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+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #66292 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/66292)
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-The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Sling and the Stone, by Michael Shaara
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
-most other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the United States, you
-will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before
-using this eBook.
-
-Title: The Sling and the Stone
-
-Author: Michael Shaara
-
-Release Date: September 13, 2021 [eBook #66292]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: UTF-8
-
-Produced by: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed
-             Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
-
-*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SLING AND THE STONE ***
-
-
-
-
-                        The Sling And The Stone
-
-                           By Michael Shaara
-
-               Russian scientists knew that open warfare
-            with America was hazardous. Yet, ironically, a
-             victory could be gained--via the Hand of God!
-
-           [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
-              Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy
-                              March 1954
-         Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
-         the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
-
-
-_On the morning of the first day, floating in the cold of space, they
-inflated the station. It puffed up tightly to a silvery doughnut, and
-four men whose names were Krylov, Mirkov, Stolyakhin and Davchenko went
-to live inside. There was no ceremony. Out of a motionless rocket
-which hung in space nearby, other men came, trailing long wires. All
-the long black afternoon of that day these men clustered on the skin of
-the doughnut, fixing curved weightless slabs of carbon-coated aluminum
-to the sides. And within the station, where there was air and therefore
-a blessed noise, the four men worked with fluttery movements, attaching
-wires and steel ribs, adjusting, connecting. After a while there was
-nothing more to do. The rocket pulled in its lines, gathered up its
-men. When they were all inside it turned over slightly and spat a
-silent flame, and began to fall, and fell, and was gone._
-
-_That was the first day._
-
-_The second day was filled with work, and watching, and a great awe._
-
-_The third day began to be lonely._
-
-_On the fourth day they had a visitor...._
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-The mindless insanity, so carefully by-passed for so many years,
-reached out at last and drew him in. Diavilev awoke.
-
-The room was very cold, Pyotr Diavilev struggled into his clothes, not
-sleepy at all, while the army man stood silently at the foot of the
-bed. Outside the door, stolid and heavy-footed in the darkness, there
-were other army men, creaking the floorboards and chuckling.
-
-And so it comes, Diavilev thought. There was nothing at all to say or
-do. He hitched his belt tightly and breathed for what seemed like the
-first time, and then he nodded to the army man.
-
-He was taken away.
-
-He sat in the dark, in the plush rear seat of a huge car being driven
-at great speed through the city. He was surprised; he had expected them
-to be more brutal. But they were never, ever, what you expected. In the
-darkness he strove to compose himself.
-
-The army man asked him for a cigarette. When he struck the match
-Diavilev realized that he had forgotten his glasses.
-
-"My glasses," he said humbly, "please, I have forgotten my glasses."
-
-The army man surprisingly, seemed concerned. Then he said:
-
-"Never mind. We will get them."
-
-He leaned forward and spoke into a radio. There was a brief reply
-which Diavilev could not hear and the army man sat back comfortably,
-satisfied.
-
-"Your glasses will be there," he said.
-
-Diavilev thanked him. Because of the unexpected courtesy the level of
-his fear began to go down. _Perhaps it will not be so bad_, he thought.
-_Maybe after all it is only interrogation._ But again he thought that
-you never knew what to expect, that in all the long years of yessing
-and bowing and applauding he had never understood them.
-
-Well then, now was the time to understand.
-
-_I will say whatever they want me to say, I will not resist in the
-least. What does it matter? The world belongs to them, and if a man
-wishes to live he must be logical and agree. Let them do what they
-will, and I will applaud every step of the way._
-
-He folded his hands in his lap.
-
-After a long while the car stopped. The first army man gave him over to
-another army man whom he could not see in the darkness, and after many
-a salute he was conducted through a black iron gate. Within minutes he
-was aboard a plane with four more army men. No one would say anything.
-Pyotr Diavilev slept.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-This of course he could not believe.
-
-He saw the thing clearly in the late morning sun, rising in an
-enormous, shining tube from the hard-baked floor of the desert, but it
-was obviously impossible. He was taken on an elevator one hundred feet
-into the air and ushered through a door into the side of the thing,
-not believing any of it for an instant. He was told, rather kindly
-for once, that he was to be taken up in this thing and not to worry,
-because it had been tested. Many times. But he was so completely
-overwhelmed that he could not ask a question. There was nothing but
-army men now, one of whom conducted him to a foam rubber hammock and
-strapped him in. To his utter astonishment, the thing actually did take
-off.
-
-There were some very bad minutes. For a while he weighed several tons
-and could not move, and then he weighed nothing at all and was sick.
-Someone else unstrapped him and gave him pills, and then thoughtfully
-tied him to a handring on the wall. And at long last his mind began to
-accept it.
-
-The incredible Soviet had succeeded. His Russian contemporaries had put
-a manned vessel in outer space.
-
-Diavilev sat quietly stupefied.
-
-That the spouting, unshaven, preposterous baboons with whom he had
-worked could have built this thing seemed to him blankly impossible.
-Being one himself, Pyotr Diavilev had no great respect for what Russian
-scientists the great many purges had left. But of course there the
-thing was. Built by Germans perhaps, with secrets stolen from the
-Americans while they haggled about peace; nevertheless, there the thing
-was.
-
-And if he was going up now there could be only one place to go and
-therefore he was not a prisoner at all. The wonder and relief of it
-was too much at once. He surrendered himself to awe. When the time came
-to board the satellite he was poised and ready.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-In the midst of a curving room hung and inset with a thousand shining
-gadgets, Pyotr Diavilev floated in the air. A black-browed man took his
-arm carefully and pulled him to the floor, placed magnetic-soled shoes
-on his feet. Diavilev could not help grinning delightedly. The dark
-man, whose name was Krylov, stood thoughtfully and absently scratching
-his cheek.
-
-"Now as to why you are here," he said, and Diavilev tensed and waited.
-There were three other men in the room, but no one moved.
-
-"You understand of course what this station is, and that the building
-of it places us, our people, in control of the world."
-
-Diavilev nodded.
-
-"Atomic missiles launched from this base may be guided exactly to any
-point on the surface of the Earth that we select, yet the station
-itself represents so small and distinct a target as to be virtually
-invulnerable. Russia, my friend, need fear no country on Earth. Not,"
-he added quickly, "that she ever did, of course."
-
-Diavilev, with the inbred habit of years, gave his congratulations.
-Krylov stood looking at him closely, half-smiling, rubbing again at
-his cheek. There was something infinitely chilling in the moment, but
-Diavilev was able to smile back.
-
-"This station has been in existence," said Krylov, "for slightly more
-than a week. There are not fifty people in the entire world who know of
-it. You have become one. You are therefore most important."
-
-Diavilev was becoming nervous.
-
-"But you are important," Krylov went on slowly, "for other reasons. To
-be exact, you are perhaps as important at this moment as any man who
-ever lived."
-
-Diavilev, dazed, struggled to digest that while Krylov held him with
-his eyes and the three other men spoke lowly among themselves.
-
-"I am saying all this to impress upon you the vastness of the work with
-which you have been entrusted. I want you to understand clearly that
-the accuracy of your work could mean the collapse of all our enemies,
-of the entire capitalistic empire. Therefore you _will_ be accurate."
-
-There was a fixity to Krylov's face which was unsettling. Diavilev
-waited, uneasy and bewildered. The dark man smiled.
-
-"You are a Russian," he stated powerfully. "We know that you will do
-your best."
-
-"Of course," Diavilev said.
-
-Krylov turned and pulled open a drawer. Out of the drawer he drew a
-chart and handed it to Diavilev.
-
-"Do you recognize that?"
-
-Diavilev stared.
-
-"That is the plotted orbit," Krylov said carefully, "of a moon. It is
-not of course the moon with which you are familiar. But it is a moon
-circling the Earth, a _second_ moon.
-
-"It is a moon of which no one knows, excepting ourselves and
-the Kremlin. We discovered it shortly after we arrived, when it
-passed quite near the station. It is small and dark, too small and
-non-reflecting to be seen from Earth. It is approximately five miles
-wide.
-
-"Do you understand?"
-
-Diavilev who had had to digest a great many things in a very short
-while, was able to nod. Because this was, after all, Diavilev's field.
-
-A second moon, he told Krylov, speaking with some excitement, had long
-been predicted by astrophysicists everywhere. Since the Earth had
-been attracting meteors for something like two billion years, it was
-inevitable that _some_ at least should be captured as moons.
-
-Krylov broke in, nodding with impatience.
-
-"Exactly. And now as to your work. You will see this moon shortly, when
-it crosses our path again. At that time you will correct the orbit we
-have plotted. You will also give us the exact mass and speed of that
-moon. The instruments you will need are already here. Let me emphasize
-this: You will be accurate. Is that clear?"
-
-Diavilev nodded.
-
-"Do you have any questions?"
-
-Diavilev had none. He wanted to ask why, of course, but he knew from
-long experience of army men that Krylov was not ready to tell him. He
-set himself, as always, to be patient. And now as well he wanted to
-think, he wanted to be alone. The magnificent fact of where he was had
-begun at last to envelope him. Now he wanted to _see_.
-
-"Very well," said Krylov, "the moon will be here in three hours."
-
-The interview ended. The army men moved away awkwardly, through the
-air. A young man named Stolyakhin, clearly showing his contempt for
-intellectuals and scientists, was left to show him around.
-
-And for the Universe, for Creation, for the most magnificent sight that
-any man would ever see, Diavilev had three hours.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-At three twenty-three in the black afternoon the moonlet came within
-radar range. The alarm claxon screamed. Pyotr Diavilev sat poised and
-ready, holding himself tightly, while the thing came by with a great
-curving rush. There was very little time, but Diavilev worked with
-care and precision, and when he was done he looked into the television
-screen and saw the moonlet go by.
-
-In that moment he felt the presence of God.
-
-The thing was so huge, so incredibly immense, that Diavilev was
-terrified. Jagged, pitted, revolving slowly like a great rolling stone,
-the ball rushed by in the awful silence, blotting out the stars. To
-Diavilev there was never anything so cold, or dark, or ominous, never
-anything at all like it in all the history of man, or the world. _Like
-a stone_, Diavilev thought _from the sling of God_. It bore off into
-the west, reflecting dimly the cold yellow rays of the sun. It was gone
-in seconds.
-
-Diavilev tried to relax. He put a cigarette into his mouth and lighted
-it, but as usual the heated gasses did not rise and the cigarette put
-itself out. Diavilev did not notice. Before he could think, before he
-could even begin to realize the thought that was forming in his mind,
-Krylov was beside him, speaking with restrained exultation.
-
-"Were you successful?"
-
-Diavilev looked up shakily.
-
-"Yes."
-
-"You will check your figures, of course."
-
-"They are accurate."
-
-"Doubtless. But you will check them. When you are certain that there
-is no possibility of error, you will be given your final work. I will
-not tell you that until you have finished here, since what we plan may
-affect the clarity of your thinking. That must not happen."
-
-Diavilev could not stop the question.
-
-"What are you going to do?"
-
-"You will know when there is a need. Your figures must be accurate."
-
-Krylov was gone.
-
-Diavilev sat for a long time without thinking, then he reached up
-slowly and turned off the television, and the Earth and the stars
-were gone. Now he must begin to think; now, really, he must try to
-understand. Twenty-four hours ago he had been in his bed in his home,
-sleeping, and now he was in outer space. It was too much for him.
-
-He could not understand why they had brought him here and before the
-stupendous fact of what was _outside_ he was helpless even to think.
-He had only a fear, a cold growing fear deep inside, because this
-station was the most potent military weapon the world had ever known,
-and because there was no hope now for the rest of the world. Always
-before he had thought, as a matter of course, that the army men would
-never last, would be swallowed eventually in the Russian soil just as
-had all the other conquerors before them. But now he saw that there was
-no chance, and the power of these men, their overwhelming power, was a
-fact he could not deny.
-
-Yet the habit of obedience was great, and this thing too Diavilev
-could forget. For in the end what mattered was only this: Diavilev was
-outside.
-
-No more time to think.
-
-He reached back up, turned on the screen. He surrendered himself with
-awe to watch the shining movements.
-
-And the moonlet was forgotten.
-
-There were many, many things which the moonlet would end, and Pyotr
-Diavilev was one of them, but of this of course he could not know,
-and so he continued to watch while the moonlet swung out over Russia,
-Denmark, and the northern tip of England. Just as it had been passing,
-silently, for a hundred million years. Just as it would pass, still
-silently, for a few more days....
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-The moonlet came round twice more, and each time Pyotr Diavilev
-carefully checked his figures. They were true. The thing was roughly
-circular, something less than five miles in diameter, had an orbital
-speed approaching that of the station. Because of its weight Diavilev
-was certain that it was virtually solid nickel iron. A cold whirling
-mass of iron, five miles thick, come out of eternity and the endless
-reaches of space.
-
-It occurred to Diavilev, with fascination, that no one as yet had
-boarded the thing. He was about to ask when Krylov came up, but now the
-end came, and he had no time.
-
-Krylov wanted to know if he was now certain. Diavilev said yes.
-
-"Good. Now we may begin."
-
-Krylov looked into the television screen, again rubbing his face with
-thick hairy hands. They were just passing over the northwestern coast
-of America; Diavilev waited.
-
-"If you were to take a pail of water," Krylov said calmly, "and whirl
-it around over your head, what would happen to the water?"
-
-Diavilev looked at him queerly.
-
-"It would remain in the pail," Krylov said, smiling.
-
-"If you were swinging it fast enough."
-
-"Exactly."
-
-Krylov turned back to stare at the screen. Below them was the pale
-gleaming blue of the Pacific.
-
-"But if you were to slow it down, comrade," Krylov said gently. "What
-would happen then?"
-
-"It would fall." And then, all of a sudden, Diavilev understood.
-
-Time stopped. Diavilev began to feel sick.
-
-Krylov laughed at his amazement.
-
-"Now take the case of this moon. If we were to slow it down, would it
-not fall?"
-
-"But how...?"
-
-"Would it not?"
-
-"Yes."
-
-"Ha!" Krylov laughed delightedly. "It was my own idea, you know.
-Although I am not a scientific man, this I could do myself. Are you
-amazed? I see that you are."
-
-He clapped a rough hand on Diavilev's knee. Diavilev strove to keep the
-horror from his face.
-
-"Now one thing more. The moon, or moonlet, as you say, passes along a
-definite line over certain areas of the Earth. If we were able to slow
-it down when and where we wanted, the moon could be made to fall at a
-predetermined point along that line. That is obvious.
-
-"You have already computed that path, along with all the necessary
-data. We, my friend, have picked the target. Your further work,
-therefore, is this: you will determine the point and the time at which
-the moonlet must be slowed in order to fall upon the target. It is a
-simple question of trajectory. And that is your mission, your trust."
-
-Diavilev could not speak. This man was clearly mad.
-
-Krylov was laughing again, his teeth bared into Diavilev's eyes.
-
-"Can you conceive it, comrade? Can you imagine it? The hand of God!
-They will call it the hand of God!"
-
-He leaned back and roared almost upsetting himself in the weightless
-air. The other crewmen heard him laugh and turned to look. They were
-all grinning.
-
-Diavilev felt his clothes becoming sodden. Krylov was serious. More
-than that, they were all serious. The Leader himself must know of all
-this and must have approved, or Diavilev would not be here.
-
-_But they cannot have fallen this far_, Diavilev told himself, _not in
-so little a time_.
-
-But they would do it. Observing Krylov, Diavilev understood at last
-that they would, and a great wave of despair cut through him.
-
-"How will you slow it down?"
-
-Krylov waved a fat hand smoothly.
-
-"By a series of hydrogen bomb explosions, placed at intervals along the
-leading face. We have already begun. The bombs are here comrade. The
-thrust of each bomb is known, each will slow the moonlet to a certain
-extent. The last one, which you will time, will slow it too much and it
-will begin to fall. And then," Krylov grinned, "the hand of God."
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-Diavilev removed his glasses, wiped them slowly. Futile to fight,
-futile to oppose. The thing would work, he thought, and this hairy,
-itching maniac knew it. Futile to tell him anything. But he had to say
-something.
-
-"Have you any idea of the explosive power the moonlet will have?"
-
-"Some," Krylov said calmly, turning to watch him now with rock-like
-eyes. "At the speed with which it will hit it can have no tensile
-strength. Therefore the kinetic energy will be transformed into an
-explosive energy. The thing will blow up. It will devastate an area
-several hundred miles wide. It will kill quite a few million people."
-Krylov chuckled. "And it can never be traced to us. It will be an act
-of Providence."
-
-Krylov roared again, waving his arms. "Think of the reaction, consider
-the necessary psychology! At this most crucial point in the history of
-the world, at this time when the enemy is preparing for a 'holy war',
-suddenly a meteor will fall on the center of their land. A meteor
-like none that has ever been dreamed of, and it will be so great a
-coincidence that it should fall at this time, in this place, that they
-will be forced to their knees. The fools--the fat, weak, superstitious
-fools!--will say that it is God's will!"
-
-Krylov roared again. And then he reminded Diavilev that it was his own
-idea.
-
-There was more. Krylov even suggested that the moonlet would be humane.
-It was, after all, only a bomb. And if there was a war there would be
-many bombs. But now the Americans would not dream of bombs. There need
-not be a war at all.
-
-Diavilev sat very still, yessing the rain of incredible logic. It was
-clear to him only that this man was not human at all, that none of them
-were, and that the destruction of civilization was the most inevitable
-thing that ever was.
-
-Krylov said that he knew Diavilev was overwhelmed, that he should rest
-before he completed the final figures. He clapped Diavilev on the
-shoulder and, before leaving, gave him the name of the target area.
-Accuracy, after all, was not so important. If the moonlet hit within a
-few hundred miles that would be enough.
-
-Krylov went off and Diavilev was alone.
-
-The light of the room was electric and undying. There was no blessed
-darkness to come. Diavilev sat in the glare until he could not endure
-it, and then found relief at the screen. With the Universe spread out
-before him, Diavilev made his decision.
-
-For out of the crumbling insanity, up from the measureless ignorance
-which was his home, his nation, and his time, Diavilev had risen into
-the only peace and order he had ever known. There down below him was
-the beautiful Earth and off to his right was the Moon, and above him
-there was nothing for ever and ever, nothing on out to infinity, the
-utter open nothing of deep space. He could never go back to the great
-sickness below. He realized that with great clarity, and a deep calm
-peace came over him. The decision was simple. To everything there is
-an end.
-
-He thought about it for a long while, and then he smiled and it was
-done.
-
-There was very little time. In the few moments that there were he went
-to the telescope. Maybe after all, with no atmosphere to hinder, he
-could really see the canals on Mars....
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-Pyotr Diavilev handed in his figures. The blasting was done in the
-daytime, so that there was little chance of it being seen from Earth.
-Bit by bit, the moonlet slowed. After a while there was only one more
-bomb to go.
-
-With Krylov, in the waning moments, Diavilev rode out with the timing
-equipment. In one of the small, light shuttle craft they went from the
-station to the main rocket from Earth, which was following the moonlet
-along its shortening curve. There was one more hour.
-
-"Very soon now, eh?" smiled Krylov, looking quite deep into Diavilev's
-eyes.
-
-"Yes," said Diavilev.
-
-"We will see it go all the way down. I have arranged for a picture to
-be relayed to a television screen on the rocket. You will have the seat
-of honor."
-
-"Thank you," said Diavilev.
-
-"Yes, you will have the seat of honor." Krylov was still staring at him.
-
-Diavilev looked away. Outside the moonlet seemed stationary in space,
-huge and black and permanent. Diavilev could see the men on one face of
-her, setting the final bomb, which Diavilev would detonate with a radio
-signal. There was one more thing which Diavilev wanted to do.
-
-"Krylov," he said suddenly.
-
-When he turned back he saw that Krylov's eyes were still on him.
-
-"Yes?" Krylov asked.
-
-"I wonder--would you mind if I went aboard the moonlet? I would like
-to see what it is like, really, up close. No scientist has ever had a
-chance like this. Perhaps I might learn something. Would you mind?"
-
-Krylov frowned, lowered his eyes slightly.
-
-"Is there time?"
-
-"There is an hour."
-
-Krylov thought for a long moment. Then he straightened, smiling.
-
-"Of course. You will go. We will both go."
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-Diavilev stepped out onto the surface of the moonlet. That Krylov was
-with him did not matter. He had set foot on an alien world.
-
-He stood upon metal, gazing with wide shining eyes at the crags and
-the cracks, the dark jagged peaks of the thing out of space. This was
-something of which, in his life, he had never dreamed. Now that he had
-done this his life was complete. He moved forward carefully down a
-ragged cleft, turning to speak to Krylov....
-
-... who was not there.
-
-"Krylov!"
-
-Emptiness.
-
-He turned and ran back, beginning to understand. In the lack of gravity
-he almost threw himself out into space, caught hold of a spur and
-pulled himself down.
-
-"Krylov!"
-
-He sat down. There was no need to call again. He lifted his head
-and looked once again through the glass of his helmet at the clean,
-brilliant stars.
-
-"_Idiot._"
-
-It was Krylov's voice, flat and dispassionate, coming through the radio
-in his helmet. Diavilev shuddered.
-
-"Did you think we trusted you? Did you think that we did not know your
-kind can never be trusted? Did you think you could _fool_ us?"
-
-Diavilev did not answer.
-
-"I will not ask why," Krylov said flatly, "that is known only to your
-miserable self." He waited. When Diavilev did not speak his voice came
-again quickly.
-
-"Have you nothing to say, idiot? No epitaph, no begging?"
-
-His voice had become too loud and Diavilev turned the radio down.
-
-"A German checked your figures, Diavilev. Do you understand? A German
-who is now dead found you out, fool. Your trajectory was radioed to
-Earth and checked and corrected, and the meteor will not fall in the
-ocean, Diavilev. It will land on the capitol of the United States!
-
-"And you will be on it. All the way down you will be on it. Is that not
-a fitting end? We are a great people, Diavilev, a poetic and powerful
-people. Is your ending not poetic?..."
-
-Diavilev rose wearily and clambered up the iron walls to a higher
-place, a place from which he could see the sun. Krylov was beginning to
-rave, working himself into a frenzy. Diavilev turned him off, waited
-patiently in the black silence.
-
-There was nothing heroic about him. If he had it to do now he would not
-do it at all, but it was fixed and irrevocable and now he would have to
-wait, afraid and unutterably lonely, until the end.
-
-The stars above him were a billion icy eyes.
-
-After a while there was a flash, and the moonlet kicked under his feet.
-
-He held on as the metal rocked. He waited, waited, waited, until he
-could feel it beginning to fall. Then he took a deep breath and spoke:
-
-"Krylov."
-
-"Goodbye."
-
-"Krylov," Diavilev said quietly, "listen, my army friend. You gave me
-a problem. The problem had two parts. Two parts, army man. And if the
-first part is wrong the other does not matter."
-
-At the other end of the radio, borne through space and the rushing
-emptiness, Diavilev sensed the beginning of fear. He was able to smile.
-
-"What?..." came faintly.
-
-"When you checked the trajectory, did you also bring some German up to
-compute the size of the moonlet all over again?"
-
-Nothing. Diavilev chuckled.
-
-"You didn't, did you, Krylov?"
-
-There was nothing on the radio but an aching, brittle static.
-
-"You used the speed _I_ gave you; you used the mass _I_ gave you. The
-moon will not fall on America, Krylov."
-
-Gradually now, over the weakening radio, came back the sounds which
-were to be the last pleasure of Pyotr Diavilev's life. Rage first,
-and a vast incoherence, and then Krylov began to change in an ugly,
-despairing, dirty way, whimpering, and all Diavilev could understand
-was: "... _my idea, it was my idea!_"
-
-But now Diavilev could not listen, because the moon was falling and
-there was very little time. An end in fire, the little man thought, a
-blessed quick end as I hit the air. He shouted, trying to make himself
-heard.
-
-"We are both dying, army man. Soldier boy, my captain, _do you know
-where the moon will fall_?"
-
-Krylov knew. He went mad.
-
-"Watch me go!" and now Diavilev was laughing, "take your seat of honor
-and watch me all the way. Here I go, Krylov, watch me! Watch your
-world!"
-
-He stopped, out of breath, to hang on, while the moon fell away beneath
-him, faster, faster, and the stars began to whirl, and a poetic end,
-he thought, a lovely end, let there be an end. And eventually the
-end came and Diavilev was dust, and his dust mingled evenly with the
-fire-blasted soil of Russia.
-
-*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SLING AND THE STONE ***
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-<div style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Sling and the Stone, by Michael Shaara</div>
-
-<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
-most other parts of the world 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 <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you
-are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the
-country where you are located before using this eBook.
-</div>
-
-<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: The Sling and the Stone</p>
-
-<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Michael Shaara</div>
-
-<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: September 13, 2021 [eBook #66292]</div>
-
-<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div>
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-<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div>
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-<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net</div>
-
-<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SLING AND THE STONE ***</div>
-
-<div class="titlepage">
-
-<h1>The Sling And The Stone</h1>
-
-<h2>By Michael Shaara</h2>
-
-<p>Russian scientists knew that open warfare<br />
-with America was hazardous. Yet, ironically, a<br />
-victory could be gained&mdash;via the Hand of God!</p>
-
-<p>[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from<br />
-Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy<br />
-March 1954<br />
-Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that<br />
-the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p><i>On the morning of the first day, floating in the cold of space, they
-inflated the station. It puffed up tightly to a silvery doughnut, and
-four men whose names were Krylov, Mirkov, Stolyakhin and Davchenko went
-to live inside. There was no ceremony. Out of a motionless rocket
-which hung in space nearby, other men came, trailing long wires. All
-the long black afternoon of that day these men clustered on the skin of
-the doughnut, fixing curved weightless slabs of carbon-coated aluminum
-to the sides. And within the station, where there was air and therefore
-a blessed noise, the four men worked with fluttery movements, attaching
-wires and steel ribs, adjusting, connecting. After a while there was
-nothing more to do. The rocket pulled in its lines, gathered up its
-men. When they were all inside it turned over slightly and spat a
-silent flame, and began to fall, and fell, and was gone.</i></p>
-
-<p><i>That was the first day.</i></p>
-
-<p><i>The second day was filled with work, and watching, and a great awe.</i></p>
-
-<p><i>The third day began to be lonely.</i></p>
-
-<p><i>On the fourth day they had a visitor....</i></p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>The mindless insanity, so carefully by-passed for so many years,
-reached out at last and drew him in. Diavilev awoke.</p>
-
-<p>The room was very cold, Pyotr Diavilev struggled into his clothes, not
-sleepy at all, while the army man stood silently at the foot of the
-bed. Outside the door, stolid and heavy-footed in the darkness, there
-were other army men, creaking the floorboards and chuckling.</p>
-
-<p>And so it comes, Diavilev thought. There was nothing at all to say or
-do. He hitched his belt tightly and breathed for what seemed like the
-first time, and then he nodded to the army man.</p>
-
-<p>He was taken away.</p>
-
-<p>He sat in the dark, in the plush rear seat of a huge car being driven
-at great speed through the city. He was surprised; he had expected them
-to be more brutal. But they were never, ever, what you expected. In the
-darkness he strove to compose himself.</p>
-
-<p>The army man asked him for a cigarette. When he struck the match
-Diavilev realized that he had forgotten his glasses.</p>
-
-<p>"My glasses," he said humbly, "please, I have forgotten my glasses."</p>
-
-<p>The army man surprisingly, seemed concerned. Then he said:</p>
-
-<p>"Never mind. We will get them."</p>
-
-<p>He leaned forward and spoke into a radio. There was a brief reply
-which Diavilev could not hear and the army man sat back comfortably,
-satisfied.</p>
-
-<p>"Your glasses will be there," he said.</p>
-
-<p>Diavilev thanked him. Because of the unexpected courtesy the level of
-his fear began to go down. <i>Perhaps it will not be so bad</i>, he thought.
-<i>Maybe after all it is only interrogation.</i> But again he thought that
-you never knew what to expect, that in all the long years of yessing
-and bowing and applauding he had never understood them.</p>
-
-<p>Well then, now was the time to understand.</p>
-
-<p><i>I will say whatever they want me to say, I will not resist in the
-least. What does it matter? The world belongs to them, and if a man
-wishes to live he must be logical and agree. Let them do what they
-will, and I will applaud every step of the way.</i></p>
-
-<p>He folded his hands in his lap.</p>
-
-<p>After a long while the car stopped. The first army man gave him over to
-another army man whom he could not see in the darkness, and after many
-a salute he was conducted through a black iron gate. Within minutes he
-was aboard a plane with four more army men. No one would say anything.
-Pyotr Diavilev slept.</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>This of course he could not believe.</p>
-
-<p>He saw the thing clearly in the late morning sun, rising in an
-enormous, shining tube from the hard-baked floor of the desert, but it
-was obviously impossible. He was taken on an elevator one hundred feet
-into the air and ushered through a door into the side of the thing,
-not believing any of it for an instant. He was told, rather kindly
-for once, that he was to be taken up in this thing and not to worry,
-because it had been tested. Many times. But he was so completely
-overwhelmed that he could not ask a question. There was nothing but
-army men now, one of whom conducted him to a foam rubber hammock and
-strapped him in. To his utter astonishment, the thing actually did take
-off.</p>
-
-<p>There were some very bad minutes. For a while he weighed several tons
-and could not move, and then he weighed nothing at all and was sick.
-Someone else unstrapped him and gave him pills, and then thoughtfully
-tied him to a handring on the wall. And at long last his mind began to
-accept it.</p>
-
-<p>The incredible Soviet had succeeded. His Russian contemporaries had put
-a manned vessel in outer space.</p>
-
-<p>Diavilev sat quietly stupefied.</p>
-
-<p>That the spouting, unshaven, preposterous baboons with whom he had
-worked could have built this thing seemed to him blankly impossible.
-Being one himself, Pyotr Diavilev had no great respect for what Russian
-scientists the great many purges had left. But of course there the
-thing was. Built by Germans perhaps, with secrets stolen from the
-Americans while they haggled about peace; nevertheless, there the thing
-was.</p>
-
-<p>And if he was going up now there could be only one place to go and
-therefore he was not a prisoner at all. The wonder and relief of it
-was too much at once. He surrendered himself to awe. When the time came
-to board the satellite he was poised and ready.</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>In the midst of a curving room hung and inset with a thousand shining
-gadgets, Pyotr Diavilev floated in the air. A black-browed man took his
-arm carefully and pulled him to the floor, placed magnetic-soled shoes
-on his feet. Diavilev could not help grinning delightedly. The dark
-man, whose name was Krylov, stood thoughtfully and absently scratching
-his cheek.</p>
-
-<p>"Now as to why you are here," he said, and Diavilev tensed and waited.
-There were three other men in the room, but no one moved.</p>
-
-<p>"You understand of course what this station is, and that the building
-of it places us, our people, in control of the world."</p>
-
-<p>Diavilev nodded.</p>
-
-<p>"Atomic missiles launched from this base may be guided exactly to any
-point on the surface of the Earth that we select, yet the station
-itself represents so small and distinct a target as to be virtually
-invulnerable. Russia, my friend, need fear no country on Earth. Not,"
-he added quickly, "that she ever did, of course."</p>
-
-<p>Diavilev, with the inbred habit of years, gave his congratulations.
-Krylov stood looking at him closely, half-smiling, rubbing again at
-his cheek. There was something infinitely chilling in the moment, but
-Diavilev was able to smile back.</p>
-
-<p>"This station has been in existence," said Krylov, "for slightly more
-than a week. There are not fifty people in the entire world who know of
-it. You have become one. You are therefore most important."</p>
-
-<p>Diavilev was becoming nervous.</p>
-
-<p>"But you are important," Krylov went on slowly, "for other reasons. To
-be exact, you are perhaps as important at this moment as any man who
-ever lived."</p>
-
-<p>Diavilev, dazed, struggled to digest that while Krylov held him with
-his eyes and the three other men spoke lowly among themselves.</p>
-
-<p>"I am saying all this to impress upon you the vastness of the work with
-which you have been entrusted. I want you to understand clearly that
-the accuracy of your work could mean the collapse of all our enemies,
-of the entire capitalistic empire. Therefore you <i>will</i> be accurate."</p>
-
-<p>There was a fixity to Krylov's face which was unsettling. Diavilev
-waited, uneasy and bewildered. The dark man smiled.</p>
-
-<p>"You are a Russian," he stated powerfully. "We know that you will do
-your best."</p>
-
-<p>"Of course," Diavilev said.</p>
-
-<p>Krylov turned and pulled open a drawer. Out of the drawer he drew a
-chart and handed it to Diavilev.</p>
-
-<p>"Do you recognize that?"</p>
-
-<p>Diavilev stared.</p>
-
-<p>"That is the plotted orbit," Krylov said carefully, "of a moon. It is
-not of course the moon with which you are familiar. But it is a moon
-circling the Earth, a <i>second</i> moon.</p>
-
-<p>"It is a moon of which no one knows, excepting ourselves and
-the Kremlin. We discovered it shortly after we arrived, when it
-passed quite near the station. It is small and dark, too small and
-non-reflecting to be seen from Earth. It is approximately five miles
-wide.</p>
-
-<p>"Do you understand?"</p>
-
-<p>Diavilev who had had to digest a great many things in a very short
-while, was able to nod. Because this was, after all, Diavilev's field.</p>
-
-<p>A second moon, he told Krylov, speaking with some excitement, had long
-been predicted by astrophysicists everywhere. Since the Earth had
-been attracting meteors for something like two billion years, it was
-inevitable that <i>some</i> at least should be captured as moons.</p>
-
-<p>Krylov broke in, nodding with impatience.</p>
-
-<p>"Exactly. And now as to your work. You will see this moon shortly, when
-it crosses our path again. At that time you will correct the orbit we
-have plotted. You will also give us the exact mass and speed of that
-moon. The instruments you will need are already here. Let me emphasize
-this: You will be accurate. Is that clear?"</p>
-
-<p>Diavilev nodded.</p>
-
-<p>"Do you have any questions?"</p>
-
-<p>Diavilev had none. He wanted to ask why, of course, but he knew from
-long experience of army men that Krylov was not ready to tell him. He
-set himself, as always, to be patient. And now as well he wanted to
-think, he wanted to be alone. The magnificent fact of where he was had
-begun at last to envelope him. Now he wanted to <i>see</i>.</p>
-
-<p>"Very well," said Krylov, "the moon will be here in three hours."</p>
-
-<p>The interview ended. The army men moved away awkwardly, through the
-air. A young man named Stolyakhin, clearly showing his contempt for
-intellectuals and scientists, was left to show him around.</p>
-
-<p>And for the Universe, for Creation, for the most magnificent sight that
-any man would ever see, Diavilev had three hours.</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>At three twenty-three in the black afternoon the moonlet came within
-radar range. The alarm claxon screamed. Pyotr Diavilev sat poised and
-ready, holding himself tightly, while the thing came by with a great
-curving rush. There was very little time, but Diavilev worked with
-care and precision, and when he was done he looked into the television
-screen and saw the moonlet go by.</p>
-
-<p>In that moment he felt the presence of God.</p>
-
-<p>The thing was so huge, so incredibly immense, that Diavilev was
-terrified. Jagged, pitted, revolving slowly like a great rolling stone,
-the ball rushed by in the awful silence, blotting out the stars. To
-Diavilev there was never anything so cold, or dark, or ominous, never
-anything at all like it in all the history of man, or the world. <i>Like
-a stone</i>, Diavilev thought <i>from the sling of God</i>. It bore off into
-the west, reflecting dimly the cold yellow rays of the sun. It was gone
-in seconds.</p>
-
-<p>Diavilev tried to relax. He put a cigarette into his mouth and lighted
-it, but as usual the heated gasses did not rise and the cigarette put
-itself out. Diavilev did not notice. Before he could think, before he
-could even begin to realize the thought that was forming in his mind,
-Krylov was beside him, speaking with restrained exultation.</p>
-
-<p>"Were you successful?"</p>
-
-<p>Diavilev looked up shakily.</p>
-
-<p>"Yes."</p>
-
-<p>"You will check your figures, of course."</p>
-
-<p>"They are accurate."</p>
-
-<p>"Doubtless. But you will check them. When you are certain that there
-is no possibility of error, you will be given your final work. I will
-not tell you that until you have finished here, since what we plan may
-affect the clarity of your thinking. That must not happen."</p>
-
-<p>Diavilev could not stop the question.</p>
-
-<p>"What are you going to do?"</p>
-
-<p>"You will know when there is a need. Your figures must be accurate."</p>
-
-<p>Krylov was gone.</p>
-
-<p>Diavilev sat for a long time without thinking, then he reached up
-slowly and turned off the television, and the Earth and the stars
-were gone. Now he must begin to think; now, really, he must try to
-understand. Twenty-four hours ago he had been in his bed in his home,
-sleeping, and now he was in outer space. It was too much for him.</p>
-
-<p>He could not understand why they had brought him here and before the
-stupendous fact of what was <i>outside</i> he was helpless even to think.
-He had only a fear, a cold growing fear deep inside, because this
-station was the most potent military weapon the world had ever known,
-and because there was no hope now for the rest of the world. Always
-before he had thought, as a matter of course, that the army men would
-never last, would be swallowed eventually in the Russian soil just as
-had all the other conquerors before them. But now he saw that there was
-no chance, and the power of these men, their overwhelming power, was a
-fact he could not deny.</p>
-
-<p>Yet the habit of obedience was great, and this thing too Diavilev
-could forget. For in the end what mattered was only this: Diavilev was
-outside.</p>
-
-<p>No more time to think.</p>
-
-<p>He reached back up, turned on the screen. He surrendered himself with
-awe to watch the shining movements.</p>
-
-<p>And the moonlet was forgotten.</p>
-
-<p>There were many, many things which the moonlet would end, and Pyotr
-Diavilev was one of them, but of this of course he could not know,
-and so he continued to watch while the moonlet swung out over Russia,
-Denmark, and the northern tip of England. Just as it had been passing,
-silently, for a hundred million years. Just as it would pass, still
-silently, for a few more days....</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>The moonlet came round twice more, and each time Pyotr Diavilev
-carefully checked his figures. They were true. The thing was roughly
-circular, something less than five miles in diameter, had an orbital
-speed approaching that of the station. Because of its weight Diavilev
-was certain that it was virtually solid nickel iron. A cold whirling
-mass of iron, five miles thick, come out of eternity and the endless
-reaches of space.</p>
-
-<p>It occurred to Diavilev, with fascination, that no one as yet had
-boarded the thing. He was about to ask when Krylov came up, but now the
-end came, and he had no time.</p>
-
-<p>Krylov wanted to know if he was now certain. Diavilev said yes.</p>
-
-<p>"Good. Now we may begin."</p>
-
-<p>Krylov looked into the television screen, again rubbing his face with
-thick hairy hands. They were just passing over the northwestern coast
-of America; Diavilev waited.</p>
-
-<p>"If you were to take a pail of water," Krylov said calmly, "and whirl
-it around over your head, what would happen to the water?"</p>
-
-<p>Diavilev looked at him queerly.</p>
-
-<p>"It would remain in the pail," Krylov said, smiling.</p>
-
-<p>"If you were swinging it fast enough."</p>
-
-<p>"Exactly."</p>
-
-<p>Krylov turned back to stare at the screen. Below them was the pale
-gleaming blue of the Pacific.</p>
-
-<p>"But if you were to slow it down, comrade," Krylov said gently. "What
-would happen then?"</p>
-
-<p>"It would fall." And then, all of a sudden, Diavilev understood.</p>
-
-<p>Time stopped. Diavilev began to feel sick.</p>
-
-<p>Krylov laughed at his amazement.</p>
-
-<p>"Now take the case of this moon. If we were to slow it down, would it
-not fall?"</p>
-
-<p>"But how...?"</p>
-
-<p>"Would it not?"</p>
-
-<p>"Yes."</p>
-
-<p>"Ha!" Krylov laughed delightedly. "It was my own idea, you know.
-Although I am not a scientific man, this I could do myself. Are you
-amazed? I see that you are."</p>
-
-<p>He clapped a rough hand on Diavilev's knee. Diavilev strove to keep the
-horror from his face.</p>
-
-<p>"Now one thing more. The moon, or moonlet, as you say, passes along a
-definite line over certain areas of the Earth. If we were able to slow
-it down when and where we wanted, the moon could be made to fall at a
-predetermined point along that line. That is obvious.</p>
-
-<p>"You have already computed that path, along with all the necessary
-data. We, my friend, have picked the target. Your further work,
-therefore, is this: you will determine the point and the time at which
-the moonlet must be slowed in order to fall upon the target. It is a
-simple question of trajectory. And that is your mission, your trust."</p>
-
-<p>Diavilev could not speak. This man was clearly mad.</p>
-
-<p>Krylov was laughing again, his teeth bared into Diavilev's eyes.</p>
-
-<p>"Can you conceive it, comrade? Can you imagine it? The hand of God!
-They will call it the hand of God!"</p>
-
-<p>He leaned back and roared almost upsetting himself in the weightless
-air. The other crewmen heard him laugh and turned to look. They were
-all grinning.</p>
-
-<p>Diavilev felt his clothes becoming sodden. Krylov was serious. More
-than that, they were all serious. The Leader himself must know of all
-this and must have approved, or Diavilev would not be here.</p>
-
-<p><i>But they cannot have fallen this far</i>, Diavilev told himself, <i>not in
-so little a time</i>.</p>
-
-<p>But they would do it. Observing Krylov, Diavilev understood at last
-that they would, and a great wave of despair cut through him.</p>
-
-<p>"How will you slow it down?"</p>
-
-<p>Krylov waved a fat hand smoothly.</p>
-
-<p>"By a series of hydrogen bomb explosions, placed at intervals along the
-leading face. We have already begun. The bombs are here comrade. The
-thrust of each bomb is known, each will slow the moonlet to a certain
-extent. The last one, which you will time, will slow it too much and it
-will begin to fall. And then," Krylov grinned, "the hand of God."</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>Diavilev removed his glasses, wiped them slowly. Futile to fight,
-futile to oppose. The thing would work, he thought, and this hairy,
-itching maniac knew it. Futile to tell him anything. But he had to say
-something.</p>
-
-<p>"Have you any idea of the explosive power the moonlet will have?"</p>
-
-<p>"Some," Krylov said calmly, turning to watch him now with rock-like
-eyes. "At the speed with which it will hit it can have no tensile
-strength. Therefore the kinetic energy will be transformed into an
-explosive energy. The thing will blow up. It will devastate an area
-several hundred miles wide. It will kill quite a few million people."
-Krylov chuckled. "And it can never be traced to us. It will be an act
-of Providence."</p>
-
-<p>Krylov roared again, waving his arms. "Think of the reaction, consider
-the necessary psychology! At this most crucial point in the history of
-the world, at this time when the enemy is preparing for a 'holy war',
-suddenly a meteor will fall on the center of their land. A meteor
-like none that has ever been dreamed of, and it will be so great a
-coincidence that it should fall at this time, in this place, that they
-will be forced to their knees. The fools&mdash;the fat, weak, superstitious
-fools!&mdash;will say that it is God's will!"</p>
-
-<p>Krylov roared again. And then he reminded Diavilev that it was his own
-idea.</p>
-
-<p>There was more. Krylov even suggested that the moonlet would be humane.
-It was, after all, only a bomb. And if there was a war there would be
-many bombs. But now the Americans would not dream of bombs. There need
-not be a war at all.</p>
-
-<p>Diavilev sat very still, yessing the rain of incredible logic. It was
-clear to him only that this man was not human at all, that none of them
-were, and that the destruction of civilization was the most inevitable
-thing that ever was.</p>
-
-<p>Krylov said that he knew Diavilev was overwhelmed, that he should rest
-before he completed the final figures. He clapped Diavilev on the
-shoulder and, before leaving, gave him the name of the target area.
-Accuracy, after all, was not so important. If the moonlet hit within a
-few hundred miles that would be enough.</p>
-
-<p>Krylov went off and Diavilev was alone.</p>
-
-<p>The light of the room was electric and undying. There was no blessed
-darkness to come. Diavilev sat in the glare until he could not endure
-it, and then found relief at the screen. With the Universe spread out
-before him, Diavilev made his decision.</p>
-
-<p>For out of the crumbling insanity, up from the measureless ignorance
-which was his home, his nation, and his time, Diavilev had risen into
-the only peace and order he had ever known. There down below him was
-the beautiful Earth and off to his right was the Moon, and above him
-there was nothing for ever and ever, nothing on out to infinity, the
-utter open nothing of deep space. He could never go back to the great
-sickness below. He realized that with great clarity, and a deep calm
-peace came over him. The decision was simple. To everything there is
-an end.</p>
-
-<p>He thought about it for a long while, and then he smiled and it was
-done.</p>
-
-<p>There was very little time. In the few moments that there were he went
-to the telescope. Maybe after all, with no atmosphere to hinder, he
-could really see the canals on Mars....</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>Pyotr Diavilev handed in his figures. The blasting was done in the
-daytime, so that there was little chance of it being seen from Earth.
-Bit by bit, the moonlet slowed. After a while there was only one more
-bomb to go.</p>
-
-<p>With Krylov, in the waning moments, Diavilev rode out with the timing
-equipment. In one of the small, light shuttle craft they went from the
-station to the main rocket from Earth, which was following the moonlet
-along its shortening curve. There was one more hour.</p>
-
-<p>"Very soon now, eh?" smiled Krylov, looking quite deep into Diavilev's
-eyes.</p>
-
-<p>"Yes," said Diavilev.</p>
-
-<p>"We will see it go all the way down. I have arranged for a picture to
-be relayed to a television screen on the rocket. You will have the seat
-of honor."</p>
-
-<p>"Thank you," said Diavilev.</p>
-
-<p>"Yes, you will have the seat of honor." Krylov was still staring at him.</p>
-
-<p>Diavilev looked away. Outside the moonlet seemed stationary in space,
-huge and black and permanent. Diavilev could see the men on one face of
-her, setting the final bomb, which Diavilev would detonate with a radio
-signal. There was one more thing which Diavilev wanted to do.</p>
-
-<p>"Krylov," he said suddenly.</p>
-
-<p>When he turned back he saw that Krylov's eyes were still on him.</p>
-
-<p>"Yes?" Krylov asked.</p>
-
-<p>"I wonder&mdash;would you mind if I went aboard the moonlet? I would like
-to see what it is like, really, up close. No scientist has ever had a
-chance like this. Perhaps I might learn something. Would you mind?"</p>
-
-<p>Krylov frowned, lowered his eyes slightly.</p>
-
-<p>"Is there time?"</p>
-
-<p>"There is an hour."</p>
-
-<p>Krylov thought for a long moment. Then he straightened, smiling.</p>
-
-<p>"Of course. You will go. We will both go."</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>Diavilev stepped out onto the surface of the moonlet. That Krylov was
-with him did not matter. He had set foot on an alien world.</p>
-
-<p>He stood upon metal, gazing with wide shining eyes at the crags and
-the cracks, the dark jagged peaks of the thing out of space. This was
-something of which, in his life, he had never dreamed. Now that he had
-done this his life was complete. He moved forward carefully down a
-ragged cleft, turning to speak to Krylov....</p>
-
-<p>... who was not there.</p>
-
-<p>"Krylov!"</p>
-
-<p>Emptiness.</p>
-
-<p>He turned and ran back, beginning to understand. In the lack of gravity
-he almost threw himself out into space, caught hold of a spur and
-pulled himself down.</p>
-
-<p>"Krylov!"</p>
-
-<p>He sat down. There was no need to call again. He lifted his head
-and looked once again through the glass of his helmet at the clean,
-brilliant stars.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-  <img src="images/illus.jpg" alt=""/>
-</div>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p>"<i>Idiot.</i>"</p>
-
-<p>It was Krylov's voice, flat and dispassionate, coming through the radio
-in his helmet. Diavilev shuddered.</p>
-
-<p>"Did you think we trusted you? Did you think that we did not know your
-kind can never be trusted? Did you think you could <i>fool</i> us?"</p>
-
-<p>Diavilev did not answer.</p>
-
-<p>"I will not ask why," Krylov said flatly, "that is known only to your
-miserable self." He waited. When Diavilev did not speak his voice came
-again quickly.</p>
-
-<p>"Have you nothing to say, idiot? No epitaph, no begging?"</p>
-
-<p>His voice had become too loud and Diavilev turned the radio down.</p>
-
-<p>"A German checked your figures, Diavilev. Do you understand? A German
-who is now dead found you out, fool. Your trajectory was radioed to
-Earth and checked and corrected, and the meteor will not fall in the
-ocean, Diavilev. It will land on the capitol of the United States!</p>
-
-<p>"And you will be on it. All the way down you will be on it. Is that not
-a fitting end? We are a great people, Diavilev, a poetic and powerful
-people. Is your ending not poetic?..."</p>
-
-<p>Diavilev rose wearily and clambered up the iron walls to a higher
-place, a place from which he could see the sun. Krylov was beginning to
-rave, working himself into a frenzy. Diavilev turned him off, waited
-patiently in the black silence.</p>
-
-<p>There was nothing heroic about him. If he had it to do now he would not
-do it at all, but it was fixed and irrevocable and now he would have to
-wait, afraid and unutterably lonely, until the end.</p>
-
-<p>The stars above him were a billion icy eyes.</p>
-
-<p>After a while there was a flash, and the moonlet kicked under his feet.</p>
-
-<p>He held on as the metal rocked. He waited, waited, waited, until he
-could feel it beginning to fall. Then he took a deep breath and spoke:</p>
-
-<p>"Krylov."</p>
-
-<p>"Goodbye."</p>
-
-<p>"Krylov," Diavilev said quietly, "listen, my army friend. You gave me
-a problem. The problem had two parts. Two parts, army man. And if the
-first part is wrong the other does not matter."</p>
-
-<p>At the other end of the radio, borne through space and the rushing
-emptiness, Diavilev sensed the beginning of fear. He was able to smile.</p>
-
-<p>"What?..." came faintly.</p>
-
-<p>"When you checked the trajectory, did you also bring some German up to
-compute the size of the moonlet all over again?"</p>
-
-<p>Nothing. Diavilev chuckled.</p>
-
-<p>"You didn't, did you, Krylov?"</p>
-
-<p>There was nothing on the radio but an aching, brittle static.</p>
-
-<p>"You used the speed <i>I</i> gave you; you used the mass <i>I</i> gave you. The
-moon will not fall on America, Krylov."</p>
-
-<p>Gradually now, over the weakening radio, came back the sounds which
-were to be the last pleasure of Pyotr Diavilev's life. Rage first,
-and a vast incoherence, and then Krylov began to change in an ugly,
-despairing, dirty way, whimpering, and all Diavilev could understand
-was: "... <i>my idea, it was my idea!</i>"</p>
-
-<p>But now Diavilev could not listen, because the moon was falling and
-there was very little time. An end in fire, the little man thought, a
-blessed quick end as I hit the air. He shouted, trying to make himself
-heard.</p>
-
-<p>"We are both dying, army man. Soldier boy, my captain, <i>do you know
-where the moon will fall</i>?"</p>
-
-<p>Krylov knew. He went mad.</p>
-
-<p>"Watch me go!" and now Diavilev was laughing, "take your seat of honor
-and watch me all the way. Here I go, Krylov, watch me! Watch your
-world!"</p>
-
-<p>He stopped, out of breath, to hang on, while the moon fell away beneath
-him, faster, faster, and the stars began to whirl, and a poetic end,
-he thought, a lovely end, let there be an end. And eventually the
-end came and Diavilev was dust, and his dust mingled evenly with the
-fire-blasted soil of Russia.</p>
-
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