THE MOON AND THE SUN
By JAMES McKIMMEY, Jr.
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Planet Stories March 1954.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
The rocket waited, a gleaming yellow-finned tube, pointing its nose at the depths of space. Time ticked in the control tower which rested in the shadow of the great monster. Six minutes left. Sunlight danced on silver curves.
Tick, tick, tick, tick. The time was in Charters' brain like the sound of a pendulum in a grandfather's clock. The end was nearing.
It was almost over.
Charters turned his thick wrist and looked at his watch.
Outside the sun was a strong white fire in a blue sky. Sand stretched away endlessly from the circular cluster of buildings, from which the rocket had been conceived and nurtured and born.
Seconds crept, and there was a dead silence in the tower room.