Alfred E. Maxwell

Name: Alpha Say, Beta Do
Author: Alfred E. Maxwell

Alpha Say, Beta Do

Summary

“Alpha Say, Beta Do”, is a work by Alfred E. Maxwell. It explores elements such as Kanton, Tindar and fuel.

Quotes from Alpha Say, Beta Do (Alfred E. Maxwell)

Alfred E. Maxwell, Alpha Say, Beta Do

“ As was the policy when dropping down upon open land, they switched on the anti-gravity fields, blasted themselves to a dead stop and sank slowly down onto the furrowed land of the asteroid mine.
The ships thumped down within three hundred feet of one another. Miss Kanton hurriedly snapped on her oxygen helmet, and Alpha followed her through the air-lock. Instead of going towards the control tower, which rose from the blue land like a pale yellow candle, Miss Kanton ran to the other ship and pounded on the door until Beta Tindar and the girl-dupe opened it and stepped out. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Alfred E. Maxwell, Alpha Say, Beta Do

“ She slipped; the sparks danced up, touching the legs of her suit. The lower part of her suit burst into flame, soaked as it was with the fuel. She watched the flames, her face blanched white, as they ate into her suit.
"Katherine!" Beta gasped. This was no duplicate, he thought frantically; this was Katherine, blazing, burning. She would die; he knew that. If she fell back into the fuel, both of them died. He started climbing the engine, reaching for the girl as she hung onto the hose, her gloved hands frozen to it in a rigid grip. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Alfred E. Maxwell, Alpha Say, Beta Do

“ Miss Kanton tapped it.
"That's the fuel tanks," she said.
"They're draining somewhere!" Alpha said.
"Down, naturally!" the girl-dupe said. "The engine room covers the whole underground floor! If—"
"If the sparks from the engines touch that fuel—!" Beta cried. He turned to the door and ran from the room with the others on his heels.
The elevator dropped them to the lower floor. The corridor was filled knee-deep with a pale, bluish fluid—explosive fuel! It poured like a blue waterfall down the steps leading to the engines. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Alfred E. Maxwell, Alpha Say, Beta Do

“ The field pilots jetted the small two-seater ships out onto the field and into the launching cradles. When they were readied and equipped, the pilots signaled the Tindars and the Kantons.
"Beta, you and Miss Kanton's dupe take one," Alpha Tindar said. "Miss Kanton will drive me in the other. If there is a preliminary dissipation of one of us, no one will be hurt that way."
Beta nodded and Miss Kanton's dupe grabbed his hand and ran for one of the ships.
"I honestly believe she's been drinking," Miss Kanton murmured, watching her duplicate laughing as Beta helped her into the ship. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Alfred E. Maxwell, Alpha Say, Beta Do

“ The quartet arrived at Hessing Field a few minutes later and Alpha Tindar went into the Rocket Dispatcher's office to check on the ship. He came back and threw his hands up in the air.
"Another dilemma!" he exclaimed. "No four-seaters. Just those damned two-seaters. We'll have to take two of them."
"Well, get a couple of Armstrongs," Beta said. "They're about the best."
"I'll take a Boison, myself," Miss Kanton said. "Armstrongs have a shimmy when they're a couple of years old."
"The strong-willed woman scientist!" her dupe sneered. "Armstrongs are the better ships." ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Alfred E. Maxwell, Alpha Say, Beta Do

“ Alpha cried and ran towards it.
"What are the Diggers doing on the surface?" Miss Kanton asked Beta. "They're supposed to be underground."
"Something is all wrong," Beta said. "The Controls are obviously scrambled. Radio guides the diggers, keeps them underground until they're full, then lets them come up to empty."
"Do you think you can fix it?" Miss Kanton's dupe asked.
"If it's external trouble, yes," Beta said. "But if it's inside the seals, we'd never be able to get at it. Everything is sealed against tampering. The controls are in vaults. How they ever got scrambled, I can't imagine." ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Alfred E. Maxwell, Alpha Say, Beta Do

“ He sealed the door and Miss Kanton sent the rocket spiraling up into the clear sky. She drew out of the range of the imminent explosion and circled the little asteroid, waiting.
Inside the control tower, Beta brushed the dust of the wreckage from him and hurried down the corridor, pulling the girl-dupe by the arm.
"What are you doing? What if you're the real one? Oh, Doyle...." she moaned irrationally.
Beta went back to the engine room. He waded through the fuel with the girl-dupe behind him. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Alfred E. Maxwell, Alpha Say, Beta Do

“ Miss Kanton asked, conscious of the metal studs of her suit clicking against each other.
"Have to chance it," Beta snapped.
They went into the engine room, wading carefully through the azure fluid. In the main room they saw the fuel slowly creeping up the fat legs of the whirring engines towards the network of sparks that could be seen through the ventilator grills.
"Isn't there any way to shut them off?" Miss Kanton gasped.
Alpha shook his head grimly.
"No. All controls are sealed. Can only be manipulated by Cooperation Engineers," he said. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Alfred E. Maxwell, Alpha Say, Beta Do

“ There was a crashing clank and the cry of twisted steel as the machine grabbed the small rocket ship up and crushed it in its jaws. The ship vanished into the bulging bin that followed the mouth on swiftly spinning wheels. The digger growled over the other horizon, leaving in its wake a shallow, wide furrow. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Alfred E. Maxwell, Alpha Say, Beta Do

“ Dr. Bronsky shrugged. "There is extremely little else that we can do. Until one of you dissipates, I suggest that you—" he indicated one Tindar—"be Alpha Tindar, and you—" he indicated the other—"be Beta Tindar. It might simplify matters."
The doctor himself checked them out at the desk and followed them to the door full of regrets at the event.
Alpha and Beta Tindar ate a hearty meal at a cafe, then phoned Miss Kanton and felt better seeing her face in the view-plate. It was a nice face, a bit solemn, but nice. She had brown eyes and a burnt-honey mass of hair. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Alfred E. Maxwell, Alpha Say, Beta Do

“ An attendant met and ushered him down a long, cool, white corridor to the section of the building devoted to the duplication of living matter. Another attendant took him from the first and whisked him up in an elevator to the floor where, as the somber sign stated, "Duplication of the Human Being" was carried on. He was directed to a pneumatic chair in the waiting room and he sat down. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Alfred E. Maxwell, Alpha Say, Beta Do

“ Tindar had never ceased to wonder at the startling work done in this massive building, which most people, over the course of the last hundred years of its use, had come to consider a natural part of the bustling, scientific worlds. C.D. Labs, holding a benevolent monopoly on the process, could duplicate anything composed of atoms and smaller than a three-storied dwelling in a matter of minutes. The products of such duplication existed only for a period of about eighty hours, but it had proved to be a tremendously utilitarian device in duplicating oil and coal for immediate use ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Alfred E. Maxwell, Alpha Say, Beta Do

“ It has to be you."
"Miss Kanton's going out there tomorrow," Tindar insisted, not relishing a space trip since he was on his first vacation in a year.
"I've thought of that," Penset boomed back. "She couldn't report fully on the state of affairs. She's a meter-reader. Strictly a control-room worker. Nothing to do with the power plant or the actual mines."
"Okay," Tindar sighed, "I'll get on it. I'll leave Hessing Field this afternoon. Do I get a bonus?"
"Yeah, you thief," Penset smiled, "but get duplicated. You'll have enough work for two men." ”

[↩︎]

Source: Gutenberg

Alfred E. Maxwell, Alpha Say, Beta Do

“ Alpha said. "In ten minutes the Corporation is out one asteroid."
They were running up the stairs, pushing into the elevator. Beta shoved the door slowly against the pressure of the blue syrup. He shot the car back to the ground level. Here there was no sign of the fuel which was pouring down a stairs around a turn in the corridor. They ran down the hall to the door, the Tindars each gripping the arm of a Kanton.
"Wait!" Miss Kanton was crying, "wait! The ship. We've only got one! We can only take two persons back. And you ... ”

Alfred E. Maxwell

Summary

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