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.Now, all they can do is to guess."They filed back inside, taking it easy under Dan's orders to avoid burning upany more oxygen than they had to.Eating was cut down.Whether it would speedup oxygen consumption or not, nobody seemed to know for sure, but there was noharm in trying.Jim was lucky.He was kept busy bringing in the tanks from the welders and thefew small reserves that would normally have been kept in various locations foran emergency, if a tank on a suit needed quick replace-ment.Valves sometimesstuck, and it was handy to havespares.But the total didn't amount to much.Surprisingly, there wasn't as much fear and gloom90Step to the Stars as Jim had expected.It was as if everyone there had stoppedthinking of the station as a small island in the great sea of space; bit bybit, they had begun to think of it as a world, and it was inconceivable thatit could come to an end.He wasn't kidding himself that way.He was scared, whenever he had time tothink, and he could see that Dan and Thorndyke were also scared.Thorndyke stayed at the radar set, until he got word that the take-off wasabout due.They were always approximately within viewing range of a rocket attake-off, since the rocket had to parallel their course in getting itself up.The ship took fifty-six minutes to swing halfway around the world on itsupward hop, and the station took an hour to cover the same distance in itsorbit.But it was close enough except that no rocket could be seen from athousand miles above.But it was night over Johnston Island now, and they hoped to see a faint flashas it broke through the clouds.Jim and several others were outside the hut inthen-suits, staring down at the darkened side of the globe below them.Itpresented a crescent now, like the half-moon, with the Island just beyond theedge of the darkness.Dan relayed the information from the radar to them, through the tiny set inhis helmet."They've taken off.Gantry kicked out his radarman and is going it with justthe copilot.""There!" It was a spontaneous shout from several voices in the phones.Jimstrained his eyes, and couldFoul Weather BelowPage 41 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html91just see a faint, weak trail where the exhaust of the great first stage mustbe spreading through the blanket of clouds.It looked wrong to him somehow asif it were headed straight up.But he couldn't be sure.He had to blink hiseyes every other second to keep from missing it altogether.Nobody seemed to be breathing.The faint trace was gone now, as if the rockethad risen above the clouds, and was too weak to be seen by itself."They report he had rough going on the way up, but straightened at the lastminute.He's planning on wasting fuel for manual correction, even if hedoesn't have enough for the return leg," Dan's voice reported."Looks like hemay make it!"They waited for seconds, with nothing to see.By now, Jim knew, the firststage should have been kicked free.But it would be too tiny a burst to showup.Then a groan went up.Jim blinked again, and caught it.Far from the spotwhere the first blast of light had shown, there was a larger, hotter spot.Itmushroomed out to a visible circle, and then began fading slowly."What is it?" Terrence's voice sounded in Jim's ears.He shook his head, unwilling to say what he sus-pected.His voice seemed to bestuck in his throat."What happened?" Dan asked harshly.Jim took another look, but there was nothing to be seen now."I think we'vehad it and so has he," he reported."There was a flash of light too bright foranything except an explosion.He must have been92Step fo1 he Stars pretty badly knocked around on the way up.Some-thing may havehappened to the first stage.I'm only guessing, but it looked as if his first stage wouldn't break free,and he finally had to risk blowing it clear with the rockets from the secondstage."Jim had seen speculations on whether that could be done in some of the morefanciful books he had read.And in an emergency, there was nothing else apilot could do.Without being able to free the first stage, he was inevitablybound to drop back to the Earth."I guess it didn't work," he said slowly."The pressure blew the explosionback into the tanks, and they caught."He turned to go back, but Thorndyke was coming out, staring down at the worldwhere nothing showed.He touched helmets with Jim."What about the pilot?Could he get free?""Maybe, sir if the final stage didn't get caught in the explosion.He has anejector and parachute built onto the seat, and the suit would protect him, ifhe could get it on."He hadn't realized that everyone could hear, since he'd forgotten to turn theradio off.Behind him, there was a sigh.One of the men bent forward further,to stare at the world where their rescue had failed."God have mercy on his soul," a voice said, and there was a chorus of "Amen"from the others."And on us, too," Nora said softly.Only silence answered that as they stared from one to another
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