It was a lousy beginning to his temporary command, Blane thought. But seeing Peal's face, he simply nodded and followed the other two out into the hall. They were heading toward the bomb section when a shout went up from some of the men watching the viewing screens.
Blane swore to himself, but turned back.
He saw at once that the screens were set for top magnification, showing a section of Earth at the extreme limits of resolution. A glance at the projected coördinates showed that they were over southern Russia. His eyes were untrained at grasping details, but he saw enough to recognize that they must be viewing the great Russian rocket base that supplied the Sulky.
Scarfield had taken over from his subordinate and began picking out details with a moving spot of light. "Rocket—see its shadow? And there—there—there. Jerry, they've got every ship they own assembled together. And it looks as if they've been running supplies to them all. Something big's due."
"Attack?" Blane asked. One of the jobs of the station was to spot any clustering of military rockets that might presage a ground-based attack.
Scarfield shock his head. "Not a chance. Those are space rockets, not war missiles. This is like the massed flight they sent up about two years ago, remember? We never did figure out why they had to take the whole fleet out. But with what's going on below, this must mean something important. Think we should alert HQ?"
They obviously should, as soon as they were over one of their own stations. The rule was clear on that—when in doubt, shout! But meantime, they'd have to watch while still in view.
There was a faint spot of light, and Scarfield grunted. "They're blasting off! Maybe we can plot orbits and—"
The bright spot split into lances of fire, exploding savagely outwards! Every drop of monopropellant in the tanks must have let go at once to make such a flare. Then, before Blane could catch his breath, there was another flare and another. Suddenly the whole field was a great spread of flame as the other rockets were exploded by the savage blast of the first.