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"What do you mean?" Jerry choked out for them both.
"Here is what we are going to do."
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6
LOATHSOME GARNISHEE AND A MINDLESS HUSK
"Before I realized I was an American, you will remember that I was a secret
Soviet agent. Some strange things happened then, let me tell you, but that is
another story altogether. But I did a lot of training in Siberia, and on one
secret mission there I took an advanced degree in brain surgery, which had to
do with something else, but while I was working at the underground hospital in
Novaya Zemlya, I got to chatting with the other doctors, you know, sort of
talking shop, and they showed me some things they were working on. One thing I
remember was deep freezing, always a kind of problem in Siberia, as you can
imagine, and they had worked out a secret technique for reviving people who
were caught out in blizzards and things and were frozen solid just like Sally
back there in the john."
"And you know. . . ?" Jerry choked over the words.
"Sure, I took it all in and could do it standing on my head. All we need is
the services of a well-equipped hospital with hypothermia equipment and a few
odds and ends. Just turn me loose, and in a couple of hours you'll have your
Sally again just as good as new."
"Yippee!" Jerry shouted and pulled the plane up in an immense curve toward
Saturn. "Pleasantville
General Hospital and Rest Home here we come!"
Upward they climbed and on course, and the altimeter needle slowly unwound.
Chuck was at the controls of the cheddite projector and testing the circuits
when he called out, "Jerry - we're getting unwanted resonance in the beta
kappa circuit."
"Must be instability in the woofer. I'll take care of it." He waved John
toward the pilot's seat. "Take over and keep her on course. Align the nose
with Polaris, the wingtip with Saturn's rings and sing out when the needle on
the sensitive radar altimeter touches thirty thousand feet."
"Roger," John said firmly and took the controls. Higher and higher the great
wings of the Pleasantville
Eagle soared with John resolutely at the controls, Jerry and Chuck laboring
over the vital circuitry of the cheddite projector.
"Coming up on point zero," John called back. "How are you doing there?"
"In the green - ready whenever you are."
"Okay, watch it now. Ship aligned perfectly, altimeter unwinding. Ready. . .
five . . . four. . . three . . .
two . . . one. . . HACK!"
And a firm thumb was thrust home on the activator button.
Once again that strange sensation plucked at the very fiber of their beings as
the kappa radiation hurled them headlong into the lambda dimension to emerge
once again in normal space. And the engines stopped.
"I think we're a leetle high," Jerry laughed, looked at the green globe of the
planet far below them. "But gravity will bring us down quick enough." Chuck
was squinting out of the window, a quizzical expression pulling at his
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features. "Funny," he muttered,
"but I don't see the Moon."
"Not only that," John answered, a look of concentration marked on his face,
"but the constellations just aren't right."
They nodded silent agreement, and when Jerry spoke, he spoke for them all.
"I hate to say it, guys, but I'm afraid that isn't Earth down there. Not only
that, but I'm afraid it isn't even any planet in our solar system. Perhaps
something has gone wrong with the cheddite projector. I'll check it out."
"No," John said huskily. He was staring at the sensitive radar altimeter like
a bird petrified by a snake, sweat suddenly bursting out on his brow. "I'm
afraid I goofed. All those years behind the iron curtain didn't really do me
any good. Jerry, you told me to sound off when the altlmeter hit thirty
thousand feet, right?"
"Bang on."
"Well, and I hate to say this gang, all the planes I have ever flown have
always had altlmeters that read in meters, so I converted feet to meters and
let you know when we hit that spot."
"Approximately one-third of our needed altitude," Jerry intoned in a hollow
voice. "Still inside the deep atmosphere which interferes with the kappa
radiation." John was no longer smiling as he uneasily eyed the great, cocked
fist of Chuck that was slowly being drawn back into firing position. Jerry
came between them and calmed them down.
"Easy does it. Anyone can make a mistake - and we've gotten out of worse
pinches before.
Remember that old king of the Titanians and what happened to him!" They all
laughed at that memory, and the tension was eased. John lowered his head,
chagrined.
"Gee, I'm sorry. Something must have snapped inside my head for me to goof up
like that. We'll get out of this. Land on that planet, align the cheddite
projector, then take off, and home we go!"
"And we can put some more ice in the head with Sally. She'll keep OK."
After that it was just waiting as they fell. The cabin heaters were on, and
fresh Titanian oxygen was being pumped into the air, and soon they could peel
off the extra layers of clothing. Chuck found some cans of cola, and they
thawed and drank them, pretending not to notice when John poured seven
miniatures of bourbon into his. They knew he felt bad about the mistake, and
they were good enough sports not to rub it in. More frozen oxygen was packed
in with Sally, still exhibiting a look of frozen horror, and they took turns
grabbing a little shut-eye, not knowing what would befall them on the planet
ever growing larger below. When the first wisps of atmosphere began to whistle
against the skin of the ship, Chuck took the controls and waggled them.
"Almost there. Better strap in because this might be a bit rough. I think we
picked up some velocity in the fall." They certainly had. Air tore at the
wings until the edges began to glow and the deicer boots burned away. Chuck
stayed rock-firm at the wheel and sent them bouncing in a great arc out into
space
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Dobre pomysły nie mają przeszłości, mają tylko przyszłość. Robert Mallet
De minimis - o najmniejszych rzeczach.
Dobroć jest ważniejsza niż mądrość, a uznanie tej prawdy to pierwszy krok do mądrości. Theodore Isaac Rubin
Dobro to tylko to, co szlachetne, zło to tylko to, co haniebne.
Dla człowieka nie tylko świat otaczający jest zagadką; jest on nią sam dla siebie. I z obu tajemnic bardziej dręczącą wydaje się ta druga. Antoni Kępiński (1918-1972)
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