The Foundations of Paradise - Arthur C. Clarke [94]
After a few seconds’ adjustment of the mirror, he managed to get a clear view of the offending strap, half a meter beneath his feet. The end that he could see was secured to the base of Spider by a large butterfly nut. All that he had to do was to unscrew that, and the battery would drop off. . . .
Morgan sat silently analyzing the situation for so many minutes that Kingsley called him again. For the first time, there was a trace of hope in his deputy’s voice.
“We’ve been doing some calculations, Van. . . . What do you think of this idea?”
Morgan heard him out, then whistled softly.
“You’re certain of the safety margin?” he asked.
“Of course,” answered Kingsley, sounding somewhat aggrieved. Morgan hardly blamed him, but he was not the one who would be risking his neck.
“Well—I’ll give it a try. But only for one second, the first time.”
“That won’t be enough. Still, it’s a good idea—you’ll get the feel of it.”
Gently, Morgan released the friction brakes that were holding Spider motionless on the tape. Instantly, he seemed to rise out of the seat, as weight vanished. He counted, “One, TWO!” and engaged the brakes again.
Spider gave a jerk, and for a fraction of a second Morgan was pressed uncomfortably down into the seat. There was an ominous squeal from the braking mechanism, then the capsule was at rest again, apart from a slight torsional vibration that quickly died away.
“That was a bumpy ride,” said Morgan. “But I’m still here—and so is that infernal battery.”
“So I warned you. You’ll have to try harder. Two seconds at least.”
Morgan knew that he could not outguess Kingsley, with all the figures and computing power at his command, but he felt the need for some reassuring mental arithmetic. Two seconds of free fall—say half a second to put on the brakes—allowing one ton for the mass of Spider . . .
The question was: which would go first—the strap retaining the battery, or the tape that was holding him here four hundred kilometers up in the sky? In the usual way, it would be no contest in a trial between hyperfilament and ordinary steel. But if he applied the brakes too suddenly—or they seized owing to this maltreatment—both might snap. And then he and the battery would reach the Earth at very nearly the same time.
“Two seconds it is,” he told Kingsley. “Here we go.”
This time, the jerk was nerve-racking in its violence, and the torsional oscillations took much longer to die out. Morgan was certain that he would have felt—or heard—the breaking of the strap. He was not surprised when a glance in the mirror confirmed that the battery was still there.
Kingsley did not seem too worried.
“It may take three or four times,” he said.
Morgan was tempted to retort, “Are you after my job?” but thought better of it. Kingsley would be amused; unknown listeners might not.
After the third fall—he felt he had dropped kilometers, but it was only about a hundred meters—even Kingsley’s optimism started to fade. It was obvious that the trick was not going to work.
“I’d like to send my compliments to the people who made that safety strap,” said Morgan wryly. “Now what do you suggest? A three-second drop before I slam on the brakes?”
He could almost see Kingsley shake his head.
“Too big a risk. I’m not so much worried about the tape as the braking mechanism. It wasn’t designed for this sort of thing.”
“Well, it was a good try,” Morgan answered. “But I’m not giving up yet. I’m damned if I’ll be beaten by a simple butterfly nut, fifty centimeters in front of my nose. I’m going outside to get at it.”
50
The Falling
Fireflies
“01 15 24 This is Friendship Seven. I’ll try to describe what I’m in here. I am in a big mass of some very small particles that are brilliantly lit up like they’re luminescent. . . . They’re coming by the capsule, and they look like little stars. A whole shower of them coming by . . .
“01 16 10 They’re very slow; they’re not going away from me more than maybe three or four miles an hour. . . .
“01 19 38 Sunrise has just come up behind in the periscope . . . as I looked back out of the