Rolling Stones
(Space Family Stone)
Robert A. Heinlein
(c) 1952 Robert A Heinlein
FIRST NEL PAPERBACK EDITION FEBRUARY 1971
1 - THE UNHEAVENLY TWINS 2
II - A CASE FOR DRAMATIC LICENSE 13
III - THE SECOND-HAND MARKET 16
IV - ASPECTS OF DOMESTIC ENGINEERING 22
V - BICYCLES AND BLAST-OFF 32
VI - BALLISIICS AND BUSTER 40
VI - IN THE GRAVITY WELL 49
VIII - THE MIGHTY BOOM 52
IX - ASSETS RECOVERABLE 68
X - PHOBOS PORT 73
XI - 'WELCOME TO MARS!' 78
XII - FREE ENTERPRISE 82
XIII - CAVEAT VENDOR 90
XIV - FLAT CATS FACTORIAL 98
XV - 'INTER JOVEM ET MARTEM PLANETAM INTERPOSUI' 107
XVI - ROCK CITY 113
XVII - FLAT CATS FINANCIAL 120
XVIII - THE WORM IN THE MUD 125
XIX - THE ENDLESS TRAIL 135
1 - THE UNHEAVENLY TWINS
The two brothers stood looking the old wreck over. 'Junk,' decided Castor.
'Not junk,' objected' Pollux. 'A jalopy - granted. A heap any way you look at it A clunker possihly. But not junk.'
'You're an optimist, Junior.' Both boys were fifteen; Castor was twenty minutes older than his brother.
'Im a believer, Grandpa - and you had better be, too. Let me point out that we don't have money enough for anything better. Scared to gun it?'
Castor stared up the side of the ship. 'Not at all - because that thing will never again rise high enough to crash. We want a ship that will take us out to the Asteroids - right? This superannuated pogo stick wouldn't even take us to Earth.'
'It will when I get through hopping it up - with your thumb-fingered help. Let's look through it and see what it needs.'
Castor glanced at the sky. 'Its geting late.' He looked not at the Sun making long shadows on the lunar plain, but at Earth, reading the time from the sunset line now moving across the Pacific.
Look, Grandpa, are we buying a ship or are we getting to supper on time?'
Castor shrugged. 'As you say, Junior.' He lowered his antenna, then started swarming up the rope ladder left there for the accommodation of prospective customers. He used his hands only and despite his cumbersome vacuum suit his movements were easy and graceful. Pollux swarmed after him. Castor cheered up a bit when they reached the control room. The ship had not been stripped for salvage as completely as had many of the ships on the lot. True, the ballistic computer was missisng but the rest of the astrogation instruments were in place and the controls to the power room seemed to be complete. The space-battered old hulk was not a wreck, but merely obsolete. A hasty look at the power room seemed to confirm this.
Ten minutes later Castor, still mindful of supper, herded Pollux down the ladder. When Castor reached the ground Pollux said, 'Well?'
'Let me do the talking.'
The sales office of the lot was a bubble dome nearly a mile away; they moved toward it with the easy, fast lope of old Moon hands. The office airlock was marked by a huge sign:
DEALER DAN
THE SPACESHIP MAN
CRAFT OF ALL TYPES *** SCRAP METAL *** SPARE PARTS
FUELING & SERVICE
