He let it hang. If not exactly a leading question, it was certainly a hinting statement.
Mike shook his head. "I don't know anything, Captain. Honestly I don't."
If Space Service regulations had allowed it, Captain Sir Henry Quill, Bart., would have worn a walrus mustache. And if he'd had such a mustache, he would have whuffled it then. As it was, he just blew out air, and nothing whuffled.
"You and I are the only ones in the dark, then," he said. "The rest of the crew is being picked from Chilblains Base. Pete Jeffers is First Officer, in case you're wondering."
"Oh, great," Mike the Angel said with a moan. "That means we'll be going in cold on an untried ship."
Like Birnam Wood advancing on Dunsinane, Quill's eyebrows moved upward. "Don't you trust your own designing?"
"As much as you do," said Mike the Angel. "Probably more."
Quill nodded. "We'll have to make the best of it. We'll muddle through somehow. Are you all ready to go?"
"No," Mike admitted, "but I don't see that I can do a damn thing about that."
"Nor do I," said Captain Quill. "Be at Chilblains Base in twenty-four hours. Arrangements will be made at the Long Island Base for your transportation to Antarctica. And"--he paused and his scowl became deeper--"you'd best get used to calling me 'sir' again."
"_Thank_ you, Mister Gabriel," snapped Quill, cutting the circuit.
Chilblains Base, Antarctica, was directly over the South Magnetic Pole--at least, as closely as that often elusive spot could be pinpointed for any length of time. It is cheaper in the long run if an interstellar vessel moves parallel with, not perpendicular to, the magnetic "lines of force" of a planet's gravitational field. Taking off "across the grain" _can_ be done, but the power consumption is much greater. Taking off "with the grain" is expensive enough.
An ion rocket doesn't much care where it lifts or sets down, since its method of propulsion isn't trying to work against the fabric of space itself. For that reason, an interstellar vessel is normally built in space and stays there, using ion rockets for loading and unloading its passengers. It's cheaper by far.
The Computer Corporation of Earth had also been thinking of expenses when it built its Number One Research Station near Chilblains Base, although the corporation was not aware at the time just how much money it was eventually going to save them.