Progress Report Read online

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  _Progress is relative; Senator O'Noonan's idea of it was notparticularly scientific. Which would be too bad, if he had the lastword!_

  Progress Report

  By Mark Clifton and Alex Apostolides

  Illustrated by PAUL ORBAN

  It seemed to Colonel Jennings that the air conditioning unit merelywashed the hot air around him without lowering the temperature from thatoutside. He knew it was partly psychosomatic, compounded of the view ofthe silvery spire of the test ship through the heatwaves of the Nevadalandscape and the knowledge that this was the day, the hour, and theminutes.

  The final test was at hand. The instrument ship was to be sent out intospace, controlled from this sunken concrete bunker, to find out if theflimsy bodies of men could endure there.

  Jennings visualized other bunkers scattered through the area,observation posts, and farther away the field headquarters with opentelephone lines to the Pentagon, and beyond that a world waiting fornews of the test--and not everyone wishing it well.

  The monotonous buzz of the field phone pulled him away from hisfascinated gaze at the periscope slit. He glanced at his two assistants,Professor Stein and Major Eddy. They were seated in front of theircontrol boards, staring at the blank eyes of their radar screens,patiently enduring the beads of sweat on their faces and necks andhands, the odor of it arising from their bodies. They too were feelingthe moment. He picked up the phone.

  "Jennings," he said crisply.

  "Zero minus one half hour, Colonel. We start alert count in fifteenminutes."

  "Right," Colonel Jennings spoke softly, showing none of the excitementhe felt. He replaced the field phone on its hook and spoke to the twomen 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 tohave a load placed upon them.

  Professor Stein gave no indication that he had heard. His thin body wasstooped over his instrument bank, intense, alert, as if he were a runnercrouched at the starting mark, as if he were young again.

  Colonel Jennings walked over to the periscope slit again and peeredthrough the shimmer of heat to where the silvery ship lay arrowed in hercradle. The last few moments of waiting, with a brassy taste in hismouth, with the vision of the test ship before him; these were theworst.

  Everything had been done, checked and rechecked hours and days ago. Hefound himself wishing there were some little thing, some desperatelittle error which must be corrected hurriedly, just something to breakthe tension of waiting.

  "You're all right, Sam, Prof?" he asked the major and professorunnecessarily.

  "A little nervous," Major Eddy answered without moving.

  "Of course," Professor Stein said. There was a too heavy stress on thesibilant sound, as if the last traces of accent had not yet beenremoved.

  "I expect everyone is nervous, not just the hundreds involved in this,but everywhere," Jennings commented. And then ruefully, "ExceptProfessor Stein there. I thought surely I'd see some nerves at thispoint, Prof." He was attempting to make light conversation, something tobreak the strain of mounting buck fever.

  "If I let even one nerve tendril slack, Colonel, I would go to piecesentirely," Stein said precisely, in the way a man speaks who has learnedthe language from text books. "So I do not think of our ship at all. Ithink of mankind. I wonder if mankind is as ready as our ship. I wonderif 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 forbeing a little bitter. But not all mankind is like that, you know. Aslong as you've been in our country, Professor, you've never lookedaround you. You've been working on this, never lifting your head...."

  * * * * *

  He jerked in annoyance as a red light blinked over the emergencycircuit, and a buzzing, sharp and repeated, broke into this moment whenhe felt he was actually reaching, touching Stein, as no one had before.

  He dragged the phone toward him and began speaking angrily into itsmouthpiece 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 thereceiver, 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 himquestioningly. He shrugged his shoulders, an indication to them of hishelplessness.

  "You're not going to like this, Jim," the general was saying. "But it'sorders from Pentagon. Are you familiar with Senator O'Noonan?"

  "Vaguely," Jennings answered.

  "You'll be more familiar with him, Jim. He's been newly appointedchairman of the appropriations committee covering our work. And he'sfought it bitterly from the beginning. He's tried every way he could toscrap the entire project. When we've finished this test, Jim, we'll haveused up our appropriations to date. Whether we get any more depends onhim."

  "Yes, sir?" Jennings spoke questioningly. Political maneuvering was nothis problem, that was between Pentagon and Congress.

  "We must have his support, Jim," the general explained. "Pentagon hasn'tbeen 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'thave any bearing. So Pentagon invited him to come to the field here towatch 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 ofcontrol, your operation, he might be won over. If he could actuallyparticipate, press the activating key or something, if the headlinescould show he was working with us, actually sent the test ship on itsflight...."

  "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 wonover, Colonel. It's your project." Considering the years that he and thegeneral had worked together, the warm accord and informality betweenthem, 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. SenatorO'Noonan."

  "Even in Germany," Professor Stein said quietly, "they knew enough toleave 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 whatorders 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 radarscreens, to the protective obscurity of subordinates carrying out anassignment. They were no longer three men coming close together, almostunderstanding one another in this moment of waiting, when the world andall in it had been shut away, and nothing real existed except thesilvery spire out there on the desert and the life of it in the controlsat 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. Hisvoice was hearty, but there was no warmth behind his tones. He paused onthe threshold, bulky, i
mpressive, as if he were about to deliver anaddress. But Jennings, while shaking hands, drew him into the bunker,pointedly, causing the senator to raise bushy eyebrows and stare at himspeculatively.

  "At this point everything runs on a split second basis, Senator," hesaid crisply. "Ceremony comes after the test." His implication was thatwhen the work was done, the senator could have his turn in thelimelight, take all the credit, turn it into political fodder to bethrown to the people. But because the man was chairman of theappropriations committee, he softened his abruptness. "If the timing isoff even a small fraction, Senator, we would have to scrap the flightand start all over."

  "At