The Golden String

Several months before Eagle happened to land on Derran 4, he was in the Boire orbital hospital where he was treated for the grave burns he had received in the fire which had destroyed his latest lab. He was hovering naked around the warm antiseptic ward and was thinking hard how to find the money to buy equipment of his own. Obviously, his burned flesh did not worry him too much because he believed in the doctors' professionalism just as he believed in his own. His burned skin, hanging in rags and splashed with ointments all over, was for him something that came and went, it was the spirit that stayed, be it even in such a rotten wrapping as his own body was. He needed money. He was already sure that he wouldn't be admitted to work anywhere and had made up his mind to equip a lab of his own. For several days now he had been reading the bulletins of the Galaxy Diary for the Enterprising, hoping that he could borrow some idea for making quick and easy money and transform it into physical experiments. Since a ll sorts of businessmen were able to make money easily, why not his brilliant mind? This tenet was undoubted and he pored over the bulletins again. While he was reading, one was left with the impression that an eagle was vigilantly watching the letters and uncompromisingly seeking to peck at any one that did not suit him. That had given him his nick-name-Eagle-which was fittingly encouraged by his big and curved, aquiline nose.

Until now Eagle had not discovered anything promising to make him rich quickly, and he angrily hurled the bulletin away. The sheets filled the entire ward from the floor to the ceiling. He swore and started picking them up as they could stick to his skin, smeared with medicines, and would then have to be unstuck together with his half-burned skin.

While he was flying around the hall and collecting them, a sheet came before his eyes, which was a part of an article on the Star Eye. Eagle read several phrases, hurled an angry "Crooks!" against the sheet and tried to arrange the pages. The story of the Star Eye had been fanned up again. The first page of the article was missing and he started reading from the next one:

"....long battle among the competitors, it was finally decided that the new applied-research center in the field of high energies would be built by the Beo-Telda group on the Owen-III planet. Since there was real danger of going back on this decision, the industrial group set up a special board for the implementation of the project, granting it considerable powers. Constructing and equipping the center had to be greatly speeded up since, in case the executed works amounted to more than 15 per cent of their total volume, the contract could not be canceled.

The unique installations and the robots were a special order and were worked out at the Woenelle non-standard equipment plant which alone meant super-high quality as well as fittingly high prices. As the produced machines and robots were too expensive, Beo-Telda's management decided not to risk loading them on a single ship. The giants Ursak, Star Eye and Commodore Nebel were chosen for their transportation. But since Ursak and Commodore Nebel had not been subjected to an overall prophylactic check-up for the sixth consecutive year, and this became known only after the decision had been taken, in accordance with the high safety requirements of the insurance company it was considered that they could not be accepted as reliable. Yet the files were checked-up on the technical disrepair of both ships for the last few years, and the decision became definitive. Only Star Eye was in good condition though it also needed some routine repairs. The nervous haste and the ambitious aim pursued by Beo-Telda with excessi ve urge, led to the fatal decision-to load the entire equipment on a single ship. The managers considered that by appointing Vincent Twell to be her captain, and he was one of the aces in his field, things would be settled of themselves. Captain Twell refused, well aware of the too great responsibility assigned to him and the actual condition of the ship. In this case the estimated risk was becoming an adventure, and he was not susceptible to such activities.

However, to the skeptics' great surprise, Captain Twell finally agreed. Many were those who asserted afterwards that it had been his cousin who had managed to persuade him. At the time his cousin was junior engineer in cryotechnology at the new power center; however, the research department of our Bulletin found documents proving that his cousin had not been appointed yet to his job at the center but was actually employed at the Woenelle works and left on the Star Eye as technical staff, hoping to join the new center thanks to captain Twell's protection.

Irrespective of who was going to undertake the command of the ship on that journey, for many days she was loaded and left on the scheduled date with her precious cargo. The only compromise that was admitted for the captain's sake, was to have no passengers on board. An exception was made for Woenelle's representative who had to monitor the conditions of transportation of the sensitive goods and to transmit the equipment and the robots to the new power center.