Science fiction; Short stories; Space flight to the moon -- Fiction; Space ships -- Fiction
"Yes," replied the creature. "Captain Greenwald sends his regards to
you. He says he knows we can do it again and again, any time we want,
now, and that's all he wanted to know. He wishes you luck and tells you
to go ahead. We landed the rocket on the way back from the moon, first
of all, up at Fairbanks, Alaska, outside the settlement, naturally,
during the night. Things worked as you planned them. We changed
crews there. There was a minor fight. Simpson and the original crew,
including Captain Greenwald, are still up there, under psycho-hypnosis.
They'll live out their lives happily, unaware, with new names. They
won't remember anything. We took off from Fairbanks again this morning
with the new crew and our act all rehearsed, I think we did all right."
"Where's the substitute crew now?" inquired Stanley.
"Downstairs," said the creature. "Getting psychoed themselves. Getting
mental blocs inserted, so they'll forget they ever fooled the world
today. Then we'll send them back to their regular jobs. Can I use your
shower?"
Stanley pressed a button, a panel slid aside. "Go ahead."
The creature pulled its face around the edges until it shed off into
its hands, a green-grey pallid mask of plastic rubber. The sweating
pink face of Cross appeared. He wriggled his fingers next, until the
green-gray, chemically bleeding horror gloves sucked off. He tossed
these into a wall-incinerator. "The day of the Rocket is over," he
said, quietly. "They'll be putting your bill up before the World
Legislature tomorrow, or I miss my guess. Carefulness, thought and
intellect will now get a start. Humanity is saved from itself."
Stanley watched Cross walk into the shower-cube, peel, and switch on
the spray.
He turned to the window again. Two billion people were thinking
tonight. He knew what they were thinking. Outside, he heard the
explosion as the health department blew up the great Rocket.
That was all. The sound of water on the shower-tiles was a good clean
sound.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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