Madsen was at the controls. Without a single spoken word on the
subject, he was automatically the captain, and Morley, the crew. The
situation crystallized twenty-four hours out of Port Ulysses. Morley
was poring over the Ephemeris prior to taking his watch at the controls
when he became aware that Madsen, red faced and breathing heavily, was
peering over his shoulder.
Morley stiffened in alarm. "Is anything--" He quailed under Madsen's
glare.
"Not yet, but there's liable to be if you don't smarten up." The
Norwegian's blunt forefinger stabbed at the page Morley had been
studying. "Phoebe, Mister, happens to be Saturn's NINTH moon. Get it?
You can count, can't you?"
Morley flushed, and fumbled miserably for a reasonable excuse. There
was a gleam of contempt in Madsen's eyes, but he spoke again more
quietly. "I'm going to eat and catch up on some sack time. We'll be
right on top of Japetus in short order. It's a known fact that the moon
won't move over if you fly at it, so you better wake me up to handle
the compensating!" He disappeared into the tiny galley, but his words
were still audible. "It's an awful long walk back, chum, if anybody
pulls a bull."
Morley swung himself into the pilot's seat, too numb with humiliation
to answer. Almost an hour passed before he started the regulation
checkup required by the Space Code of any ship passing within one
hundred thousand miles of a planet or major satellite. Every guardian
needle stood in its normal place with one exception. The craft had been
running on the port fuel tanks, depleting them to the point where it
seemed wise to trim ship. Morley opened the valve, touched the fuel
pump switch and waited, nothing happened. He watched the needles
incredulously. The pump--? He jabbed the switch, once, twice. Nothing.
He leaned forward and rapped the starboard gauge with his knuckles,
sharply. The needle swung from Full to Empty. Morley felt faint as
realization hit him. The starboard gauge had stuck at Full, and had
been unreported. The tank had not been serviced in port, owing to
the faulty reading and a mechanic's carelessness. They had about two
hours fuel. Even to Morley, it was obvious that there was one thing
only to do--land on Japetus, looming up larger in the view-plate with
each passing moment. He checked the distance rapidly, punched the
calculator, and put the ship in the designated orbit. He wanted to
handle the landing himself, but the thought of the final few ticklish
moments chilled him. So did the thought of waking Madsen, and asking
him to take over.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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