I didn't hear Bish's reply. By that time, the tugs were almost to the
ship. I grabbed up the telephoto camera and aimed it. It has its own
power unit, and transmits directly. In theory, I could tune it to the
telecast station and put what I was getting right on the air, and what
I was doing was transmitting to the _Times_, to be recorded and 'cast
later. Because it's not a hundred per cent reliable, though, it makes
its own audiovisual record, so if any of what I was sending didn't get
through, it could be spliced in after I got back.
I got some footage of the tugs grappling the ship, which was now
completely weightless, and pulling her down. Through the finder, I
could see that she had her landing legs extended; she looked like a
big overfed spider being hauled in by a couple of gnats. I kept the
butt of the camera to my shoulder, and whenever anything interesting
happened, I'd squeeze the trigger. The first time I ever used a real
submachine gun had been to kill a blue slasher that had gotten into
one of the ship pools at the waterfront. I used three one-second
bursts, and threw bits of slasher all over the place, and everybody
wondered how I'd gotten the practice.
A couple more boats, pushers, went up to help hold the ship against
the wind, and by that time she was down to a thousand feet, which was
half her diameter. I switched from the shoulder-stock telephoto to the
big tripod job, because this was the best part of it. The ship was
weightless, of course, but she had mass and an awful lot of it. If
anybody goofed getting her down, she'd take the side of the landing
pit out, and about ten per cent of the population of Fenris, including
the ace reporter for the Times, along with it.
At the same time, some workmen and a couple of spaceport cops had
appeared, taken out a section of railing and put in a gate. The
_Peenemünde_ settled down, turned slowly to get her port in line with
the gate, and lurched off contragravity and began running out a bridge
to the promenade. I got some shots of that, and then began packing my
stuff back in the hamper.
"You going aboard?" Tom asked. "Can I come along? I can carry some of
your stuff and let on I'm your helper."
Glory be, I thought; I finally got that apprentice.
"Why, sure," I said. "You tow the hamper; I'll carry this." I got out
what looked like a big camera case and slung it over my shoulder. "But
you'll have to take me out on the _Javelin_, sometime, and let me
shoot a monster."
He said it was a deal, and we shook on it. Then I had another idea.
"Bish, suppose you come with us, too," I said. "After all, Tom and I
are just a couple of kids. If you're with us, it'll look a lot more
big-paperish."
That didn't seem to please Tom too much. Bish shook his head, though,
and Tom brightened.
"I'm dreadfully sorry, Walt," Bish said. "But I'm going aboard,
myself, to see a friend who is en route through to Odin. A Dr. Watson;
I have not seen him for years."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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