  Zach Hughes sands of instruments ranging from
hull-temperature gauges to nutrino traps measuring the efficiency of the
hydroplant.
She was a pure thing of joy, Neil was thinking. He'd flown every type of ship
built in the United States and some that were built elsewhere. He'd never
flown anything like this one. "You're a helluva ship builder," he told Dom
with a grin.
Dom smiled ruefully. Being praised by a man like Neil was pleasant, but it was
small compensation. There was, of course, the pride which comes when your own
ideas and work bear fruit and prove a suc-
cessful design. There wasn't another ship like Folly.
Revealing, of course, that he was thinking of her not as the J.F.K., but as
Folly. J.J.'s Folly.
The tension in the. control room was not all engendered by-the ticklish task
of lifting the ship out of the atmosphere into clear space without straining
the laden bull, without burning a thruster tube with too much power. Actually,
the lifting went on so long it became routine. It was J.J.'s presence which
caused most of the tension. Dom felt a sick disappointment. He had not
realized, until the moment of J.J.'s surprise announce-
ment, that he'd been counting heavily on that alien
ship. There was a personal element in his disappointment; He had been duped
into going on the ultimate treasure hunt, a sublight drive the potential
reward, and all the time there had been no treasure. He had been promised the
stars, and the payload was Jovian soup, thick soup compressed inside Folly's
cargo hold.
In the ideal world, Folly could have been built in the interest of pure
research, to prove that it could be done, to obtain samples of Jovian
atmosphere, to merely add to knowledge. In an ideal world, however,
PRESSURE MAN
151
there would also be plenty of food. That situation had not existed on the
world for decades.
Idle thoughts as the ship lifted. From a long-range viewpoint, pure research
paid off. The hydrogen engine which powered the Folly bad roots in the early
space program. Photographs taken during the first Skylab experiment, a pure
research project, gave astrophysicists new and startling information about the
sun. Questions raised about traditional ideas of the sun's power way back in
the 1970s led to the breakthrough which allowed Folly to rise against the
force of Jovian gravity. Had not scientists doing pure research work at an
observatory in Arizona discovered that the sun's entire globe pulsated, the
theories which made the hydrogen drive a reality would have been left
unformulated. From a long-range point of view, Skylab was worthwhile, but even
then there were people who screamed against the expenditure and wanted,
instead, to buy butter, or welfare Cadillacs, for that group of non-
achievers who are always a festering portion of human, society.
Reactionary thinking, he told himself. The poor are
always with us. He was not right-wing enough to be able to forget them,
especially in view of the fact that he would soon be one of them, in the same
boat with the starving millions. Where had it all gone wrongg? All he wanted
was to work in space, perhaps do a little bit to help halt man's galloping
breeding, perhaps, eventually, to help man escape the overcrowded planet into
richer pastures.
The man who built the Folly was feeling guilty. Enough money had been spent
building her to expand the mining on Mars tenfold, to produce enough
phosphates to fertilize half of the farmlands of the world. An achievement in
pure science had come at the expense of many more needed projects. Once the
whole
152                  Zach Hughes
story of Folly was known, the impact would kill the space program. Even if the
civil war was won by government forces there would continue to be criticism of
Folly as long as man hungered for food.
For a moment Dom wondered if it wouldn't be best for the hull to fail or a
thruster to bum, leaving Folly to perish, never to be seen by human eyes
again. But to have Folly plunge into the depths of Jupiter would not erase the
knowledge that she had been built. Dead or alive, the ship, the ultimate
achievement of the DePartment of Space Exploration, would be the instrument
used by opponents of space spending to cripple the program for decades,
perhaps forever.
The man who had engineered Folly went to his cabin as Neil brought her out
into space through the thinning zone of frozen ammonia. From his bunk, he felt
the power which sent the ship swooping upward and outward past the lonely
moons, so powerful she did not feel the burden of Jovian soup in her hold.
He could not hide from his part in it. He went back into the control room, He
called the picket ship and said, "It's over. We're headed home. Do you have
fuel for Mars?" "Affirmative," came the reply. "Congratulations, LF.K."
Dom made a grimace and did not acknowledge. He could feel the acceleration. He
was tired. As far as he was concerned the ship could be put on auto and left
to her own devices. At the moment he didn't care much about anything. He was
thinking of the war, American killing American. He tried to gauge the impact
of the news that the Folly's mission, made possible by the expenditure of
billions, was a waste. The news could not be suppressed for long. An
organization which could plant a fanatic on Mars, DOSE's most secure
stronghold, could ferret out the news that Folly
PRESSURE MAN
153
had been sent on a fool's errand and bad come back with a load of noxious
things from deep inside Jupiter.
He went back to his quarters and fell heavily onto his bunk. Doris was still
at station and would be there until the flight plan was finalized and
double-checked. When he heard a knock on his door he didn't answer, but the
door was not locked.
J.J. stuck his head in. "Want to talk a minute, Flash?" "I'd rather not right
now," Dom said.
J.J. closed the door behind him. "It was a dirty trick, wasn't it?" "J.J.,
just get out, huh?" "In a minute." J.J. sat down. "Would it make you feel
better to take a poke at me?" "Don't tempt me." "I wouldn't even put you on
report," J.J. said. "Are you ready to listen, or are you still feeling sorry
for yourself?" "Do I have a choice?" Dom growled. "You got the idea, didn't
you?" "Yes," Dom said. "I got it. My God, J.J., you faked an alien ship and
spent billions of dollars to chase a
fairy tale." "I had to fake the ship," J.J. said. "I had to do something so
that practical types, like you, could relate to it. I thought the idea was
rather brilliant, didn't you?" "J.J., I'm damned tired. Why don't you go take
a nap?" "Who would have listened if I'd told them the real reason?" J.J.
asked. "It took a powerful incentive, like the prospect of finding a free
sublight drive, to get anyone to listen." "Yes," Dom said wearily.
154
Zach Hughes
"No need to put into Mars on the way home, huh?" "No." "We go in Moon Base,
darkside." "What difference does it make? Wherever we put her down she
probably won't ever lift off again." -
"She'll lift," J.J. said, "and dozens of others like her." "Go away," Dom
said. "Promise me one thing." "I don't know if I can." "Promise me that no
matter what you won't dump the cargo. Promise me that." "What difference does
it make?" Dom asked. "OK, we'll haul it back. It'll make a fine temporary
cloud when we dump it out behind the moon." "I've got something better to do
with the cargo," J.J. said. "Sure," Dom said, "you can supply the last two
living scientists with enough Jovian atmosphere to last the few remaining days
of their lifetimes, until the mobs catch them and tear their arms off."
J.J. was standing. "I can see you're a nonbeliever. Look up, boy. Peace and
plenty lie ahead."
Dom heard the click of the door. He dozed and was wakened by the communicator.
It was Neil. "J.J. is calling a crew meeting in the lounge. I thought you'd
want to listen." "Might as well," Dom said. He splashed water into his eyes
and walked heavily, still tired, through the half gravitv of the corridors. He
checked in at control. The ship was on auto. She was a good ship. Behind them,
visible on the stern viewers, was the mass of Jupiter. It was still an awesome
sight. He felt a flash of pride in having, in a small way, conquered the mass
of the second-largest object in the solar system, but his pride faded quickly.
PRESSURE MAN
155
He made one final visual check on instruments. The autos were clicking and
humming nicely, making mere man unnecessary, running the ship with a precision
which man could never match. He walked toward the lounge slowly, dreading to
see J.J. reveal his madness further.
The door was open. He halted just outside and heard Doris laugh. Neil was
seated so that he could face the lounge instrument board, thus keeping his eye
on important ship's functions. Doris was standing beside J.J. at the bar,
serving drinks from J.J.'s personal bottle. They were all there except Jensen.
Dom stood outside and watched. Ellen accepted a drink. Doris laughed at
something Ellen said. They all drank and laughed. Nero, fidding while Rome
burned around him. Dom didn't want to face it.
Still, sooner or later the others would have to bear the full story. He went
in, resolved to see it through, then he chamed his mind. Jensen wasn't there,
and if they were not all there to hear it it would be told again, and one more
telling was all Dom could stand.
He had passed through control only a couple of minutes before, but it was
automatic to look around. His eyes made a scan and halted on a trouble light.
Alerted, he punched the scan and was relieved to find that the problem was
with nothing more important than the venting system in the hold. It wouldn't
hurt to lose a few tons of Jupiter into space. He activated the
self-examination system. The problem was in the control-room panel. He lifted
a section and snelled burning insulation. It was nothing serious. All
important systems were redundant. Even the venting system had backup. Down in
the atmosphere, the venting system was all-important. He punched a complete
check and got a second trouble light. Strange, but still not serious. When a
third system went red in the stern section, a
156-                 Zach Hughes system designed for manual venting in the
unlikely event that both venting systems went haywire, he got suspicious. The
odds against two systems going out together were astronomical, but it had
happened in space. For three to go without help was a little weird. He was not
overly concerned yet, as he went toward the stem with the double purpose of
finding Jensen and of checking to see what the hell had happened to the
venting system. It was not a critical malfunction, or he would have alerted
the crew. The shorted circuits in the central control room could be repaired
easily, and the other malfunctions could be repaired at leisure, since the
venting system would not be needed until they had reached the moon and
received word to dump the useless cargo into space. He would merely check back
in the stem, gather up Jensen, and then return to the lounge to allow J.J. to
tell his pathetic story.
His deck shoes made his progress silent in the long corridor alongside the
hold. The safety doors leading into the aft compartments were closed. He went
into the lock, opened the last set of doors, and stepped into the forward
engine compartment. Jensen was facing him, a spatter gun pointing its flared
muzzle at his chest. Behind Jensen his board showed the venting system in red.
Now Dom knew that if he could look out, he'd see the contents of the hold
spewing out under great pressure into space. "What the bell, Paul?" he asked,
halting in midstride, careful not to make a sudden move. It was the second
time in recent days he'd been in front of a spatter gun. "You're supposed to
be in the lounge," Paul said. "Paul, isn't one nut on board enough?" He smiled
disarmingly. "What's your problem?" "I rather liked you, Dom," Jensen said,
and Dom saw the preliminary tightening of Jensen's finger as be
PRESSURE MAN
157
threw himself aside, hit the floor rolling as a spatter load smacked deck and
bulkhead. He took a pellet on
the ankle as the gun,fired a second time, and he was still moving, no pain yet
to indicate a hit, as he lifted a cleaning robot and, falling away behind a
console, threw the heavy robot at Jensen. Jensen lifted his gun hand to try to
block the robot. It struck him a glancing blow. Dom was diving toward him,
moving up and un-
der the gun, as the robot clanged off the deck and Jensen started lowering the
gun to take aim. Dom had his hand on the wrist of the gun hand as they went
down.
Jensen was surprisingly strong. Once the gun ex-
ploded inches away from Dom's ear, leaving his ear
ringing with the concussion. With a climactic effort, he
crun hand to the deck. Jensen landed a blow pinned the g and Dom saw stars for
a moment as his nose flattened and started spewing blood. Jensen pulled free,
leaving the gun on the floor. Dom got to his feet. Jensen was
standing by the control panel. "Make a move, Gordon," Jensen panted, "and the
whole ship goes." He had his hand on the manual drive control. "I've got the
safeties bypassed. I can overload the plant and she'll become a real bomb."
"You'll die with the rest of us," Dom said. "I don't want anyone to die."
"What do you want?" "A couple of hours. Just long enough to empty the hold."
"Why is that so damned important?" Dom asked. "Are you crazy, too?" "Why?
Because the whole system is corrupt," Jensen said. "Because it's time for a
change." "You've blown your cover for nothing, Paul," Dom said. "But then I've
always thought Firsters were
crazy
"You're the stupid one," Paul said. "Now listen. I
158                   Zach Hughes don't want to die, not now that we're
winning, but I will if necessary. I want you to walk slowly over there, pick
up the gun by the barrel, and hand it to me." "May I say something first?"
:,Make it quick." 'Paul, I don't give a damn if you empty the hold. Can you
believe that? I couldn't care less. I'm not about to die just to try to save a
sample of Jupiter's atmosphere. It would be interesting to analyze it, but I
don't want to die either, and especially not for scientific curiosity. So do
me a favor and don't panic, huh? Don't do anything silly. You're probably
right when you say you're winning. Once this ship gets back she'll probably
never go into space again. J.J. did more to kill space than all of you
Firsters have done in fifty years. When you take over the country, you should
give J.J. a medal. The point is, the damage is done. Let's all go home
together, huhT' "Do as I say, then." "All right. I'm moving slow and easy. No
tricks." He picked up the gun and began to straighten. "One quick move and
I'll blow her," Jensen said. "Yes, I know," Dom said. "I'm moving slow." He
walked very slowly, holding the gun by its muzzle in front of him. Jensen
watched nervously, licking his lips. He kept one hand on the lever which, if
be real-ly had bypassed the safeties, would send the drive into a cataclysm
which would make the Kennedy into a small temporary star. "Here it is," he
said, "Take it." Jensen looked down, leaned slightly forward. Off balance,
he'd have to make two moves to throw the level to full on. No man alive could
make two moves while Dom was making one. Dom flipped the gun, caught it, and
triggered it, even as Jensen saw and tried to recover. The charge took
Jensen's hand off at the wrist, the bloody stump com-
PRESSURE MAN                       159
pleting the move which would have killed them all. Jensen's mouth opened to
scream. The sound began, and in his shock and pain he showed good training,
for his other arm reached for the lever, almost contacted the lever before
Dom's second shot took him full in the face. There was no need for a third
shot.
Dom stood for a moment, looking down to see that death was not instantaneous.
The creature writhing in terminal pain no longer looked like a man.
Dom made a quick survey of the venting board. Only a fraction of the cargo had
been dumped. He closed the vents and began checking to see if Jensen had
really bypassed the safeties on the drive. The door opened, and Neil and J.J.
rushed in. "We're OK," Dom said. "Just don't try to add power until we've done
some repairs." "What happened?" Neil asked. "He was dumping J.J.'s Jovian
so-Lip," Dom said. "He was a Firster."
With a cry of alarm, J.J. leaped to the venting board, checking the contents
of the hold. When he saw
that only a small part of the cargo was gone, he said, "I owe you again,
Flash." "I didn't do it to save your soup," Dom said. "I did it because I was
not about to leave my life and the
lives of the others in the hands of a nut." "You'll get that promotion,
Flash," J.J. said, "Go go hell," Dom said. "You and Art clean. this up." He
indicated the body. "I'll help Neil make repairs."
Ellen pitched in and was not a bad band with a tool.
The work gave Dom something to take his mind off J.J.'s madness. When they
were finished, several hours later, he was tired and dirty and wanted a bath
and ten
hoursi sleep. He was almost into the second half of the I)ro.vram when J.J.
came in, uninvited.
160
Zach Hughes
"Jensen is in cold storage. There'll be an inquiry when we get home."
Dom nodded. "I've spent some time in the galley, Flash." Dom sat up. J.J.
extended a tray from a server
which had been concealed behind him. Dom took a cup of coffee. "Sugar, cream?"
J.J. asked politely.
Dom shook his head. "Try this with it," J.J. said, lifting the top of a silver
server. On the tray inside were small pieces of some-
thing which looked very much like butter. "What is it?" "Just try it." J.J.
picked up a small piece and popped it into his mouth.
Dom picked up a piece and looked at it. It had a slightly grainy texture. It
had the spongy feel of a good, rich bread. He nibbled it tentatively, then
took a bite and chewed thoughtfully. It was unlike anything he'd ever eaten.
It had a wholesome, hearty taste, a pleasing richness. "Do you want to listen
to me for a minute now, Flash?" J.J. asked, grinning broadly. "J.J.," Dom
said, "I have to admit that you have my full attention."
o 13 o
Carbohydrates are not the -most healthful of foods, I           a major
portion of the diet, but a hunwhen t ken as gry man doesn't concern himself
with nutrition, only with filling his belly. Carbohydrates are easily utilized
by the body. They can supply a quick burst of energy, especially if rich in
sugars. The blood sugar level rises
immediately, and the eater feels a surge of energy.
Rationing was necessary at first, but, when added to the dwindling store of
food stocks under the control of the government, the tons of carbohydrates
which were
ferried from the moon to Earthside turned the tide in the battle for the
stomachs of the people.
At frst, not too much care was taken about sanitation. Foodstuff was being
delivered to fighting men on
short rations and to civilians who didn't care too much about cleanliness, as
lot,-- as the roughly carved chunks tasted good.
Later, as the country began to come back to normal and the forces of the Shaw
Alliance were gradually pushed back into southern California and exterminated
ruthlessly, the stuff was delivered in sanitary wrappings, carefully weighed,
but available in plenty.
By the time Admiral Dominic Gordon returned from
Jupiter with another load of raw material, there was a functioning government.
Small amounts of the foodstuff went a long way, because it was rich. When
released
162                  Zach Hughes from the pressurized hold of the John F.
Kennedy, the stuff expanded into tons and tons of richness.
The space industry had new life. War damage slowed the recovery, but space was
a high-priority field. A second Kennedy class ship was being built out beyond
the moon. Plans for the ship were given to the governments of the U.K., Japan,
Germany, and the U.S.S.R., and within months they had their own tankers under
construction. There was plenty of room out beyond the moon.
It was not all generous and selfless, the donation of the research which went
into the Kennedy, and the distribution, without cost, of tons of rich
carbohydrates to India, Africa, and Asia. No one gets something for nothing,
and the price was dictated by a hard-nosed U.S. government operating with a
temporary Congress of only fifty-two members, one man from each state, more
than half of them military men. Before a countruy got the Kennedy, that
country instituted a very tough program of birth control. Before a
nonindustrial country received food, the governments provided heavy penalties
for unlicensed births. The freedom to breed was, very definitely, put into
cold storage, and when starving millions protested, food shipments were cut
off until the starving millions saw the light and obeyed government edicts to
use birth control. On the New York Stock Exchange, the stocks of companies in
the birth-control field shot out of sight.
Parliamentary democracy was not popular in the United States. The politicians
who had sat for centuries in the balls of government without solving even the
most pressing problems were sent home to work the fields to help restore
American agriculture, for the manna from heaven made an excellent fertilizer.
Actually, only a few of the ex-movers and shakers did manuai labor, but many
fancied themselves to be
163 PRESSURE MAN
gentlemen farmers, and it made a good story when it was told to the press by
J.J. Barnes, Minister of Supply of the Second Republic.
Admiral Gordon was not totally satisfied with the new government in
Washington, but it was better than anything the country had known since the
last of the bard-nosed American Presidents, Harry Truman, died in the middle
of the twentieth century. Dom began to have hope, as he talked to
traditionalists in the serv-
ices, that a total military dictatorship would be avoided, and that a measure
of freedom would be maintained, to be expanded upon in the future. Never,
however, would something so precious as a vote be ex-
tended to people steeped in ignorance and indolence. The right to vote would
be available to all, but it would be earned, and not by owning money or
property. The vote could be exercised only by those who, by written test,
demonstrated a working knowledge of the choices of free men. The franchise
would be available to any person if it was earned, but it was not a God-given
right. Future elections would not be won by the man who looked best on
television, or by a man who got votes because his father and the voter's
father had been Publicrat all their lives.
Admiral Neil Walters took the Kennedy on her third trip to Jupiter after
completing flight tests on the second of the huge tankers. Admiral Gordon
raced him there on the New Republic, the Kennedy's sister ship. To his
pleasure, the old girl beat her younger sister into orbit by two hours and
thirty-two minutes.
It was a long trip to Dom, for Doris was Eartbside, designing a computer which
would link qualified voters to a referendum center in Washington. By the time
be
got back to the moon, ten million citizens had qualified, and were in a
position to let their voices be beard on all questions, not merely who was to
sit on the
164                  Zach Hughes throne of power. An entirely new form of
government of the people and by the people was slowly being put into effect.
When she met the shuttle which took him down, she was in full dress uniform.
Dom had never seen       her look more beautiful. He found her to smell and
 feel equally wonderful as be seized her in a bear hug    and lifted her from
her feet. He had only one plan. It involved privacy and Doris. And, in the
future, if    she didn't go, he didn't go. "You're not being dignified,
admiral," Doris said. tugging at her tunic. "And we're on camera."
Dom looked up into the eye of a television camera. "Again?" he asked. "This
one is special," Doris said. "The media have been released from censorship.
We're operating with a free press again, and the network wants to do a full
documentary on the first flight of the Kennedy." "Later," Dom said, seizing
her arm and trying to lead her away. "There are orders from on high to
cooperate," Doris said. "J.J.?" Dom asked. She nodded. "Oh, hell," he said.
"Let him be interviewed. I'm takingvou home."
But he was blocked by another camera crew and a young woman. "Admiral Gordon,
we won't take much of your time." "All right," Dom said, "Let's get on with
it." "We'd like to do one segment of filming on the construction site," the
young lady said. A third tanker was taking shape out on the moon. "We can do
that after you've had a chance to rest from your trip." "You're all heart,"
Dom said.
John Marrow was to conduct the interview with Dom. He cornered Dom. "I think
you'd like to know
PRESSURE M,4N
165
what goes before," he said. "It'll only take a minute." He placed Dom in front
of a portable monitor.
The introduction to the documentary opened with dramatic closeup shots of
Jupiter. The Kennedy was superimposed against the gas giant. Marrow's voice
was talking about the state of the world at the time of the Kennedy's first
voyage and of the brave men and women who set out aboard an untested vessel on
a mission which would change the world. "Here's where we come in," Marrow
said. "We're on." He faced the camera. "And now a third tanker of the Kennedy
class is nearing completion. As she takes shape, out beyond the moon, we have
with us the man who designed the original Kennedy, a man who has just returned
from his third expedition to Jupiter. His friends call him Flash Gordon."
"You're not my friend," Dom said. "To you it's Admiral Gordon." "Cut," Marrow
said. "I'm sorry, admiral. Shall we try again?" He went through his
introduction. "And now, Admiral Gordon, can you tell us the results of your
latest trip to Jupiter?" "We brought home the bacon, same as before,"Dom said.
"An apt phrase, admiral, for in a sense that's exactly what you did, isn't
it?" "That's what I said." "For, indeed, the hold of the New Republic contains
enough material to furnish food for millions of people." "To be specific," Dom
said, "the hold contains several hundred thousand tons of carbonigenous cloud
from the three-thousand-atmosphere layer of the planet Jupiter." "Now, Admiral
Gordon, let's go back to the beginning, when you and J.J. Barnes were
designing the original Kennedy."
166                  Zach Hughes "J.J. had nothing to do with designing the
ship," Dom said. "He was project head. The design was done by me and my team,
which included Larry and Doris Gomulka-" "Cut," Marrow said. "Let's go back to
'let's go back to the beginning.' Roll 'em. Let's go back to the beginning,
admiral, to the time when you and your team were designing the original
Kennedy. I understand that you did not know the true function of the ship. Is
that true?" "We were told that there was an alien ship inside the atmosphere
of Jupiter," Dom said. "Is it true that only one or two men knew the true
purpose of the first expedition?" "I don't know how many," Dom said. "J.J.
Barnes knew." "But you, admiral, soon saw, once you were down in the
atmosphere, that J.J. Barnes was a man of true vision, a man with brilliant
insight and wisdom?" "I thought he was crazy," Dom said. "You no longer feel
that way, I'm sure." Marrow laughed. "I still think he's a nut, but an
inspired and very lucky nut. He took a gamble and it paid off. It was a
brilliant gamble and we owe a lot to J.J." "Would you cast your vote for J.J.
Barnes as President of the United States?" "No," Dom said. "Cut," Marrow said.
"What the fuck kind of a question is that?" Dom demanded. "Don't you know that
J.J. filed for the Presidency in the next election?" Marrow asked. "No."
"Would you vote for him?" "No."
PRESSURE MAN
167
"We'll leave that out," Marrow said. "Roll 'em." He thought for a minute. "Are
you a qualified voter, Admiral Gordon?" "Not yet. I'll probably have to have
my wife c6ach me to pass the test."
Marrow was forming another question when Dom interrupted. "Did J.J. line this
up so that I would give him a testimonial as a candidate?" "Let 'em roll,"
Marrow said. "We'll cut it out later." He changed tactics. "As the man who
designed the Kennedy and was her captain on her first voyage, could you,
Admiral Gordon, give us your explanation of what some people call a miracle?"
"Well, it wasn't really a mi racle," Dom said. "It came at the right time,
and that made it seem miraculous. The materials were there. We merely had the
hardware to go get them and put them to use. The most puzzling part of it, to
most people, is actually the simplest. That part of the miracle is repeated
over and over, every day, somewhere on Earth. When the air is overcharged with
vapor, the vapor condenses and falls as precipitation. If you overcharge an
atmosphere with the proper amounts and the proper compounds of carbon and
hydrogen, then the precipation will be in the form of carbon-hydrogen
compounds, or carbohydrates." "Or manna from heaven," Marrow said. "The
ancient Jews called it that," Dom said. "The Talmud said bread rained from
heaven. In Icelandic legend, people ate the morning dew; Buddhists called it
heavenly oil, perfume, and ointment. It came in a time of troubles, and was
called a miracle, just as it comes to us in a time of trouble. The only
difference is that instead of a god or goddess bringing it to us, we went out
and got it." "Yes, thanks to the foresight of that great man, J.J.
168
Zach Hughes
Barnes," Marrow said, smiling directly into the camera. "Thanks to Immanuel
Velikovsky," Dom said. "Who is long dead." "Ah, yes," Marrow said. "That's why
the third ship is to be named the Velikovsky," Dom said.
Much later, Dom lay in a hammock watching the sun set over the Gulf of Mexico.
It was a lovely evening. He felt good. The warm softness of a summer evening
caressed his skin. An empty drink glass was in his hand, and he was trying to
work up enough energy to go inside and fill it when Doris came out. "Hey,
admiral," she called. "Your interview is on."
He ambled in. He saw himself standing beside John Marrow. He grunted and went
to mix a drink, but he was human so he came back to see himself as others saw
him. However, he couldn't keep his eyes on his own face, because Doris was
standing behind him, looking quite nice. "You look good in living color," he
said. "You look sleepy.
441 was." "There are nuts and there are nuts," Dom was saying. "Velikovsky was
a nut who lived and wrote in the middle part of the twentieth century.
Briefly, he evolved a theory, by bringing together information from hundreds
of ancient writings-" in. "Material which was highly suspect," Marrow put
"Suspect only because of the limitations of early writing," Dom said. "Take
the Bible, for example. it was written in Hebrew. Hebrew is a primitive and
very inexact language. In Hebrew, as in most ancient languages, one word can
mean several things. Thus, depending on the translater, you can read just
about anything you want to read into the Bible or any othe-r
writings from the early times. Shortly after Velikovsky's time, for example, a
German used the same sources to prove to a lot of people that Earth had been
visited by spacers from another planet. You pays your money and you takes your
choice. Velikovsky had a slight advantage with thinking people, because he
proved to be right in a couple of predictions. He predicted the
higher-than-estimated surface temperature on Venus." "Doesn't that higher
surface temperature on Venus play a vital part in Velikovsky's theory?"
"Velikovsky said that Venus was thrown out of the planet Jupiter into an
erratic orbit which brought her into near collision with both Mars and the
Earth," Dom said. "At the time of the Exodus, and again in the time of Joshua,
in the Bible," Marrow said. "But the Velikovsky theory didn't account for all
known phenomena," Dom said, "so it was treated as a rather scary and very
harebrained idea. It was largely forgotten." "But not by J.J. Barnes," Marrow
said. "Yes," Dom said, "Velikovsky's theory was that the carbonigenous clouds
torn out of Jupiter by the planet Venus made carbohydrates fall onto Earth
during the moments of near collision. One nut iremembered another nut and we
went off to Jupiter and found it to be, truly, a land of milk and honey." "At
this moment," Marrow said, "a cargo of car-
bonigenous cloud from Jupiter is being pumped into a
vast cloud chamber on the moon. There, the carbohydrates will precipitate out,
be shaped into loaves, loaves which you and I will be eating in the near
future." "Well," Dom said, "that's that." He switched off the set.
170                  Zach Hughes
"He's an insufferable little man," Doris said. "I don't want to talk about
him," Dom said. "Would you like to review a little history to get ready for
the voter's test?" "Not now." "Something is on your mind," she said. "You," he
said. "Velikovsky." "I understand the first," she said, with a leer. "Was
Velikovsky right?" "At least about the properties of the Jovian atmosphere."
"Was it a lucky guess?" "He doesn't explain everything, of course," she said.
"You're thinking about those frozen mammoths, aren't YOUT9 "He's the only one
who even had a good guess about them." "Perhaps it's good that everything
can't be ex-
plained," Doris said. "It leaves us something to worry about and something to
learn, a little bit at a time, so that we won't sit around and think about
what you're thinking about all the time."
He grinned. "I'll get around to that." He stood and looked out a window. "Mars
was a living planet once.
The sun may have been hotter, the planet was certainly wetter. A change in
orbit would explain why she died, and Velikovsky said Mars had troubles with
Venus before she settled down into a stable orbit. VeRovsky uses the changes
in Earth calendars to make some good points. People who had good math seemed
to make silly mistakes about the length of the day and changed their calendars
later. And why, in all of the primitive races, was there a fear of comets?"
"Are you leading up to something?" she asked. "Envision the orbits of Pluto
and Neptune."
PRESSURE MAN
171
"Yes, I see what you mean," she said. "Pluto actually comes inside the orbit
of Neptune at one point." "Will there ever be a collision? Pluto's a small
planet. If he got knocked off his orbit and came cruising across the orbits of
the inner planets, what would happen'.7" "They're not in the same plane, Pluto
and Neptune, but I think you have my attention. I'll do some calculations. And
that takes care of Velikovsky for the mo-
ment. What about taking care of me?" "I want to do some research," he said.
"Can you get me all the observations of the outer planets? Figure a
cost on taking one of the new hydropower scouts out there at the next
conjunction. I think it's within the next three years." "You've been thinking
about this for some time," she said. "Do you think the two of us can handle
one of the new Explorer class scouts?" "A second honeymoon to Pluto," she
said. "I'm un-
derwhelmed. Don't you have any immediate work I could, ah, help you with?"
She stood and looked into his eyes. She was dressed in shorts and balter. The
very feminine spread of her hips reminded him that he did have immediate plans
for her.
Pluto would have to wait.
ZACH 14UGHES is the pen name of Hugh Zachary, who, with his wife Elizabeth,
runs a
book factory in North Carolina. Hugh quit a
timeclock job in 1963 and turned to writing full-time. He is the author of a
number of well-received science fiction novels, and together with Elizabeth,
he has turned out many fine historical romances, as well as books in half a
dozen other fields.
Hugh Zachary has worked in radio and tv broadcasting and as a newspaper
feature writer. He has also been a carpenter, run a charter fishing boat, done
commercial fishing, and served as a mate on an anchor-handling tugboat in the
North Sea oil fields.
Hugh's science fiction novel, KILLBIRD, is available in a Signet edition.