Twenty seconds.
"We gaze, and you gaze with us," said Jamison, "upon a world that future
generations will come to know as home--the site of the first human
colony among the stars!"
Cochrane began to beat time. Ten, nine, eight--.
"We are about to land," Jamison declaimed. "We do not know what we shall
find--What's that?" He paused dramatically. "A living creature?--A
living creature sighted down below! We sign off now--from the stars!"
The ending had been perfectly timed. Allowing for a three-second
interval for the broadcast to reach the moon, and just about two more
for it to be relayed to Earth, his final word, "Stars!" had been uttered
at the precise instant to allow a four-minute commercial by Intercity
Credit, in the United States, by Citroen in Europe, by Fabricanos Unidos
in South and Central America, and Near East Oil along the Mediterranean.
At the end of that four minutes it would be time for station
identification and a time-signal, and the divers eight-second flashes
before other programs came on the air.
The rockets roared and thundered. The ship went down and down. Jamison
said:
"I thought we'd be cut off when we hit air!"
"That's what Jones thought," Cochrane assured him.
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