The Project Gutenberg eBook, If at First You Don't..., by John Brudy

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Title: If at First You Don't...

Author: John Brudy

Release Date: January 18, 2010 [eBook #31009]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

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This etext was produced from _Amazing Stories_ June, 1960.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the
U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.

IF AT FIRST YOU DON'T ...

by

JOHN BRUDY

[Illustration: ILLUSTRATOR VARGA]

_To Amos Jordan, Secretary for Cislunar Navigation, no situation was
unsolvable. There were rules for everything, weren't there.... Except
maybe this thing ..._

"What's the matter, anyway?" Amos Jordan snapped at his assistant. "Is
everyone in the Senate losing their mind?"

"No more than usual," said Clements, the undersecretary. "It's just a
matter of sentiment."

"Sentiment?" Jordan poured himself a glass of lemonade. "What's
sentiment got to do with it? It's just a standard procedural problem."

"Well, not exactly," began Clements soothingly. "After all, now, '58
Beta was the first long-lived satellite ever launched, and the first
successful shot of the old Vanguard series. People are proud if it. It's
a sort of monument to our early efforts in astronautics."

* * * * *

Jordan sipped experimentally, adding a little sugar.

"But, Clem, the sky's full of the things," he complained. "There must be
a hundred fifty of them in orbit right now. They're a menace to
navigation. If this one's due to fall out, I say good riddance."

Clements spread his hands helplessly.

"I agre