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Updated: June 12, 2025
We made a telescope mounting once, for an observatory in South Africa, but compared to this gadget we worked on that one blindfolded!" "Pilot gyros, eh?" said the co-pilot. "That's what the waybill said. But if they were all right when they left the plant, they'll be all right when they are delivered." Joe said ruefully: "Still I'd feel better riding back there with them."
They were especially entitled to be the crew of this first supply ship. When the Platform was being built, its pilot-gyros had been built by a precision tool firm owned by Joe's father. He'd gone by plane with the infinitely precise apparatus to Bootstrap, to deliver and install it in the Platform. And the plane was sabotaged, and the gyros were ruined.
And Mike put the device through its paces. Mike left the gyros spinning so that the main axis pointed at the sun, invisible beyond the Shed's roof. And then all four of them watched. It took minutes for this last small test to show its results.
Inside the ship Tom and Johnny strapped down while Greg made his final check-down on the engines, gyros and wiring. The cabin was a tiny vault, with none of the spacious "living room" of the orbit-ships. Tom leaned back in the accelleration cot, and listened to the count-down signals that came at one minute intervals now.
"Not the way this tub is lurching around. They've got our main gyros, and the auxilliaries aren't powerful enough to steady us. Another blast or two could send us spinning like a top, and we'd have nothing to stabilize us...." There was another flash from the Ranger's hull, and the ship jerked under their feet. "Well, we're a sitting duck here," Greg said. "Maybe those engines will still work."
"It's really the other way about, sir," objected Joe. "The Chief and Haney are pretty good, and Mike's got brains " The Major moved impatiently. "I am looking at this from a security standpoint," he said. "I am trying to make it plainly useless to attack the gyros again. Duplicates will be in production at your father's plant. There will be three men repairing the smashed ones.
The pilot gyros were critical devices. They had to be on board the Platform when it took off, and they took months to make and balance. There had been extra pains taken to prevent their arrival! "I'm dumping gas now," said the pilot into the microphone, "and then coming in for a belly landing." The ship flew straightaway. It flew more lightly, and it bounced a little.
Joe said: "Yes, sir. The balancing of the gyros can, which was the longest single job. But anything can be made quicker the second time. The patterns for the castings are all made, and the bugs worked out of the production process." "You will explain that to your father," said the Major heavily. "Your father's plant will begin to duplicate these ah pilot gyros at once.
The ship's gyros whined and squealed as Joe jammed on their controls. The little ship spun in emptiness. Its bow turned and pointed down. The steering rockets made their roarings. Joe found himself panting. "The rocket's rising faster than we are. It's been gaining altitude maybe two minutes. It's lighter than when it started but it can't stop less than a minute, anyhow so we duck under it "
Joe said restlessly: "I want to see all this, Sally, and maybe anything else I do is useless, but I've got to find out what happened to the gyros I was bringing here!" Sally said nothing. She turned, and they moved across the long, long space of wood-block flooring toward the doorway by which they had entered.
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