Miners -- Fiction; Moon -- Fiction; Science fiction; Short stories
"The water, man," he said, "there is not enough to melt the ice in the
condenser."
He opened the pipe again and poured nearly a half-gallon of water into
the boiler. It was three days' supply of water, if it had been carefully
used. It was one day's supply if used wastefully. It was ostentatious
luxury for a man with a month's supply of water and twenty-one days to
live.
The generator started again, and the lights came on. They flickered as
the boiler pressure began to fail, but the steam had melted some of the
ice in the condenser, and the water pump began to function.
"Well, man," he breathed, "there's a light to die by."
* * * * *
The sun rose on Williamson Town at about the same time it rose on Evans.
It was an incredibly brilliant disk in a black sky. The stars next to
the sun shone as brightly as though there were no sun. They might have
appeared to waver slightly, if they were behind outflung corona flares.
If they did, no one noticed. No one looked toward the sun without dark
filters.
When Director McIlroy came into his office, he found it lighted by the
rising sun. The light was a hot, brilliant white that seemed to pierce
the darkest shadows of the room. He moved to the round window, screening
his eyes from the light, and adjusted the polaroid shade to maximum
density. The sun became an angry red brown, and the room was dark again.
McIlroy decreased the density again until the room was comfortably
lighted. The room felt stuffy, so he decided to leave the door to the
inner office open.
He felt a little guilty about this, because he had ordered that all
doors in the survey building should remain closed except when someone
was passing through them. This was to allow the air-conditioning system
to function properly, and to prevent air loss in case of the highly
improbable meteor damage. McIlroy thought that on the whole, he was
disobeying his own orders no more flagrantly than anyone else in the
survey.
McIlroy had no illusions about his ability to lead men. Or rather, he
did have one illusion; he thought that he was completely unfit as a
leader. It was true that his strictest orders were disobeyed with
cheerful contempt, but it was also true his mildest requests were
complied with eagerly and smoothly.
Everyone in the survey except McIlroy realized this, and even he
accepted this without thinking about it. He had fallen into the habit of
suggesting mildly anything that he wanted done, and writing orders he
didn't particularly care to have obeyed.
For example, because of an order of his stating that there would be no
alcoholic beverages within the survey building, the entire survey was
assured of a constant supply of home-made, but passably good liquor.
Even McIlroy enjoyed the surreptitious drinking.
"Good morning, Mr. McIlroy," said Mrs. Garth, his secretary. Morning to
Mrs. Garth was simply the first four hours after waking.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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