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diff --git a/36867.txt b/36867.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..75111f7 --- /dev/null +++ b/36867.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1194 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Progress Report, by Mark Clifton and Alex Apostolides + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Progress Report + +Author: Mark Clifton + Alex Apostolides + +Release Date: July 27, 2011 [EBook #36867] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PROGRESS REPORT *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Dianna Adair and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + +_Progress is relative; Senator O'Noonan's idea of it was not +particularly scientific. Which would be too bad, if he had the last +word!_ + + + + + Progress Report + + By Mark Clifton and Alex Apostolides + + Illustrated by PAUL ORBAN + + +It seemed to Colonel Jennings that the air conditioning unit merely +washed the hot air around him without lowering the temperature from that +outside. He knew it was partly psychosomatic, compounded of the view of +the silvery spire of the test ship through the heatwaves of the Nevada +landscape and the knowledge that this was the day, the hour, and the +minutes. + +The final test was at hand. The instrument ship was to be sent out into +space, controlled from this sunken concrete bunker, to find out if the +flimsy bodies of men could endure there. + +Jennings visualized other bunkers scattered through the area, +observation posts, and farther away the field headquarters with open +telephone lines to the Pentagon, and beyond that a world waiting for +news of the test--and not everyone wishing it well. + +The monotonous buzz of the field phone pulled him away from his +fascinated gaze at the periscope slit. He glanced at his two assistants, +Professor Stein and Major Eddy. They were seated in front of their +control boards, staring at the blank eyes of their radar screens, +patiently enduring the beads of sweat on their faces and necks and +hands, the odor of it arising from their bodies. They too were feeling +the moment. He picked up the phone. + +"Jennings," he said crisply. + +"Zero minus one half hour, Colonel. We start alert count in fifteen +minutes." + +"Right," Colonel Jennings spoke softly, showing none of the excitement +he felt. He replaced the field phone on its hook and spoke to the two +men in front of him. + +"This is it. Apparently this time we'll go through with it." + +Major Eddy's shoulders hunched a trifle, as if he were getting set to +have a load placed upon them. + +[Illustration] + +Professor Stein gave no indication that he had heard. His thin body was +stooped over his instrument bank, intense, alert, as if he were a runner +crouched at the starting mark, as if he were young again. + +Colonel Jennings walked over to the periscope slit again and peered +through the shimmer of heat to where the silvery ship lay arrowed in her +cradle. The last few moments of waiting, with a brassy taste in his +mouth, with the vision of the test ship before him; these were the +worst. + +Everything had been done, checked and rechecked hours and days ago. He +found himself wishing there were some little thing, some desperate +little error which must be corrected hurriedly, just something to break +the tension of waiting. + +"You're all right, Sam, Prof?" he asked the major and professor +unnecessarily. + +"A little nervous," Major Eddy answered without moving. + +"Of course," Professor Stein said. There was a too heavy stress on the +sibilant sound, as if the last traces of accent had not yet been +removed. + +"I expect everyone is nervous, not just the hundreds involved in this, +but everywhere," Jennings commented. And then ruefully, "Except +Professor Stein there. I thought surely I'd see some nerves at this +point, Prof." He was attempting to make light conversation, something to +break the strain of mounting buck fever. + +"If I let even one nerve tendril slack, Colonel, I would go to pieces +entirely," Stein said precisely, in the way a man speaks who has learned +the language from text books. "So I do not think of our ship at all. I +think of mankind. I wonder if mankind is as ready as our ship. I wonder +if man will do any better on the planets than he has done here." + +"Well, of course," Colonel Jennings answered with sympathy in his voice, +"under Hitler and all the things you went through, I don't blame you for +being a little bitter. But not all mankind is like that, you know. As +long as you've been in our country, Professor, you've never looked +around you. You've been working on this, never lifting your head...." + + * * * * * + +He jerked in annoyance as a red light blinked over the emergency +circuit, and a buzzing, sharp and repeated, broke into this moment when +he felt he was actually reaching, touching Stein, as no one had before. + +He dragged the phone toward him and began speaking angrily into its +mouthpiece before he had brought it to his lips. + +"What the hell's the matter now? They're not going to call it off again! +Three times now, and...." + +He broke off and frowned as the crackling voice came through the +receiver, the vein on his temple pulsing in his stress. + +"I beg your pardon, General," he said, much more quietly. + +The two men turned from their radar scopes and watched him +questioningly. He shrugged his shoulders, an indication to them of his +helplessness. + +"You're not going to like this, Jim," the general was saying. "But it's +orders from Pentagon. Are you familiar with Senator O'Noonan?" + +"Vaguely," Jennings answered. + +"You'll be more familiar with him, Jim. He's been newly appointed +chairman of the appropriations committee covering our work. And he's +fought it bitterly from the beginning. He's tried every way he could to +scrap the entire project. When we've finished this test, Jim, we'll have +used up our appropriations to date. Whether we get any more depends on +him." + +"Yes, sir?" Jennings spoke questioningly. Political maneuvering was not +his problem, that was between Pentagon and Congress. + +"We must have his support, Jim," the general explained. "Pentagon hasn't +been able to win him over. He's stubborn and violent in his reactions. +The fact it keeps him in the headlines--well, of course that wouldn't +have any bearing. So Pentagon invited him to come to the field here to +watch the test, hoping that would win him over." The general hesitated, +then continued. + +"I've gone a step farther. I felt if he was actually at the center of +control, your operation, he might be won over. If he could actually +participate, press the activating key or something, if the headlines +could show he was working with us, actually sent the test ship on its +flight...." + +"General, you can't," Jennings moaned. He forgot rank, everything. + +"I've already done it, Jim," the general chose to ignore the outburst. +"He's due there now. I'll look to you to handle it. He's got to be won +over, Colonel. It's your project." Considering the years that he and the +general had worked together, the warm accord and informality between +them, the use of Jennings' title made it an order. + +"Yes, sir," he said. + +"Over," said the general formally. + +"Out," whispered Jennings. + +The two men looked at him questioningly. + +"It seems," he answered their look, "we are to have an observer. Senator +O'Noonan." + +"Even in Germany," Professor Stein said quietly, "they knew enough to +leave us alone at a critical moment." + +"He can't do it, Jim," Major Eddy looked at Jennings with pleading eyes. + +"Oh, but he can," Jennings answered bitterly. "Orders. And you know what +orders are, don't you, Major?" + +"Yes, sir," Major Eddy said stiffly. + +Professor Stein smiled ruefully. + +Both of them turned back to their instrument boards, their radar +screens, to the protective obscurity of subordinates carrying out an +assignment. They were no longer three men coming close together, almost +understanding one another in this moment of waiting, when the world and +all in it had been shut away, and nothing real existed except the +silvery spire out there on the desert and the life of it in the controls +at their fingertips. + +"Beep, minus fifteen minutes!" the first time signal sounded. + + * * * * * + +"Colonel Jennings, sir!" + +The senator appeared in the low doorway and extended a fleshy hand. His +voice was hearty, but there was no warmth behind his tones. He paused on +the threshold, bulky, impressive, as if he were about to deliver an +address. But Jennings, while shaking hands, drew him into the bunker, +pointedly, causing the senator to raise bushy eyebrows and stare at him +speculatively. + +"At this point everything runs on a split second basis, Senator," he +said crisply. "Ceremony comes after the test." His implication was that +when the work was done, the senator could have his turn in the +limelight, take all the credit, turn it into political fodder to be +thrown to the people. But because the man was chairman of the +appropriations committee, he softened his abruptness. "If the timing is +off even a small fraction, Senator, we would have to scrap the flight +and start all over." + +"At additional expense, no doubt." The senator could also be crisp. +"Surprises me that the military should think of that, however." + +The closing of the heavy doors behind him punctuated his remark and +caused him to step to the center of the bunker. Where there had seemed +adequate room before, now the feeling was one of oppressive +overcrowding. + +Unconsciously, Major Eddy squared his elbows as if to clear the space +around him for the manipulation of his controls. Professor Stein sat at +his radar screen, quiet, immobile, a part of the mechanisms. He was +accustomed to overbearing authority whatever political tag it might wear +at the moment. + +"Beep. Eleven minutes," the signal sounded. + +"Perhaps you'll be good enough to brief me on just what you're doing +here?" the senator asked, and implied by the tone of his voice that it +couldn't be very much. "In layman's language, Colonel. Don't try to make +it impressive with technical obscurities. I want my progress report on +this project to be understandable to everyone." + +Jennings looked at him in dismay. Was the man kidding him? Explain the +zenith of science, the culmination of the dreams of man in twenty simple +words or less! And about ten minutes to win over a man which the +Pentagon had failed to win. + +"Perhaps you'd like to sit here, Senator," he said courteously. "When we +learned you were coming, we felt yours should be the honor. At zero +time, you press this key--here. It will be your hand which sends the +test ship out into space." + +Apparently they were safe. The senator knew so little, he did not +realize the automatic switch would close with the zero time signal, that +no hand could be trusted to press the key at precisely the right time, +that the senator's key was a dummy. + +"Beep, ten," the signal came through. + +Jennings went back over to the periscope and peered through the slit. He +felt strangely surprised to see the silver column of the ship still +there. The calm, the scientific detachment, the warm thrill of +co-ordinated effort, all were gone. He felt as if the test flight +itself was secondary to what the senator thought about it, what he would +say in his progress report. + +He wondered if the senator's progress report would compare in any +particular with the one on the ship. That was a chart, representing as +far as they could tell, the minimum and maximum tolerances of human +life. If the multiple needles, tracing their continuous lines, went over +the black boundaries of tolerances, human beings would die at that +point. Such a progress report, showing the life-sustaining conditions at +each point throughout the ship's flight, would have some meaning. He +wondered what meaning the senator's progress report would have. + +He felt himself being pushed aside from the periscope. There was no +ungentleness in the push, simply the determined pressure of an arrogant +man who was accustomed to being in the center of things, and thinking +nothing of shoving to get there. The senator gave him the briefest of +explanatory looks, and placed his own eye at the periscope slit. + +"Beep, nine," the signal sounded. + +"So that's what represents two billion dollars," the senator said +contemptuously. "That little sliver of metal." + +"The two billion dollar atomic bomb was even smaller," Jennings said +quietly. + + * * * * * + +The senator took his eye away from the periscope briefly and looked at +Jennings speculatively. + +"The story of where all that money went still hasn't been told," he said +pointedly. "But the story of who got away with this two billion will be +different." + +Colonel Jennings said nothing. The white hot rage mounting within him +made it impossible for him to speak. + +The senator straightened up and walked back over to his chair. He waved +a hand in the direction of Major Eddy. + +"What does that man do?" he asked, as if the major were not present, or +was unable to comprehend. + +"Major Eddy," Jennings found control of his voice, "operates remote +control." He was trying to reduce the vast complexity of the operation +to the simplest possible language. + +"Beep, eight," the signal interrupted him. + +"He will guide the ship throughout its entire flight, just as if he were +sitting in it." + +"Why isn't he sitting in it?" the senator asked. + +"That's what the test is for, Senator." Jennings felt his voice becoming +icy. "We don't know if space will permit human life. We don't know +what's out there." + +"Best way to find out is for a man to go out there and see," the senator +commented shortly. "I want to find out something, I go look at it +myself. I don't depend on charts and graphs, and folderol." + +The major did not even hunch his broad shoulders, a characteristic +gesture, to show that he had heard, to show that he wished the senator +was out there in untested space. + +"What about him? He's not even in uniform!" + +"Professor Stein maintains sight contact on the scope and transmits the +IFF pulse." + +The senator's eyes flashed again beneath heavy brows. His lips indicated +what he thought of professors and projects who used them. + +"What's IFF?" he asked. + +The colonel looked at him incredulously. It was on the tip of his tongue +to ask where the man had been during the war. He decided he'd better not +ask it. He might learn. + +"It stands for Identification--Friend or Foe, Senator. It's army +jargon." + +"Beep, seven." + +_Seven minutes_, Jennings thought, _and here I am trying to explain the +culmination of the entire science of all mankind to a lardbrain in +simple kindergarten words_. Well, he'd wished there was something to +break the tension of the last half hour, keep him occupied. He had it. + +"You mean the army wouldn't know, after the ship got up, whether it was +ours or the enemy's?" the senator asked incredulously. + +"There are meteors in space, Senator," Jennings said carefully. "Radar +contact is all we'll have out there. The IFF mechanism reconverts our +beam to a predetermined pulse, and it bounces back to us in a different +pattern. That's the only way we'd know if we were still on the ship, or +have by chance fastened on to a meteor." + +"What has that got to do with the enemy?" O'Noonan asked +uncomprehendingly. + +Jennings sighed, almost audibly. + +"The mechanism was developed during the war, when we didn't know which +planes were ours and which the enemy's. We've simply adapted it to this +use--to save money, Senator." + +"Humph!" the senator expressed his disbelief. "Too complicated. The +world has grown too complicated." + +"Beep, six." + +The senator glanced irritably at the time speaker. It had interrupted +his speech. But he chose to ignore the interruption, that was the way to +handle heckling. + +"I am a simple man. I come from simple parentage. I represent the simple +people, the common people, the people with their feet on the ground. And +the whole world needs to get back to the simple truths and +honesties...." + +Jennings headed off the campaign speech which might appeal to the +mountaineers of the senator's home state, where a man's accomplishments +were judged by how far he could spit tobacco juice; it had little +application in this bunker where the final test before the flight of man +to the stars was being tried. + +"To us, Senator," he said gently, "this ship represents simple truths +and honesties. We are, at this moment, testing the truths of all that +mankind has ever thought of, theorized about, believed of the space +which surrounds the Earth. A farmer may hear about new methods of +growing crops, but the only way he knows whether they're practical or +not is to try them on his own land." + +The senator looked at him impassively. Jennings didn't know whether he +was going over or not. But he was trying. + +"All that ship, and all the instruments it contains; those represent the +utmost honesties of the men who worked on them. Nobody tried to bluff, +to get by with shoddy workmanship, cover up ignorance. A farmer does not +try to bluff his land, for the crops he gets tells the final story. +Scientists, too, have simple honesty. They have to have, Senator, for +the results will show them up if they don't." + + * * * * * + +The senator looked at him speculatively, and with a growing respect. Not +a bad speech, that. Not a bad speech at all. If this tomfoolery actually +worked, and it might, that could be the approach in selling it to his +constituents. By implication, he could take full credit, put over the +impression that it was he who had stood over the scientists making sure +they were as honest and simple as the mountain farmers. Many a man has +gone into the White House with less. + +"Beep, five." + +Five more minutes. The sudden thought occurred to O'Noonan: what if he +refused to press the dummy key? Refused to take part in this project he +called tomfoolery? Perhaps they thought they were being clever in having +him take part in the ship's launching, and were by that act committing +him to something.... + +"This is the final test, Senator. After this one, if it is right, man +leaps to the stars!" It was Jennings' plea, his final attempt to catch +the senator up in the fire and the dream. + +"And then more yapping colonists wanting statehood," the senator said +dryly. "Upsetting the balance of power. Changing things." + +Jennings was silent. + +"Beep, four." + +"More imports trying to get into our country duty-free," O'Noonan went +on. "Upsetting our economy." + +His vision was of lobbyists threatening to cut off contributions if +their own industries were not kept in a favorable position. Of +grim-jawed industrialists who could easily put a more tractable +candidate up in his place to be elected by the free and thinking people +of his state. All the best catch phrases, the semantically-loaded +promises, the advertising appropriations being used by his opponent. + +It was a dilemma. Should he jump on the bandwagon of advancement to the +stars, hoping to catch the imagination of the voters by it? Were the +voters really in favor of progress? What could this space flight put in +the dinner pails of the Smiths, the Browns, the Johnsons? It was all +very well to talk about the progress of mankind, but that was the only +measure to be considered. Any politician knew that. And apparently no +scientist knew it. Man advances only when he sees how it will help him +stuff his gut. + +"Beep, three." For a full minute, the senator had sat lost in +speculation. + +And what could he personally gain? A plan, full-formed, sprang into his +mind. This whole deal could be taken out of the hands of the military +on charges of waste and corruption. It could be brought back into the +control of private industry, where it belonged. He thought of vast +tracts of land in his own state, tracts he could buy cheap, through +dummy companies, places which could be made very suitable for the giant +factories necessary to manufacture spaceships. + +As chairman of the appropriations committee, it wouldn't be difficult to +sway the choice of site. And all that extra employment for the people of +his own state. The voters couldn't forget plain, simple, honest O'Noonan +after that! + +"Beep, two." + + * * * * * + +Jennings felt the sweat beads increase on his forehead. His collar was +already soaking wet. He had been watching the senator through two long +minutes, terrible eon-consuming minutes, the impassive face showing only +what the senator wanted it to show. He saw the face now soften into +something approaching benignity, nobility. The head came up, the silvery +hair tossed back. + +"Son," he said with a ringing thrill in his voice. "Mankind must reach +the stars! We must allow nothing to stop that! No personal +consideration, no personal belief, nothing must stand in the way of +mankind's greatest dream!" + +His eyes were shrewdly watching the effect upon Jennings' face, +measuring through him the effect such a speech would have upon the +voters. He saw the relief spread over Jennings' face, the glow. Yes, it +might work. + +"Now, son," he said with kindly tolerance, "tell me what you want me to +do about pressing this key when the time comes." + +"Beep, one." + +And then the continuous drone while the seconds were being counted off +aloud. + +"Fifty-nine, fifty-eight, fifty-seven--" + +The droning went on while Jennings showed the senator just how to press +the dummy key down, explaining it in careful detail, and just when. + +"Thirty-seven, thirty-six, thirty-five--" + +"Major!" Jennings called questioningly. + +"Ready, sir." + +"Professor!" + +"Ready, sir." + +"Three, two, one, ZERO!" + +"Press it, Senator!" Jennings called frantically. + +Already the automatic firing stud had taken over. The bellowing, roaring +flames reached down with giant strength, nudging the ship upward, +seeming to hang suspended, waiting. + +"_Press it!_" + +The senator's hand pressed the dummy key. He was committed. + +As if the ship had really been waiting, it lifted, faster and faster. + +"Major?" + +"I have it, sir." The major's hands were flying over his bank of +controls, correcting the slight unbalance of thrusts, holding the ship +as steady as if he were in it. + +Already the ship was beyond visual sight, picking up speed. But the pip +on the radar screens was strong and clear. The drone of the IFF +returning signal was equally strong. + +The senator sat and waited. He had done his job. He felt it perhaps +would have been better to have had the photographers on the spot, but +realized the carefully directed and rehearsed pictures to be taken later +would make better vote fodder. + +"It's already out in space now, Senator," Jennings found a second of +time to call it to the senator. + +The pips and the signals were bright and clear, coming through the +ionosphere, the Heaviside layer as they had been designed to do. +Jennings wondered if the senator could ever be made to understand the +simple honesty of scientists who had worked that out so well and true. +Bright and strong and clear. + +And then there was nothing! The screens were blank. The sounds were +gone. + + * * * * * + +Jennings stood in stupefied silence. + +"It shut! It shut off!" Major Eddy's voice was shrill in amazement. + +"It cut right out, Colonel. No fade, no dying signal, just out!" It was +the first time Jennings had ever heard a note of excitement in Professor +Stein's voice. + +The phone began to ring, loud and shrill. That would be from the +General's observation post, where he, too, must have lost the signal. + +The excitement penetrated the senator's rosy dream of vast acreages +being sold at a huge profit, giant walls of factories going up under his +remote-control ownership. "What's wrong?" he asked. + +Jennings did not answer him. "What was the altitude?" he asked. The +phone continued to ring, but he was not yet ready to answer it. + +"Hundred fifty miles, maybe a little more," Major Eddy answered in a +dull voice. "And then, nothing," he repeated incredulously. "Nothing." + +The phone was one long ring now, taken off of automatic signal and rung +with a hand key pressed down and held there. In a daze, Jennings picked +up the phone. + +"Yes, General," he answered as though he were no more than a robot. He +hardly listened to the general's questions, did not need the report that +every radarscope throughout the area had lost contact at the same +instant. Somehow he had known that would be true, that it wasn't just +his own mechanisms failing. One question did penetrate his stunned mind. + +"How is the senator taking it?" the general asked finally. + +"Uncomprehending, as yet," Jennings answered cryptically. "But even +there it will penetrate sooner or later. We'll have to face it then." + +"Yes," the general sighed. "What about safety? What if it fell on a big +city, for example?" + +"It had escape velocity," Jennings answered. "It would simply follow its +trajectory indefinitely--which was away from Earth." + +"What's happening now?" the senator asked arrogantly. He had been out of +the limelight long enough, longer than was usual or necessary. He didn't +like it when people went about their business as if he were not +present. + +"Quiet during the test, Senator," Jennings took his mouth from the phone +long enough to reprove the man gently. Apparently he got away with it, +for the senator put his finger to his lips knowingly and sat back again. + +"The senator's starting to ask questions?" the general asked into the +phone. + +"Yes, sir. It won't be long now." + +"I hate to contemplate it, Jim," the general said in apprehension. +"There's only one way he'll translate it. Two billion dollars shot up +into the air and lost." Then sharply. "There must be something you've +done, Colonel. Some mistake you've made." + + * * * * * + +The implied accusation struck at Jennings' stomach, a heavy blow. + +"That's the way it's going to be?" he stated the question, knowing its +answer. + +"For the good of the service," the general answered with a stock phrase. +"If it is the fault of one officer and his men, we may be given another +chance. If it is the failure of science itself, we won't." + +"I see," the colonel answered. + +"You won't be the first soldier, Colonel, to be unjustly punished to +maintain public faith in the service." + +"Yes, sir," Jennings answered as formally as if he were already facing +court martial. + +"It's back!" Major Eddy shouted in his excitement. "It's back, Colonel!" + +The pip, truly, showed startlingly clear and sharp on the radarscope, +the correct signals were coming in sure and strong. As suddenly as the +ship had cut out, it was back. + +"It's back, General," Colonel Jennings shouted into the phone, his eyes +fixed upon his own radarscope. He dropped the phone without waiting for +the general's answer. + +"Good," exclaimed the senator. "I was getting a little bored with +nothing happening." + +"Have you got control?" Jennings called to the major. + +"Can't tell yet. It's coming in too fast. I'm trying to slow it. We'll +know in a minute." + +"You have it now," Professor Stein spoke up quietly. "It's slowing. It +will be in the atmosphere soon. Slow it as much as you can." + +As surely as if he were sitting in its control room, Eddy slowed the +ship, easing it down into the atmosphere. The instruments recorded the +results of his playing upon the bank of controls, as sound pouring from +a musical instrument. + +"At the take-off point?" Jennings asked. "Can you land it there?" + +"Close to it," Major Eddy answered. "As close as I can." + +Now the ship was in visual sight again, and they watched its nose turn +in the air, turn from a bullet hurtling earthward to a ship settling to +the ground on its belly. Major Eddy was playing his instrument bank as +if he were the soloist in a vast orchestra at the height of a crescendo +forte. + +Jennings grabbed up the phone again. + +"Transportation!" he shouted. + +"Already dispatched, sir," the operator at the other end responded. + +Through the periscope slit, Jennings watched the ship settle lightly +downward to the ground, as though it were a breezeborne feather instead +of its tons of metal. It seemed to settle itself, still, and become +inanimate again. Major Eddy dropped his hands away from his instrument +bank, an exhausted virtuoso. + +"My congratulations!" the senator included all three men in his sweeping +glance. "It was remarkable how you all had control at every instance. My +progress report will certainly bear that notation." + +The three men looked at him, and realized there was no irony in his +words, no sarcasm, no realization at all of what had truly happened. + +"I can see a va-a-ast fleet of no-o-ble ships...." the senator began to +orate. + +But the roar of the arriving jeep outside took his audience away from +him. They made a dash for the bunker door, no longer interested in the +senator and his progress report. It was the progress report as revealed +by the instruments on the ship which interested them more. + +The senator was close behind them as they piled out of the bunker door, +and into the jeep, with Jennings unceremoniously pulling the driver from +the wheel and taking his place. + +Over the rough dirt road toward the launching site where the ship had +come to rest, their minds were bemused and feverish, as they projected +ahead, trying to read in advance what the instruments would reveal of +that blank period. + +The senator's mind projected even farther ahead to the fleet of space +ships he would own and control. And he had been worried about some +ignorant stupid voters! Stupid animals! How he despised them! What would +he care about voters when he could be master of the spaceways to the +stars? + +Jennings swerved the jeep off the dirt road and took out across the +hummocks of sagebrush to the ship a few rods away. He hardly slacked +speed, and in a swirl of dust pulled up to the side of the ship. Before +it had even stopped, the men were piling out of the jeep, running toward +the side of the ship. + +And stopped short. + + * * * * * + +Unable to believe their eyes, to absorb the incredible, they stared at +the swinging open door in the side of the ship. Slowly they realized the +iridescent purple glow around the doorframe, the rotted metal, +disintegrating and falling to the dirt below. The implications of the +tampering with the door held them unmoving. Only the senator had not +caught it yet. Slower than they, now he was chugging up to where they +had stopped, an elephantine amble. + +"Well, well, what's holding us up?" he panted irritably. + +Cautiously then, Jennings moved toward the open door. And as cautiously, +Major Eddy and Professor Stein followed him. O'Noonan hung behind, +sensing the caution, but not knowing the reason behind it. + +They entered the ship, wary of what might be lurking inside, what had +burned open the door out there in space, what had been able to capture +the ship, cut it off from its contact with controls, stop it in its +headlong flight out into space, turn it, return it to their controls at +precisely the same point and altitude. Wary, but they entered. + +At first glance, nothing seemed disturbed. The bulkhead leading to the +power plant was still whole. But farther down the passage, the door +leading to the control room where the instruments were housed also swung +open. It, too, showed the iridescent purple disintegration of its metal +frame. + +They hardly recognized the control room. They had known it intimately, +had helped to build and fit it. They knew each weld, each nut and bolt. + +"The instruments are gone," the professor gasped in awe. + +It was true. As they crowded there in the doorway, they saw the gaping +holes along the walls where the instruments had been inserted, one by +one, each to tell its own story of conditions in space. + +The senator pushed himself into the room and looked about him. Even he +could tell the room had been dismantled. + +"What kind of sabotage is this?" he exclaimed, and turned in anger +toward Jennings. No one answered him. Jennings did not even bother to +meet the accusing eyes. + +They walked down the narrow passage between the twisted frames where the +instruments should have been. They came to the spot where the master +integrator should have stood, the one which should have co-ordinated all +the results of life-sustenance measurements, the one which was to give +them their progress report. + +There, too, was a gaping hole--but not without its message. Etched in +the metal frame, in the same iridescent purple glow, were two words. Two +enigmatic words to reverberate throughout the world, burned in by some +watcher--some keeper--some warden. + +"_Not yet._" + + +THE END + + + * * * * * + + + Transcriber Notes + + This etext was produced from If Worlds of Science Fiction July 1953. + Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright + on this publication was renewed. + + Typo was corrected on page 110: + + Original text: "Son," he said with a ringing thrill in his voice. + "Mankind much reach the stars! We must allow ... + + Changed text: "Son," he said with a ringing thrill in his voice. + "Mankind must reach the stars! We must allow ... + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Progress Report, by +Mark Clifton and Alex Apostolides + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PROGRESS REPORT *** + +***** This file should be named 36867.txt or 36867.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/8/6/36867/ + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Dianna Adair and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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