MERCY FLIGHT by MACK REYNOLDS _It was a lesson you learned in the Space-Forces, and you learned it good: Out in the lonely void, when you get in a jam, you're on your own ... it's you against everything and everybody. Anything goes...._ [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Planet Stories July 1951. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] The phone rang and Ed Kerry wasn't doing anything so he picked it up and said, "Yeah?" He said yeah a few more times, his eyes widening infinitesimally each time, and finally wound up with, "Okay, Bunny." He hung up and said, "That was Bunny, up in Oneonta. She says a guy is coming in from Luna with a kid for emergency hospitalization, radiation burns or something." Jake was sitting back in his swivel chair, his feet on the desk and his hands clasped behind his head. He growled, "That's the trouble with women in this game; they've got no story sense. She phones all the way from Oneonta on a story that's been run a hundred times. Every time somebody gets good and sick up on Luna they bring 'em to Earth for treatment." He shrugged. "Okay, so it's a kid this time. Do up about a stick of it, Kerry, and we'll put it on page three if you can work it into a tear-jerker." Ed Kerry said, "You didn't let me finish, Jake. Something's wrong with this guy's radio." Somebody on the rewrite desk said, "Something wrong with his radio? He's gotta have his radio or he can't come in." Jake took his feet from the desk and sat up. "What'd' ya mean, something's wrong with his radio?" "Bunny said he's calling for his landing instructions but they can't get anything back to him. He's just reached _Brennschluss_ and he's in free fall now; it'll be four days before he gets here. That's the way they work it--he's supposed to get in touch with the spaceport he wants to land at, and...." "I know how they work it," Jake growled. "See if there's anything on the last newswire from Luna about him." * * * * * Phil Mooney flicked his set on again and repeated carefully, "Calling Oneonta Spaceport. Phil Mooney Outbound Luna, Calling Oneonta Spaceport. Come in Oneonta." _Calling Phil Mooney. Calling Phil Mooney. Oneonta Spaceport Calling Phil Mooney. Come in Mooney._ He cast a quick glance back at the child, strapped carefully in the metal bunk. She was unconscious now, possibly as a result of the acceleration in leaving Luna. He'd had to reach a speed of approximately two miles per second to escape Earth's satellite, and that had called for more G's acceleration than Lillian's sick body could bear. His lips thinned back over his teeth; it would be even worse when they came in for landing and he had to brake against Earth's gravity.