«But would ammonia work?»
«Any reasonably inert liquid works. Ammonia works fine. It’s been tried, on the test block. The only strike against it is that at ordinary temperatures, it’s a gas unless it’s kept under pressure in the tank. A pressurized tank has to be a heavier tank; it adds to the weight of the rocket and so cuts down the pay load.»
«But in that case, Max—»
«The difference in rocket weight, though, in using pressurized tanks is slight, almost negligible, compared to the weight difference of having to carry exhaust gas liquid for the round trip. That’s big enough to make the difference between a one-stage rocket and a three-stage. Between fifty million and three hundred million.»
Ellen leaned forward. «Max, that would make a tremendous difference. If it can be done as cheaply as that—Are you sure?»
I said, «I’ll make sure. Right now. I’ll be back tomorrow evening. Same time.» I stood up:
«Don’t rush off—»
I rushed off. Home. Limbered up my slide rule on a few preliminaries and then realized I didn’t have all the data I’d need to work it out thoroughly. Klockerman would have it all, either in his head or his library. And he’d be better than I, particularly in figuring costs; that was where I’d be weakest.
I called him and explained, told him we’d better work at his place because all the data would be there. I called a helicab.
We worked all night.
We figured it. Not exactly, but to one decimal place, near enough to show that it would work, and easily. And I’d guessed high on the cost. Klocky figured it to be twenty-six million, less than a tenth the cost of Bradly’s step-rocket.
We topped the coffee we’d been drinking all night with breakfast and benzedrine and went to work.
That night I gave the results to Ellen. She studied them wonderingly. Especially the table of costs and its total.
«You say Klockerman worked with you on this?»
«It’s more his work than mine.»
«He’s good, isn’t he?»
«The best,» I said. «The best, that is, outside of a few boys in government service, at Los Alamos and White Sands. And of course they’ll go over those specifications later, before the rocket’s actually started. But I’ll guarantee you, Ellen, they’ll find nothing fundamentally wrong. They may make minor changes, may insist on upping a few safety factors slightly, but they won’t up the estimate more than 10 per cent at the very most, and that’s still under thirty million.»
She nodded slowly. «Then this is the rocket we’ll use. Now, Max, make us a drink and we’ll drink to it.»
We drank to it. I gave us each a straight drink first that we could down as a toast, and then I made a pair of highballs for leisurely sipping.
Ellen sipped hers thoughtfully. «Max, this is going to change things a lot. It gives me an idea. I’m going to Washington in two weeks. I’m well now, but I’m going to take two more weeks for a little more rest and some planning. And do you know what I’m going to do as soon as I get to the Senate?»
«Sure. Since this is only a tenth what you thought you’d have to ask for, you’ll try to get it through this session. Right?»
«Wrong. This year it would be vetoed regardless of amount and even if I could get it through that quickly, and I couldn’t. No, I’ve got an idea that will get this through like a shot next session, early next session. As soon as I get to Washington I’m going to put an appropriation bill in the hopper based on Brad’s step-rocket.»
«My God,» I yelled. «Why?»
«Quiet.» She grinned. «Yes, the three hundred ten million dollar rocket. But I’ll also make sure that it stays in committee and doesn’t get voted on. Early next session, the first week, I go to the committee and offer to withdraw that bill in favor of a substitute one—one tenth the size. Max, I’ll have it through both houses and past the President in a month!»
I said, «Senator, I love you.»
She laughed. «It’s the rocket you love. The rocket and Jupiter.»
«And the stars. But you too, Senator Ellen Gallagher.»
Suddenly it came to me that I’d meant what I’d just said.
I loved her, and because she was a woman, not because she was pushing a rocket.
I went over and sat beside her on the sofa, put my arm around her and kissed her. And again, and this time her arms came up around me, pulling me to her tightly.
«You damned fool,» she said, «why did you wait so long to do that?»
I decided that a couple of weeks off studying would do me more good than harm in the long run. I was ahead of schedule on my studies and I was pretty sure that I’d get the degree in plenty of time; a little rest would keep me from getting stale.
So I spent most of my evenings those two weeks with Ellen. A few nights too, but we were discreet about it. A scandal wouldn’t have helped Ellen’s career.
And marriage was definitely out of the question, if for no other reason than that it would have kept me off the Jupiter project. Nepotism had become a nasty word in government by the nineties; the old days when congressmen got their relatives on government payrolls, even in minor capacities, were gone. With Ellen sponsoring the Jupiter project she couldn’t possibly have sponsored a husband for a job on it.
Klockerman knew about Ellen and me, but he was one of the family by then. We’d even leveled with him about my real reason for taking an administrative job under him, and he’d told me that he’d guarantee my being acting superintendent of the port at the time the project appointments came up, that he’d take as much time off as necessary, even six months, and leave me in charge. He said he was due for a long vacation anyhow and that there were places he wanted to see and things he wanted to do.
Life was suddenly being very good to an aging ex-spaceman. I was happier than I’d been for more years than I liked to think about.
Ellen went to Washington the third week in April. She’d be gone at least a month, possibly as long as two, depending on how long Congress stayed in session.
I missed her like hell. Funny how quickly you can get used to a woman. Here I’d hardly thought about one for several years, and now after only two weeks of Ellen there was a big hole in my life when she went away, even though she’d be back soon.
Back to my studies. The rest from them had sharpened my mind and had done me good. Two weeks saw me through the two subjects I’d been refreshing myself in, both those examinations out of the way. Down to the two toughies. I found myself a Caltech boy who knew extreme-temperature metallurgy and with him tutoring me four evenings a week, I dived in. Two other evenings a week I’d study alone. One evening a week, usually Sunday, I spent at Klocky’s place, playing chess, drinking a little beer, talking.
On the study nights, either alone or after my tutor had left, I’d read until my eyes would start to blur. Then I’d quit and if it was a clear night with good seeing I’d go up on the roof and rest my eyes by looking far with them for a while, through the telescope I’d bought myself and had mounted up there.
Jupiter was nearing opposition, coming almost as close to Earth as he ever gets. Only four hundred million miles away he’d be in another few weeks, not much more than that now. Big Jupiter, the giant of the solar system, eleven times as big as Earth in diameter, three hundred times as great in mass. More than twice as big as all the other planets in the system put together.
Big Jupiter with its twelve moons. Four of them visible through my telescope. The others all tiny, a hundred miles or less in diameter. It takes a big scope to find them.