A lot of the wax was getting so soft that it was hard to handle, and
quite a few of the plastic skins had begun to split from the heat.
Here and there I saw that outside piles had begun to burn at the
bottom, from burning wax that had run out underneath. I had moved
around to the right and was getting views of the big claw-derricks at
work picking the big sausages off the tops of piles, and while I was
swinging the camera back and forth, I was trying to figure just how
much wax there had been to start with, and how much was being saved.
Each of those plastic-covered cylinders was a thousand pounds; one of
the claw-derricks was picking up two or three of them at a grab....
I was still figuring when shouts of alarm on my right drew my head
around. There was an uprush of flame, and somebody began screaming,
and I could see an ambulance moving toward the center of excitement
and firemen in asbestos suits converging on a run. One of the piles
must have collapsed and somebody must have been splashed. I gave an
involuntary shudder. Burning wax was hotter than melted lead, and it
stuck to anything it touched, worse than napalm. I saw a man being
dragged out of further danger, his clothes on fire, and
asbestos-suited firemen crowding around to tear the burning garments
from him. Before I could get to where it had happened, though, they
had him in the ambulance and were taking him away. I hoped they'd get
him to the hospital before he died.
Then more shouting started around at the right as a couple more piles
began collapsing. I was able to get all of that--the wax sausages
sliding forward, the men who had been working on foot running out of
danger, the flames shooting up, and the gush of liquid fire from
below. All three derricks moved in at once and began grabbing wax
cylinders away on either side of it.
Then I saw Guido Fieschi, the Odin Dock & Shipyard's superintendent,
and caught him in my camera, moving the jeep toward him.
"Mr. Fieschi!" I called. "Give me a few seconds and say something."
He saw me and grinned.
"I just came out to see how much more could be saved," he said. "We
have close to a thousand tons on the shipping floor or out of danger
here and on the way in, and it looks as though you'll be able to save
that much more. That'll be a million and a half sols we can be sure
of, and a possible three million, at the new price. And I want to take
this occasion, on behalf of my company and of Terra-Odin Spacelines,
to welcome a new freight shipper."
"Well, that's wonderful news for everybody on Fenris," I said, and
added mentally, "with a few exceptions." Then I asked if he'd heard
who had gotten splashed.
"No. I know it happened; I passed the ambulance on the way out. I
certainly hope they get to work on him in time."
Then more wax started sliding off the piles, and more fire came
running out at the bottom. Joe Kivelson's voice, out of the
loudspeakers all around, was yelling:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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