Astounding Science Fiction, British Edition — page 38: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

36 ‘“‘What’s the matter with the boys in the Athena? She’s available, isn’t she?” There was another pause before Schneckle answered. “The Athena went into the Jornada just before you test-hopped the Goddard back from Australia. The Ares is the only ship ready to go, and you're the only pilot—” What happened to the scheduled pilot for the Ares?” “The doctors down-checked him on reaction time in the centrifuge. He wasn’t fast enough to handle a ship lifting in high winds.” “Repeat the local weather,” Dan said. Schneckle did. “That’s what I thought you said. Sorry, Pete. I’m just a test pilot. I’ve never lifted a ship in winds like this before. Tl fly any ship ever built, Pete, but I want to pick the circum- stances. In a wind like this, the Ares will weathercock and splatter all over the Basin. Call me when the wind lets up; I’ve got a hangover to beat into submission.”” He slammed the phone back on its cradle and dropped his head in his hands. The phone started to ring again. He gritted his teeth and ripped it from the wall. “What do you think I am?” he yelled at the frayed end of the cord. ‘A hero or something? Well, I’m not ' taking this one! Think I’m going up there to bail him out of his own mess so he can come back and marry Jeanie? Think that I’m that much of a fool? Nuts!’ He flung the phone into the center of the floor and staggered back to the bedroom. Back in bed, he listened to the wind howl around the windows. There was a layer of orange-brown sand on the sill. Typical New Mexico spring weather: winds blowing sand so bad ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION that you could look up and see gophers digging their way down through it. He knew what it would be like to lift a ship in winds like that. A spaceship rises slowly at first, and, until it gains aerodynamic stability through speed, is extremely unstable. The wind pressure would weathercock the great beast before it had risen ten feet. It was a long chance to take. His thoughts turned uneasily to the hundred men marooned up there— living in spacesuits, waiting for their air to give out, watching for their salvation in the form of the Ares. He felt pretty bad about that, and wished the circumstances could be different. His decision meant that they were lost—and his brother with them. His brother! He growled at the thought of his twin brother. That stupid, bumbling jerk who never knew what he really wanted, who was so all-fired careful of things which never bothered Dan a bit, who wanted to make sure of everything and plan things to the last letter, and who wanted to take only calculated risks. Well, now the world would know what a bungler he really was. Let him plan his way out of this one! As far as Dan was concerned, this was a form of ironic justice. Hadn't he always been the better pilot? Hadn’t they given him the difficult job of testing the ships? Hadn’t he made higher scores in the mechanical, mathematical and intelligence tests than Dave? Didn’t he have faster reaction times and g-tolerances? Didn’t he always pass the centrifuge tests with the highest ratings of anybody at the Sands? Wasn’t he the better man in spite of the fact that Dave had had all the luck? All through training, Dan had aimed for the scheduled runs; it had just been pure luck that Dave had made connicloooks.conn