The communicator hummed. A faint voice sounded. It swelled to loudness.
"Calling Space Platform! _Calling Space Platform!_ CALLING SPACE
PLATFORM!" Joe turned down the volume. He said into the microphone:

"Space Platform calling Earth. Joe Kenmore reporting. We have made
contact with the Platform and completed our landing. Our cargo is now
being unloaded. Our landing rockets had to be expended against
presumably hostile bombs, and we are now unable to return to Earth. The
ship and the Platform, however, are unharmed. I am now waiting for
orders. Report ends."

He turned away from the microphone. Sanford said sharply, "Go on! Tell
them what a hero you are!"

"I'm going to help unload my ship," Joe said shortly. "You report what
you please."

"Get back at that transmitter!" shouted Sanford furiously. "Tell 'em
you're a hero! Tell 'em you're wonderful! I'll tell 'em how useless it
is!"

Joe saw the other man in the room, the man at the radar screens, shake
his head. He got up and fumbled his way along the wall to the door.
Sanford shouted after him angrily.

Joe went out, found the four-foot tunnel, and floated not down but along
it back to the unloading lock. Wordlessly, he set to work to get the
cargo out of the cargo hold of the spaceship.

Handling objects in weightlessness which on Earth would be heavy was an