Transcriber's Note:
This etext was produced from Analog Science Fact & Fiction October and November 1963. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.
"WHERE I WASN'T GOING"
"The Spaceman's Lament" concerned a man who wound up wherehe wasn't going ... but the men on Space Station One knewthey weren't going anywhere. Until Confusion set in....
WALT AND LEIGH RICHMOND
ILLUSTRATED BY JOHN SCHOENHERR
I had the life of an earthman made;
But I met a spaceman and got way-laid—
I went where I wasn't going!
The Spaceman's Lament
aking his way from square to square of the big rope hairnet thatserved as guidelines on the outer surface of the big wheel, MikeBlackhawk completed his inspection of the gold-plated plastic hull,with its alternate dark and shiny squares.
He had scanned every foot of the curved surface in this firstinspection, familiarizing himself completely with that which other menhad constructed from his drawings, and which he would now take overin the capacity of chief engineer.
Mike attached his safety line to a guideline leading to the southpolar lock and kicked off, satisfied that the lab was ready for thejob of turning on the spin with which he would begin his three monthstour of duty aboard.
The laws of radiation exposure set the three-month deadline to serviceaboard the lab, and he had timed his own tour aboard to start as theship reached completion, and the delicate job of turning her was readyto begin.
U.N. Space Lab One was man's largest project to date in space. Itmight not be tremendous in size by earth standards of construction,but the two hundred thirty-two foot wheel represented sixty-fourmillion pounds of very careful engineering and assembly that had beenraised from Earth's surface to this thirty-six-hour orbit.
Many crews had come and gone in the eighteen months since the firstpayload had arrived at this orbit—but now the first of the scientistsfor whom the lab was built were aboard; and the pick of the crewsselected for the construction job had been shuttled up for the finaltesting and spin-out.
Far off to Mike's left and slightly below him a flicker of flamecaught his eye, and he realized without even looking down that theretro-rockets of the shuttle on which he had arrived were slowlyputting it out of orbit and tipping it over the edge of the longgravitic well back to Earth. It would be two weeks before it returned.
Nearing the lock he grasped the cable with one hand, slowing himself,turned with the skill of an acrobat, and landed catlike, feet first,on the stat-magnetic walk around the lock.
He had gone over, minutely, the inside of the satellite before comingto its surface. Now there was only one more inspec