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It would have been the end of Lucky if he and Mindes had been on Earth
Lucky had notcarefully for soineer&039;s hard-breathed sentences Yet he had not entirely expected an outright assault with the blaster
When Mindes&039;s hand flashed to his holster, Lucky leaped to one side On Earth, that movement would have come too late
On Mercury, however, ravity o fifths that of Earth, and Lucky&039;s contractingthe suit he wore) farther to one side Mindes, unaccustoravity, stuht follow Lucky&039;s y, therefore, struck bare ground, inches froed a foot-deeo hole into the frigid rock
Before Mindes could recover and ai, iow tackle carried through with the natural grace of a born Martian accustoravity
Mindes went down He shrieked wordlessly and then was silent, whether unconscious as the result of the fall or as the climax of his fevered e," he cried passionately "The dirty cobber is playing dead" He had wrenched the blaster frorip, and now he pointed it at the man&039;s head
Lucky said sharply, "None of that, Bigman hesitated "He tried to kill you, Lucky" It was obvious that the little Martian would not have been half as angry if it had er of death Yet he backed away
Lucky was on his knees exa his helht onto the other&039;s pale, drawn features He checked the pressure gauge of Mindes&039;s suit,sure the shock, of the fall had not loosened any of its joints Then, seizing the fallen figure by a wrist and ankle, he slung it across his shoulders and rose to his feet
"Back to the Dome," he said, "and, I&039;m afraid, to a&039; problem that&039;s a little ranted and followed Lucky&039;s long stride closely, his own sthened half trot He kept his blaster ready,his position to enable hi down Lucky
The "Chief was Hector Conway, head of the Council of Science At more informal times he was called Uncle Hector by Lucky, since it was Hector Conway, along with Augustus Henree, ere the guardians of the young Lucky after the death of Lucky&039;s parents as the result of a pirate attack near the orbit of Venus
A week earlier Conway had said to Lucky with a casual air, al hio to Mercury, Lucky?"
"What&039;s up, Uncle Hector?" asked Lucky
"Nothing really," said Conway, frowning, "except so a rather expensive project up at Mercury, one of those basic research things that , you know, and, on the other hand, as are"
Lucky said, "Is it anything I know about?"
"I don&039;t think so It&039;s quite recent Anyway, Senator Swenson has pounced on it as an example of how the Council wastes taxpayers&039; ation, and one of his boys went out to Mercury soo"
"Senator Swenson? I see" Lucky nodded This was nothing new The Council of Science over the past decades had slowly coers to Earth froe of Galactic civilization, with huh all the planets of all the stars in the Milky Way, only scientists could properly cope with mankind&039;s problems In fact, only the specially trained scientists of the Council were adequate
Yet there were so power of this Council of Science and others who used this suspicion to further their own aroup His attacks, usually directed against the Council&039;s "wasteful" way of supporting research, werehim fae of the project on Mercury? Anyone I know?"
"It&039;s called Project Light, by the way And the ht boy, but he&039;s not theis that since Swenson kicked up this fuss all sorts of things have been going wrong with Project Light"
"I&039;ll look into it if you wish, Uncle Hector"
"Good The accidents and bad breaks are nothing, I&039;m sure, but we don&039;t want Swenson tospot See what he&039;s up to And watch out for that man of his Urteil is his naerous fellow"
So that was all it started out as Just a bit of investigation to forestall political difficulties Nothing more
Lucky landed on Mercury&039;s North Pole expecting nothingend of a blaster bolt
Lucky thought as he slogged back to the Dome with Mindes over his shoulders: There&039;s more than just a bit of politics here
Dr Karl Gardoma stepped out of the s hands on a pad of fluffy plastosorb, which he tossed into the disposal unit when he finished His dark-complexioned face, al Even his black hair, cut close so that it stood up stiffly in thick array, seemed to accentuate his troubled appearance
"Well, Doctor?" said Lucky
Dr Gardoot hiht when he wakes I don&039;t know if he&039;ll remember clearly what happened"
"Has he had attacks like this before?"
"Not since he came to Mercury, Mr Starr I don&039;t knohat happened before then, but these last few reat strain"
"Why?"
"He feels responsible for the accidents that have been interfering with the progress of Project Light"
"Is he responsible?"
"No, of course not But you can see how he feels He&039;s sure everyone blareat deal of e of ten construction men, all five to ten years older than he is, and of an enormous amount of equip?"
The doctor srimness his white, even teethHe said, "Sub-etheric optics, Mr Starr, is a co h about it"
"You sound as though you know a bit about it yourself"
"Only what Mindes told me We arrived in Mercury on the same ship, you know, and he fascinated me, quite won me over hat his project hopes to acco"
"Well, it involves hyperspace, that portion of space that lies outside the ordinary boundary of the space we know The laws of nature that apply to ordinary space don&039;t apply to hyperspace For instance, in ordinary space it is iht, so that it would take at least four years to reach the nearest star In going through hyperspace any speed is possible " The physician broke off with a sudden, apologetic smile "You know all this, I&039;m sure"
"I suppose ht made travel to the stars possible," said Lucky, "but what about Project Light?"