going on. It is an unending war, one which has no victory in
sight.

It is, as far as we can tell, the only war in human history in which
Mankind is fully justified as the invading aggressor.

It is not a defensive war; neither space nor other planets have attacked
Man. Man has invaded space "simply because it is there." It is war of a
different sort, true, but it is nonetheless a war.

The Space Service was used to the kind of battle it waged on Eisberg. It
was prepared to lose men, but even more prepared to save them.

21

Mike the Angel stepped into the cargo air lock of the _Brainchild_,
stood morosely in the center of the cubicle, and watched the outer door
close. Eight other men, clad, like himself, in regulation Space Service
spacesuits, also looked wearily at the closing door.

Chief Multhaus, one of the eight, turned his head to look at Mike the
Angel. "I wish that thing would close as fast as my eyes are going to in
about fifteen minutes, Commander." His voice rumbled deeply in Mike's
earphones.

"Yeah," said Mike, too tired to make decent conversation.

Eight hours--all of them spent tearing down the spaceship and making it
a part of the new base--had not been exactly exhilarating to any of
them.

The door closed, and the pumps began to work. The men were wearing Space
Service Suit Three. For every environment, for every conceivable
emergency, a suit had been built--if, of course, a suit _could_ be built
for it. Nobody had yet built a suit for walking about in the middle of a
sun, but, then, nobody had ever volunteered to try anything like that.

They were all called "spacesuits" because most of them could be worn in
the vacuum of space, but most of them weren't designed for that type of
work. Suit One--a light, easily manipulated, almost skin-tight covering,
was the real spacesuit. It was perfect for work in interstellar space,
where there was a microscopic amount of radiation incident to the suit,
no air, and almost nil gravity. For exterior repairs on the outside of a
ship in free fall a long way from any star, Spacesuit One was the proper
garb.

But, a suit that worked fine in space didn't necessarily work on other
planets, unless it worked fine on the planet it was used on.

A Moon Suit isn't a Mars Suit isn't a Venus Suit isn't a Triton Suit
isn't a....

Carry it on from there.

Number Three was insulated against a frigid but relatively non-corrosive
atmosphere. When the pumps