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There was a brief ceremony of farewell, the doors of the airlocks were closed, the careful check-out was gone through, and the driving projectors of the Sirius lifted both great vessels up the shaft, slowly and easily. And after them, as long as they could be seen, stared the thousands of Callistonians who thronged the great shaft's floor.
Half a dozen crews of check-out men were swarming about her, inspecting her engine and fuel supplies, riding up the gantry crane to her entrance lock, and guiding the great cargo nets from the loading crane into her afterhold. High up on her hull Dal Timgar could see a golden caduceus emblazoned, the symbol of the General Practice Patrol, and beneath it the ship's official name: GPPS 238 LANCET
Julia dashed into the Osco employees' entrance and punched in one second before four o'clock. Accomplishing her day's goal of being on somebody's payroll, she decided to catch her breath by sneaking a smoke in the restroom. She caught Rhonda's eye at the check-out counter, who gave her a smile and a nod that meant: "Join you in a second." Kurt, aka.
"Accumulators!" "700,000 kilofrank-hours all x." Having thus checked and tested every function of his department, Breckenridge plugged into "Captain," and when the green light went on: "Chief pilot check-out all x," he reported briefly. "All x," acknowledged the speaker, and the chief pilot unplugged.
"If they do pick up anything, it'll sound like chop suey," Tom ended with a chuckle. The boys submerged in the test tank and proceeded to give the new underwater communication system a thorough check-out. It worked perfectly. Ten minutes later Tom and Bud clambered out again, dripping wet but well satisfied.
"Upper lights and lookout plates all x," the second assistant reported, and other assistants came to attention as the check-out went on. "Lower lights and lookout plates!"
Breckenridge studied his triplex chronometer intently, then unplugged and glanced around the control room, in various parts of which half a dozen assistants were loafing at their stations. "Control and power check-out Hipe!" he barked. "Driving converters and projectors!" The first assistant scanned his meters narrowly as he swung a multi-point switch in a flashing arc.
Blackhawk and I had better start construction on this device immediately, without waiting for you to complete the check-out. That may save us invaluable time." "Of course," said the captain. "What assistance will you need?" "Of the greatest priority," replied Ishie gravely, "is access to the machine shop. The solar flare should be about wearing itself out." "Oh ... of course. It may be."
Slowly Mike inched the jet power up, and the speed and "gravity" of the rim rose from 0.009 to 0.039 to the pre-scheduled 0.15 of a gravity two RPM at which she would remain until a thorough test schedule over several days had been accomplished. Later tests would put the rim through check-out tests to as high as 1.59 gee, but "normal" operation had been fixed at two RPM.
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