E.E. 'Doc' Smith SF Gateway Omnibus: The Skylark of Space, Skylark Three, Skylark of Valeron, Skylark DuQuesne by E. E. (Doc) Smith Page A

wouldn’t be so good. We thought for a while we’d have to, but Mart licked it. The power plant is entirely separate from the ship, inside that inner sphere, about which the outer sphere and the ship itself are free to revolve. Even if the ship rolls or pitches, the bar stays right where it is pointed. Those six big jackets cover gyroscopes, which keep the outer sphere in exactly the same position—’
    ‘Relative to what?’ Vaneman asked. ‘It seems to have moved since we came in … Yes, if you look closely, you can see it move.’
    ‘Naturally. Um … m. Never thought of it from that angle – just that its orientation isn’t affected by either the ship or the power plant. If you want to pin me down, though, it’s oriented solidly to the three dimensions of the steel plant at the time MacDougall got the gyroscopes up to holding speed. Since that doesn’t mean much here and now, I’d say, as an approximation, that it is locked to the fixed stars. Or, rather, to the effective mass of the galaxy as a whole …’
    ‘Please,
Dick,’ Dorothy interrupted. ‘Enough of the jargon. Show us the important things – kitchen, bedrooms, bath.’
    Seaton did so, explaining in detail some of the many differences between living on Earth and in a small, necessarily self-sufficient worldlet out in airless, lightless, heatless space.
    ‘Oh, I’m just wild to go out with you, Dick. When will you take me?’
    ‘Very soon, Dottie. Just as soon as we’re sure we’ve got all the bugs ironed out. You’ll be our first passenger, so help me.’
    ‘How do you see out? How about air and water? How do you keep warm, or cool, as the case may be?’ Vaneman fired the questions as thoughhe were cross-examining a witness. ‘No, excuse me; you’ve already mentioned the heaters and refrigerators.’
    ‘The pilots see outside, the whole sphere of vision, by means of special instruments, something like periscopes but vastly different – electronic. Passengers can see out by uncovering windows – they’re made of fused quartz. We carry air – oxygen, nitrogen, helium and argon – in tanks, although we won’t need much new air because of our purifiers and recovery units. We also have oxygen-generating apparatus aboard, for emergencies.
    ‘We carry water enough to last us three months – or indefinitely if necessary, as we can recover all waste water as chemically pure H 2 O. Anything else?’
    ‘You’d better give up, dad,’ Dorothy advised, laughing. ‘It’s perfectly safe for me to go along!’
    ‘It seems to be. But it’s getting pretty well along toward morning, Dorothy, and if any of us are to get any sleep at all tonight you and I should go home.’
    ‘That’s so, and I’m the one who has been screaming at Dick about going to bed every night at eleven. I’ll go powder my nose – I’ll be right back.’
    Vaneman said, after Dorothy had gone. ‘You mentioned “bugs” only in a very light and passing way.’
    ‘And you didn’t mention them at all,’ Seaton countered.
    ‘Naturally not,’ with a jerk of his head in the direction his daughter had taken. ‘How did it
really
go, boys?’
    ‘Wonderful, really—’ Dick began to enthuse.
    ‘You
tell me, Martin.’
    ‘In the main, very well. Of course this was a very short flight, but we found nothing wrong with the engines or their controls; we are fairly certain that no major alterations will be necessary. The optical system needs some more work; the attractors and repellors are not at all what they should be in either accuracy or delicacy. The rifles work perfectly. The air-purifiers do not remove all odors, but the air after purification is safe to breathe and physiologically adequate. The water-recovery system does not work at all – it delivers sewage.’
    ‘Well, that’s not too serious, with all the water you carry.’
    ‘No, but it malfunctions so grossly that some mistake was made – obviously. It should be easy to find and to fix. For a thing so