Meteors -- Fiction; Science fiction; Space stations -- Fiction
A few of the cartons being unloaded across the field were samples or
data from the scientific teams on the Moon. These teams, all affiliated
with one university or another, were for the most part supported by
the manufacturers themselves. As at all times in the past, commercial
business success had been shortly followed by commercial philanthropy.
A part of the profits of what one newspaper columnist had dubbed the
Moonufacturers were siphoned off to give scientists an opportunity
and a freedom for research and investigation unavailable through any
short-range Government grant.
There were as yet no tourist facilities either for travel to the Moon
nor for a stay on the Moon. A rumor was current that a number of hotel
and restaurant corporations were banding together to found a Moon
resort, but so far nothing had come of it.
The seven aluminum crates spent the night in the Poe warehouse, and in
the morning were turned over to Glenn Blair, whose charge they would be
for the next thirty-three days, until they reached the Quartermaster
Base.
* * * * *
Glenn Blair was a big man, big-boned and fully-fleshed, with a
short-cropped head of light hair. Thirty-four years of age, he had
been for the last seven years one of the two Chief Cargomasters for
General Transits, Ltd., the franchised operator of the Earth-Moon
transportation system.
He came into the warehouse now with Cy Braddock, the Poe Cargo Chief,
and the two of them compared the stacked crates half-filling the
warehouse with the manifest flimsies attached to Braddock's, checking
off each item as they found it. When they came to the seven crates
from Los Angeles, Blair said, "Cargo for QB. Let's see, what's the
specification?" He read the line on the manifest, and grinned. "I
forgot it was time for another shipment. Six months already." He patted
the nearest of the seven crates. "The boys at QB will be happy to see
you fellas," he said.
Braddock looked over his shoulder and read the specification. "What's
so important about that stuff? I thought that was low priority."
"Check your regs, Cy. These fellas are priority number one. If they
don't get to QB, there'll be hell to pay. Within a month, QB would be
more dangerous than a cannibal village."
Braddock shook his head. "You people have a funny set of values,"
he said. "The more I know about you, the happier I am to stay right
here. Come on, let's finish the checkout and get loading. Takeoff is
scheduled for eleven-seventeen."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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