The Sling and the Stone

Synopsis

On the morning of the first day, floating in the cold of space, they inflated the station. It puffed up tightly to a silvery doughnut, and four men whose names were Krylov, Mirkov, Stolyakhin and Davchenko went to live inside. There was no ceremony. Out of a motionless rocket which hung in space nearby, other men came, trailing long wires. All the long black afternoon of that day these men clustered on the skin of the doughnut, fixing curved weightless slabs of carbon-coated aluminum to the sides.

Diavilev had none. He wanted to ask why, of course, but he knew from long experience of army men that Krylov was not ready to tell him. He set himself, as always, to be patient. And now as well he wanted to think, he wanted to be alone. The magnificent fact of where he was had begun at last to envelope him. Now he wanted to see.

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