The Long Result Read Online Free PDF Page A

it?’ I clambered out of the car.
    ‘Take a look. I have to hand it to these boys – I never saw anybody work under pressure like they do. Half an hour ago, there was a rip in the back of this wagon you could have walked through without ducking your head, and not a gastight seam anywhere. Now it’s set and ready.’
    The base of the passenger compartment was stillcrumpled, and stains of iodine clung to the unwiped body-shell. But the lines of bright fresh welding everywhere testified to the thoroughness of the repairs.
    ‘Kubishev’s inside double-checking the atmosphere mix,’ Asprey added. ‘But unless the aliens are going to be offended at some scratches, I guess we’re ready to roll.’
    ‘That’s marvellous,’ I said from the bottom of my heart. ‘Have they told you how soon we can go out to the ship?’
    ‘As soon as we’re ready. Ah, here’s Kuby now.’
    A man in atmosphere suiting emerged from the airlock at the back of the truck accompanied by a faint, pungent reek of chlorine. He signalled an okay and stumped around to the far door of the driving cab.
    ‘We’ll put the show on the road,’ Asprey grunted, and turned to get in. I checked him.
    ‘Do you have a spare suit for me, by the way? It may be necessary for me to ride with the visitors.’
    ‘I thought that was for the courier,’ Asprey countered, searching my face with sharp eyes.
    ‘The – uh – the courier seems to have been taken ill.’
    ‘Really!’ No fooling this man; Ark employees couldn’t afford to be stupid. I imagined he already had a shrewd idea of the reason why the Starhomers were handling the Tau Cetians’ first visit in this hamfisted manner. ‘Yes, we can fit you with a spare suit okay.’
    I got back in my car and ordered it to follow the alien wagon out across the field. I had the feeling that millions of eyes were on me – not only literally, because out at the perimeter of the port news cameras with ultra-telephoto lenses were ranked like mantises, but also subjectively. The fourteen hours or so which had passed since the Starhomers so casually announced they were bringing Tau Cetians with them had been pitifully inadequate for the Bureau to make preparations, but it would certainly have been time enough to let the rumours get around.
    Tinescu must have enlisted the Minister’s aid to keep the news from being officially circulated, I decided. Otherwise all hell would have broken loose.
    A corollary to that idea struck me, and I frowned. Was it pure chance – impulse – that had led the three young men to crash our alien wagon? Or had they known in advance that the wagon was on its way? If so, how? Starhomers were as human as ourselves, descended of Earthly stock; you wouldn’t ordinarily send alien wagons to meet even the unique and first of their starships.
    I shelved that question. I had no data. Instead, I stared at the ship ahead, trying to decide how it differed from the starships I’d seen before. Certainly it did, but though I felt the difference I couldn’t pin it down; my engineering knowledge was minimal. The rest of the scene was normal: the crash and rescue tenders moving away along the narrow-straight concrete tracks to the edge of the port, passing the huge and immensely powerful luggers that would hump the vessel to its permanent berth as soon as the passengers and crew were aground, various port officials in fast cars rolling to their appointed stations.
    I made a mental checklist. Landing tubes, mounted on outriggers for additonal leverage and maximum stability – still glowing dull red, but harmless. ‘Cold’ atomics had been the first break-through on the road to safe, effective spaceflight. The outriggers themselves, designed to transmit thrust along optimum resultants to the gigantic hull, now resting on the thousands of hydraulic buffers which adjusted to unevenness on the ground. The hull itself, perhaps unconventionally shaped, but…
    It was no use. I’d have to get some