'WHAT?!'.

The computer repeated itself.

For a few moments Al Lewis was without words. He was completely at a loss as to what to say or do.

The Copernicus Control operators handled meteoroids, warning people of the 'weather' when small ones were involved, and the redirection of the larger ones. Admittedly, this was the largest one he had seen but why didn't they know about it? Why had the computer been instructed to edit it from the operator's plate? Something was wrong! Horribly wrong!

'Who did you tell about this meteoroid?'

'The Acting Director of Copernicus Control, Jay Harness.'

'Who gave you the directive about operator cognizance?'

'The same person.'

'What has he done about the meteoroid?'

'I was informed that the Solarian Patrol has been notified and is taking care of the matter.'

'Who told you?'

'Jay Harness.'

'Did he call the Solarian Patrol?'

'Yes.'

'What did he say?'

'I have no record of that conversation.'

'Why not?'

'I was instructed not to monitor it.'

'Who did he call?'

'The Commanding Officer, Solarian Patrol Tracking Network.'

'I want to talk to him too. If he isn't available, I'll speak to whoever is available down there.'

Al Lewis directed the computer. Changing to the intercom, he told the other operator, 'I've got a red hot emergency. I'm switching my board operation over to you.'

The other operator tried to protest. Al cut him off short.

Moments later, the S. P. Tracking Network Commanding Officer came on the visiphone. He turned Al over to the Network Tracking Officer who directed Al's call to the Chief Tracking Operator.

'Dan Digby, Chief Tracking Officer,' the man answered.

'This is Copernicus Control. I need information on a meteoroid about 700,000 miles above Grimaldi.'

'QRX, one second,' Chief Digby said, and pressed some b.u.t.tons. 'All right, go ahead.'

'What is its present status?' asked Al Lewis.

Chief Digby touched another b.u.t.ton. 'You're supposed to be handling it! We're scheduled to QRO you at 0900.'

The visiphone blurred a moment as the Copernicus Control computer cut in and queried the Solarian Patrol Tracking Network Computer directly over the video channel.

'What are we supposed to be doing?' Al asked Chief Digby when the channel cleared for a few moments.

'Your report said you're changing its path to a circ.u.m lunar orbit for a salvage operation,' Chief Digby answered. 'Should we stand by?'

The computer broke into the conversation at this point. 'Yes! Stand by for an emergency operation!

A deliberate effort to destroy Copernicus is indicated. I am in the process of notifying the Mayor of Copernicus, the Director of Security and the Board of Directors. A state of extreme emergency exists!'

The visiphone blurred again as the two computers compared blocks of information.

Al Lewis shrugged and said, 'Try and not stand by.'

The voice channel was apparently still operating because he heard Chief Digby say, 'I'll get a status summary and check with you in a couple of minutes. The only time a computer broke in on me was during the Nevian War. Then the problem went all the way up to the Commissioner of Public Safety.'

They broke off, leaving the channel to the computers.

Al Lewis looked at the clock at the top of his console. Forty-five minutes had gone by. He wondered for an instant how that could be possible, then he was rapidly explaining the situation to Mayor Love.

2930

There was a cloud of pipe smoke around Capt. Ben Russell of the Capital ship, UET3AA Europa, as he talked to Copernicus Control. 'It's obvious I don't have time to divert the orbit of this meteoroid so it doesn't hit Luna. What do you want it to do, fall short or go over you?'

The man on the plate started to protest that he hadn't examined all of the factors involved. At the same time, the First Officer reported that they were ready to clamp onto the meteoroid. Capt.

Russell gave him the high sign to continue without taking his eyes off the man on the plate.

'If you can't make the decision,' Capt. Russell said in a cold voice, 'then let me talk to someone who can. You have one minute to find that someone. Then I'll put that meteoroid down where I want to!'

Outside, the s.p.a.ceship's tractor beams clamped onto the meteoroid's surface and the s.p.a.ceship started to spin around it. The surface had stopped with respect to the s.p.a.ceship but the stars were now spinning. The maneuver was performed so smoothly that there had been no perceptible motion as the artificial gravity shifted.

Capt. Russell turned to the First Officer. 'Mr. Webb, while we're waiting I want to slow the rotation of that meteoroid as much as possible. I want full blast on as long a lever as you can get on it without either slipping or breaking up the surface.

He turned back to the plate. The same man was still there. 'Who's your superior?'

'He isn't here.'

'Who's his supervisor?'

'No one knows where he is.'

'All right, you stupid b.a.s.t.a.r.ds! Find someone right now, or when I get down there I am going to skin you alive! NOW GET GOING!' The Captain cleared the plate and turned again to his First Officer.

'Mr. Webb, who runs the show down there?'

'The Mayor. I believe his name is Ron Love.'

'Thank you. Mr. Anderson, I want to talk to the Mayor of Copernicus.'

'Yes, sir,' the Communications Officer said.

Capt. Russell put the pipe back in his mouth. The smoke got thick as he waited. The plate lit up with Mayor Love's face.

'Can I help you, Capt. Russell?'

'I'm going to have to drop this meteoroid somewhere. Copernicus Control can't decide where. I need to know now or I'm going to have to pick my own spot. And G.o.d help whoever's underneath it.'

'Hold on, I'll see what I can do,' Mayor Love said. He flipped on the intercom. 'Get me Copernicus Control and Dr. Kelvin. Emergency. Put it on conference call.'

'The Chief Controller is already on the line,' the secretary answered. 'I'll get Dr. Kelvin.'

The Chief Controller appeared on the visiphone. Mayor Love didn't bother with formalities. He asked, 'Is there anyone in the area between here and Kepler?'

'I don't know, I'll have to ...'

'FIND OUT! RIGHT NOW!'.

The Chief Controller's face disappeared. Mayor Love addressed the captain and said; 'I apologize for the delay. It should hit the surface at as steep an angle as possible. That will minimize the secondaries.'

'Dr Kelvin,' the secretary announced over the intercom. As Dr. Kelvin's face appeared he said, 'Yes, Ron?' 'Is the Rodenbush-watchacallit screen working yet?'

'Yes. We haven't finished cutting and coating the slots but the top surface is complete.'

'Can we drop this meteor west of here?'

'How far west can you get it?'

'Captain?'

'If you can decide in the next minute, about 100 miles.'

'No problem here,' Dr Kelvin reported. 'If the screen can't take the secondaries from that distance, it's no good any way.

'When will it hit?' Mayor Love asked Capt. Russell.

'A little less than an hour.'

The Chief Controller appeared again. 'I just checked.'

'And?'

'There's a man in the area.'

'You have half an hour to get him out,' said Mayor Love.

'Captain, drop it as far west of here as you can get it.'

'Thank you. We will stand by after impact to render aid, 'if necessary,' the Captain replied, and cleared his plate.

'Mr. Webb, we drop it short.'

3031

The First Officer pa.s.sed the command and the s.p.a.ceship started doing a strange dance. It acted as a retro-rocket when the meteoroid rotated it in front of the orbital path, and then turned direction and tried to slow the rotation as the meteoroid moved it around behind. Slowly, the rotation of the meteoroid was being stopped, and the retrofire lasted longer. For 45 minutes the Europa struggled with the meteoroid.

'Mr. Webb. Prepare to go free. Set the automatics to release the tractors when we're 50 miles above the surface. I want to depart at right angle to the lunar surface at about 60 miles per second. Full screens.'

The First Officer gave the necessary orders. As the men in the control room watched the main plate, the meteor suddenly disappeared as the tractors were cut, and the s.p.a.ceship, inertialess, stopped and then receded from the lunar surface.

A second pa.s.sed.

In the moment of its striking the moon, the meteor seemed to disappear, to melt into the surface.

The tremendous flash of intolerable heat and radiation generated by its impact was contained between the two closing surfaces of the meteor and Luna. Underneath the meteor intramolecular penetration of two materials changed solid rock from solid to vapor to the disa.s.sociated particles of a plasma in a time too short to measure. The physical events were moving at the hyper-speed that only seems to naturally occur with nuclear and astronomical objects.

The cloud of plasma generated by the impact could not be long bottled by the mere physical inertia of matter. In microseconds it was expanding. It was finding its way around the body of the meteor.

Once released it exploded outward, destroying everything in its volume. Rending apart matter itself into its component atomic and nuclear particles. Now, on the surface of the moon where the meteor struck, there appeared a brilliant, white-hot cloud of particles; a fireball. The automatic intensity control on the s.p.a.ceship's plates, which were focused on the impact site, let them turn white.

The cloud of plasma expanded and cooled. The matter it contacted now vaporized. Lighter, more easily vaporized substances were leached away, freeing the heavier objects. Boulders, some hundreds of feet across, were lifted and blown, dripping magma, outwards. There was a spider web of vapor around the cloud as plasma sped down faults in the lunar surface, and as objects trailing vapor spread outward.

The cloud of vapor expanded and cooled. Rock was no longer vaporized but was melted and blown outward in liqueous drops of a storm that would spread all around the lunar surface and outward into s.p.a.ce. Where the droplets turned to the surface, they would cool, and help form the irregular crust of bonded bits of rock. Gravel was picked up intact and hurled outward.

The cloud of matter exploded and cooled. Speeds dropped and secondary collisions with the surface occurred. A white mist of material was generated from the surface for hundreds of miles about the impact, making details seem fuzzy, as the surface was stirred.

Luna shuddered. The surface rock moved like the water of an ocean as literal waves in the surface rolled outward. Selmalogical blocks buckled. Copernicus was directly downstream of the storm. Dr.

Kelvin's quake barriers diminished the shock, but even so, the inhabitants knew they had been hit.

Those that could, hung onto whatever solid objects were at hand to steady themselves. Mayor Love watched his desk go skittering completely across his office. Lt. McQueen watched the shock-wave flex the railing around the tank in Copernicus Control under its own weight.

For minutes the shockwaves continued. To the inhabitants of Luna they seemed to go on forever.

'Mr. Grant, you're 3 off course,' Capt. Russell addressed the pilot. The tone of his voice indicated he wasn't angry, just surprised. Since the exact course didn't matter at this point, he mentioned it only to indicate that it had been observed. 'Stop, and hold this position relative to Copernicus.'