TREACHERY IN OUTER SPACE
THE TOM CORBETT
SPACE CADET STORIES
By Carey Rockwell
STAND BY FOR MARS!
DANGER IN DEEP SPACE
ON THE TRAIL OF THE SPACE PIRATES
THE SPACE PIONEERS
THE REVOLT ON VENUS
TREACHERY IN OUTER SPACE
SABOTAGE IN SPACE
THE ROBOT ROCKET
[Illustration]
A TOM CORBETT Space Cadet Adventure
TREACHERY IN
OUTER SPACE
By CAREY ROCKWELL
WILLY LEY _Technical Adviser_
GROSSET & DUNLAP Publishers New York
COPYRIGHT, 1954, BY
ROCKHILL RADIO
[TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE:
EXTENSIVE RESEARCH SHOWS NO EVIDENCE
OF REQUIRED COPYRIGHT RENEWAL]
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
ILLUSTRATIONS BY LOUIS GLANZMAN
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
ILLUSTRATIONS
_Frontispiece_
"Great galaxy! There must be a hundred ships!"
The giant Venusian held up the oil-smeared test tube
"Yeow!" bawled Astro. "Thanks, sir. Thanks a million!"
Tom got down on his knees and felt around for an opening
"Look!" Strong cried. "It's Brett's ship!"
It would be a rough ride, but at least he was hidden
Slowly and cautiously he began climbing
"Proceed to quadrant five and seize the _Space Knight_!"
TREACHERY IN OUTER SPACE
CHAPTER I
"All right, you blasted Earthworms! _Stand to!_"
Three frightened cadet candidates for Space Academy stiffened their
backs and stood at rigid attention as Astro faced them, a furious scowl
on his rugged features. Behind him, Tom Corbett and Roger Manning
lounged on the dormitory bunks, watching their unit mate blast the
freshman cadets and trying to keep from laughing. It wasn't long ago
that they had gone through the terrifying experience of being hazed by
stern upperclassmen and they knew how the three pink-cheeked boys in
front of them felt.
"So," bawled Astro, "you want to blast off, do you?"
Neither of the three boys answered.
"Speak when you're spoken to, Mister!" snapped Roger at the boy in the
middle.
"Answer the question!" barked Tom, finding it difficult to maintain his
role of stern disciplinarian.
"Y-y-yes, sir," finally came a mumbled reply.
"What's your name? And don't say 'sir' to me!" roared Astro.
"Coglin, sir," gulped the boy.
"Don't say 'SIR'!"
"Yes, sir--er--I mean, O.K.," stuttered Coglin.
"And don't say O.K., either," Roger chimed in.
"Yes ... all right ... fine." The boy's face was flushed with
desperation.
Astro stepped forward, his chin jutting out. "For your information," he
bawled, "the correct manner of address is 'Very well.'"
"Very well," stammered Coglin.
Astro shook his head and turned back to Tom and Roger. "Have you ever
seen a greater display of audacity and sheer gall?" he demanded. "The
nerve of these three infants assuming that they could ever become Space
Cadets!"
Tom and Roger laughed, not at the three Earthworms, but at Astro's
sudden eloquence. The giant Venusian cadet usually limited his comments
to a gruff Yes or No, or at most, a garbled sentence full of a veteran
spaceman's oaths. Then, resuming his stern expression, Roger faced the
three boys.
"Sound off! Quick!" he demanded.
"Coglin, John."
"Spears, Albert."
"Duke, Phineas."
"You call those _names_?" Roger snorted incredulously. "Which of you
ground crawlers is radar officer?"
"I am, very well," replied Spears.
The blond-haired cadet stared at him in amazement.
"Very well, what?" he demanded.
"You said that's the correct form of address," replied Spears doggedly.
Roger turned to Tom. "Well, thump my rockets," he exclaimed, "I didn't
know they made them that dumb any more!"
"Who is the command cadet?" asked Tom, suppressing a grin.
"I am, very well," replied Duke.
"How fast is fast?"
"Fast is as fast must be, without being either supersonic or turgid.
Fast is necessarily that amount of speed that will not be the most nor
the least, yet will be sufficient unto the demands of fast ..." Duke
quoted directly from the _Earthworm Manual_, a book that was not
prescribed learning in the Academy, but woe unto the Earthworm who did
not know it by heart when questioned by a cadet upperclassman.
"What is a blip on a radar, Mister?" demanded Roger of Spears.
"A blip is never a slip. It is constant with the eye of the beholder,
and constant with the constant that is always--" Spears faltered, his
face flushing with embarrassment.
"Always what?" hounded Roger.
"I--I don't know," stammered the fledgling helplessly.
"_You don't know?_" yelled Roger. He looked at Tom and Astro, shaking
his head. "He doesn't know." The two cadets frowned at the quivering boy
and Roger faced him again. "For your information, Mr. Spears," he said
at his sarcastic best, "there are five words remaining in that sentence.
And for each word, you will spend one hour cleaning this room. Is that
clear?"
Spears could only nod his head.
"And for your further information," continued Roger, "the remaining
words are 'constantly alert to constant dangers'! Does that help you,
Mister?"
"Yes, Cadet Manning," gulped Spears. "You are very kind to give me this
information. And it will be a great honor to clean your room."
Astro stepped forward to take his turn. He towered over the remaining
cadet candidate and glowered at the thoroughly frightened boy. "So," he
roared, "I guess this means you're going to handle the power deck in one
of our space buckets, eh?"
"Yes, very well," came the quavering, high-pitched reply.
"Give me the correction of thrust when you are underway in a forward
motion and you receive orders from the control deck for immediate
reversal."
Coglin closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and the words poured from
his lips. "To go forward is to overtake space, and to go sternward is to
retake space already overtaken. To correct thrust, I would figure in the
beginning of my flight how much space I intended to take and how much I
would retake, and since overtake and retake are both additional
quotients that have not been divided, I will add them together and
arrive at a correction." The cadet candidate stopped abruptly, gasping
for breath.
Secretly disappointed at the accuracy of the reply, Astro grunted and
turned to Tom and Roger. "Any questions before they blast off on their
solo hop?" he growled.
The two cadets shook their heads and Roger quickly lined three chairs in
a row. Tom addressed the frightened boys solemnly. "This is your
spaceship. The first chair is the command deck; second, radar deck;
third, power deck. Take your stations and stand by to blast off."
Spears, Coglin, and Duke jumped into the chairs and Tom walked around
them eying them coldly. "Now, Misters," he said, "you are to blast off,
make a complete circle of the Earth, and return to the Academy spaceport
for a touchdown. Is that clearly understood?"
"All clear," chorused the boys.
"Stand by to raise ship!" bawled Tom.
"Power deck, check in!" snapped Duke from the first chair. "Radar deck,
check in!"
"Just one moment, Mister," interrupted Roger. "When you issue an order
over the intercom, I want to see you pick up that mike. I want to see
all the motions. It's up to you, Misters, to make us believe that you
are blasting off!"
"Very well," replied Duke with a nervous glance back at his unit mates.
"Carry on!" roared Tom.
Then, as Tom, Roger, and Astro sprawled on their bunks, grinning openly,
the three Earthworm cadets began their simulated flight through space.
Going through the movements of operating the complicated equipment of a
spaceship, they pushed, pulled, jerked, snapped on imaginary switches,
read unseen meters and gauges, and slammed around in their chairs to
simulate acceleration reaction. The three cadets of the _Polaris_ unit
could no longer restrain themselves and broke into loud laughter at the
antics of the aspirants. Finally, when they had landed their imaginary
ship again, the Earthworms were pounded on the back heartily.
"Welcome to Space Academy!" said Tom with a grin. "That was as smooth a
ride as I've ever had."
"Yeah," agreed Astro, pumping Coglin's hand. "You handled those reactors
and atomic motors like a regular old space buster!"
"And that was real fine astrogation, Spears," Roger chimed in. "Why, you
laid out such a smooth course, you never left the ground!"
The three Earthworms relaxed, and while Astro brewed hot cups of tea
with synthetic pellets and water from the shower, Tom and Roger told
them about the traditions and customs of the Academy.
Tom began by telling them how important it was for each crew member to
be able to depend on his unit mate. "You see," he said, "in space there
isn't much time for individual heroics. Too many things can happen too
fast for it to be a one-man operation."
"I'll say," piped up Roger. "A couple of times I've been on the radar
deck and seen a hunk of space junk coming down on us fast. So instead of
following book procedure, relaying the dope to Tom on the control deck
to pass it on to Astro, I'd just sing out to Astro direct on the
intercom, 'Give me an upshot on the ecliptic!' or 'Give me a starboard
shot!' and Astro would come through because he knows I always know what
I'm talking about."
"Not always, hot-shot!" growled Astro. "How about the time we went out
to Tara and snatched that hot copper asteroid out of Alpha Centauri's
mouth? _You_ said the time on that reactor blast should be set at--"
"Is that so?" snapped Roger. "Listen, you big overgrown hunk of Venusian
space gas--" Roger got no further. Astro grabbed him by the shirt front,
held him at arm's length, and began tickling him in the ribs. The three
freshmen cadets backed out of the way, glancing fearfully at the giant
Venusian. Astro's strength was awesome when seen for the first time.
"Lemme go, you blasted space ape!" bellowed Roger, between fits of
laughter.
"Say uncle, Manning!" roared Astro. "Promise you won't call me names
again, or by the stars, I'll tickle you until you shake yourself apart!"
"All right--un-un-uncle!" managed Roger.
Astro dropped his unit mate on a bunk like a rag doll and turned back to
Tom with a shrug of his shoulders. "He'll never learn, will he?"
Tom grinned at Duke. "Astro's like a big overgrown puppy."
"Someone ought to put him on a leash," growled Roger, crawling out of
the bunk and rubbing his ribs. "Blast it, Astro, the next time you want
to show off, go play with an elephant and leave me alone."
Astro ignored him, turning to Coglin. "As much as I gas Roger," the
giant cadet said seriously, "I'd rather ride a thrust bucket with him on
the radar deck than Commander Walters. He's the best."
Tom smiled. "That's what I mean, Duke. Astro believes in Roger, and
Roger believes in Astro. I believe in them, and they in me. We've got
to, or we wouldn't last long out there in space."
The three fledgling spacemen were silent, watching and listening with
awe and envy as the _Polaris_ crew continued their indoctrination. They
considered themselves lucky to have been drawn by these famous cadets
for their hazing. The names of Corbett, Manning, and Astro were becoming
synonymous with great adventure in space. But, with all their
hairbreadth escapes, the _Polaris_ unit was still just learning its job.
The boys were still working off demerits, arguing with instructors on
theory, listening to endless study spools, learning the latest advanced
methods of astrogation, communication, and reactor-unit operation. They
were working toward the day when they would discard the vivid blue
uniforms of the Space Cadet Corps and don the magnificent black and gold
of the Solar Guard.
Tom was aware of the eager expressions on the faces of the Earthworms
and he smiled to himself. It was not a smile of smugness or conceit, but
rather of honest satisfaction. More than once he had shaken his head in
wonder at being a Space Cadet. The odds against it were enormous. Each
year thousands of boys from all the major planets and the occupied
satellites competed for entrance to the famed Academy and pitifully few
were accepted. And he was happy at having two unit mates like Roger
Manning and Astro to depend on when he was out in space, commanding one
of the finest ships ever built, the powerful rocket cruiser _Polaris_.
As Roger and Astro continued to talk to the fledglings, Tom sipped his
tea and thought of his own first days at the Academy. He remembered his
fear and insecurity, and how hard he had fought to make what was then
Unit 42-D a success, the unit that eventually became the _Polaris_ unit.
And how each assignment had brought him closer to his dream of becoming
an officer in the Solar Guard.
He got up and walked to the window and looked out across the Academy
campus, over the green lawns and white buildings connected by the
rolling slidewalks, to the gleaming crystal Tower, the symbol of man's
conquest of space. And beyond the Tower building, Tom saw a spaceship
blasting off from the spaceport, her rockets bucking hard against thin
air as she clawed her way spaceward. When it disappeared from sight, he
followed it with his mind's eye and it became the _Polaris_, his ship!
He and Roger and Astro were blasting through the cold black void, their
own personal domain!
A loud burst of laughter behind him suddenly brought Tom back to Earth.
He smiled to himself and shook his head, as though reluctant to leave
his dream world. He glanced out of the window again, this time down at
the quadrangle, and far below he recognized the squat, muscular figure
of Warrant Officer Mike McKenny drilling another group of newly arrived
cadet candidates. Tom saw the slidewalks begin to fill with boys and men
in varicolored uniforms, all released from duty as the day drew to a
close. Tonight, Astro, Roger, and he would go to see the latest stereo,
and tomorrow they would blast off in the _Polaris_ for the weekly
checkout of her equipment. He turned back to Spears, Coglin, and Duke.
Roger was just finishing the story of their latest adventure (described
in _The Revolt on Venus_).
"The best part, of course, was the actual hunting of the tyrannosaurus,"
said Astro.
"A tyrannosaurus?" exploded Spears, the youngest and most impressionable
of the three Earthworms. "You actually hunted for a dinosaur?"
Astro grinned. "That's right. They're extinct here on Earth, but on
Venus we catch 'em and make pets out of the baby ones."
"We could have saved ourselves a lot of trouble, though," commented
Roger mockingly. "We have several officers here that would have served
just as well. Major 'Blast-off' Connel, for instance, the toughest,
meanest old son of a hot rocket you have ever seen!"
"_Stand to!_"
The six boys nearly broke their backs jumping to attention. A squat,
muscular figure, wearing the black-and-gold uniform of a Solar Guard,
strode heavily into their line of vision. Roger gulped as Major Connel
stopped in front of him. "Still gassing, eh, Manning?" he roared.
"'Evening, Major, sir," mumbled Roger, his face beet red.
"We--er--ah--were just telling this Earthworm unit about the Academy,
sir. Some of its pitfalls."
"Some of the cadets are going to fall into a pit if they don't learn to
keep their mouths shut!" snapped Connel. He glared at Tom, Astro, and
Roger, then wheeled sharply to face the three quaking freshmen cadets.
"You listen to anything they tell you and you'll wind up with a book
full of demerits! What in blazes are you doing here, anyway? You're
supposed to be at physical exams _right this minute!_"
The three boys began to shake visibly, not knowing whether to break
ranks and run or wait until ordered.
"Get out of here!" Connel roared. "You've got thirty seconds to make
it. And if you _don't_ make it, you'll go down on my bad-rocket list!"
Almost in one motion, the three cadet candidates saluted and charged
through the door. When they had gone, Connel turned to the _Polaris_
cadets who were still at attention. "At ease!" he roared and then
grinned.
The boys came to rest and smiled back at him tentatively. They never
knew what to expect from Connel. "Well, did you put them through their
paces?" he asked as he jerked his thumb toward the door.
"Yes, sir!" said Tom.
"Did they know their manual? Or give you any lip when you started giving
them hot rockets?" Connel referred to the hazing that was allowed by the
Academy, only as another of the multitude of tests given to cadets.
Cadet candidates might possibly hide dangerous flaws from Academy
officials but never from boys near their own ages.
"Major," said Astro, "those fellows came close to blasting off right
here in these chairs. They really thought they were out in _space!_"
"Fine!" said Connel. "Glad to hear it. I've singled them out as my
personal unit for instruction."
"Poor fellows," muttered Roger under his breath.
"What was that, Manning?" bellowed Connel.
"I said lucky fellows, sir," replied Roger innocently.
Connel glared at him. "I'll bet my last rocket that's what you said,
Manning."
"Yes, sir."
Connel turned to the door and then spun around quickly to catch Roger
grinning at Astro.
"'Poor fellows,' wasn't it?" said Connel with a grin. Roger reddened
and his unit mates laughed. "Oh, yes," continued Connel, "I almost
forgot. Report to Commander Walters on the double. You're getting
special assignments. I recommended you for this job, so see that you
behave yourselves. Especially you, Manning."
He turned and disappeared through the doorway, leaving the three cadets
staring at each other.
"Wowie!" yelled Astro. "And I thought we were going to get chewed up for
keeping those Earthworms too long!"
"Same here," said Roger.
"Wonder what the assignment is?" said Tom, grabbing his tunic and racing
for the door. Neither Roger nor Astro answered as they followed on his
heels. When they reached the slidestairs, a moving belt of plastic that
spiraled upward to an overhead slidewalk bridge connecting the dormitory
to the Tower of Galileo, Tom's eyes were bright and shiny. "Whatever it
is," he said, "if Major Connel suggested us for it, you can bet your
last reactor it'll be a rocket buster."
As the boys stepped on the slidestairs that would take them to Commander
Walters' office, each of them was very much aware that this was the
first step to a new adventure in space. And though the three realized
that they could expect danger, the special assignment meant that they
were going to hit the high, wide, and deep again. And that was all they
asked of life. To be in space, a spaceman's only real home!