"There's only one answer, boys," said Connel. "Loring and Mason have
escaped and taken over the ship. I can't think of any other reason Tom
would abandon us like this."
The jet boat was crowded. Alfie, the smallest, was sitting on Astro's
lap. For more than an hour they had circled above the copper satellite,
searching the surrounding skies in vain for some sign of the _Polaris_.
"Major," said Roger, who was hunched over the steering wheel of the
small space craft, "we're almost out of fuel. We'd better drop down on
the night side of Junior, the side away from the sun. At least there
we'd be out of the direct heat."
"Very well, Roger," said Connel. "In fact, we could keep shifting into
the night side every hour." Then he added quietly, thoughtfully, "But
we're out of fuel, you said?"
"Yes, sir," said Roger. "There's just enough to get down." Roger sent
the craft in a shallow dive. Suddenly the rockets cut out. The last of
the fuel was gone. Roger glided the jet boat to a smooth stop on the
night side of the planetoid.
"How much longer before the reactor units go up?" asked Shinny.
Connel turned, thinking he had heard something on the communicators,
then answered Shinny's question. "Only four hours," he said.
The crew of spacemen climbed out of the jet boat into the still
blackness of the night side of the planet. There wasn't anything left to
do.
They sat around on the hard surface of the planet, staring at the
strange stars overhead.
"You know," said Astro, "I might be able to set up something to convert
some of the U235 in the reactors to fuel the jet boat."
"Impossible, Astro," said Alfie. "You'd need a reduction gear. And not
only that, but you haven't any tools to handle the mass. If you opened
one of those boxes, you'd be fried immediately by the radiation!"
"Alfie's right," said Connel. "There's nothing to do but wait."
Major Connel turned his face up as far as he could in the huge fish-bowl
helmet to stare at the sky. His eyes wandered from star cluster to star
cluster, from glowing Regulus, to bright and powerful Sirius. He stifled
a sigh. How much he had wanted to see more--and more--and more of the
great wide, high, and deep! He remembered his early days as a youth on
his first trip to Luna City; his first sensation at touching an alien
world; his skipper, old, wise, and patient, who had given him his creed
as a spaceman: "Travel wide, deep, and high," the skipper had said to
the young Connel, "but never so far, so wide, or so deep as to forget
that you're an Earthman, or how to act like an Earthman!" Even now,
years later, the gruff voice rang in his ears. It wasn't long after that
that he had met Shinny. Connel smiled behind the protection of his
helmet, as he looked at the wizened spaceman, who was now old and
toothless, but who still had the same merry twinkle in his eye that
Connel had noticed the first time he saw him. Connel had signed on as
first officer on a deep spacer bound for Titan. Shinny had come aboard
and reported to Connel as rocketman. Shinny had promptly started roaring
through the passageways of the huge freighter in his nightshirt singing
snatches of old songs at the top of his voice. It had taken Connel four
hours to find where Shinny had hidden the bottle of rocket juice! Connel
laughed. He looked over at the old man fondly.
[Illustration]
"Say, Nick," said Connel, addressing the man by his given name for the
first time, "you remember the time it took me four hours to find that
bottle of rocket juice you hid on that old Titan freighter?"
Shinny cackled, his thin voice coming over the headphones of the others
as well as Connel's.
"I sure do, Lou!" replied Shinny, using Connel's first name. They were
just old spacemen now, reliving old times together. "Funny thing,
though, you never knew I had two more bottles hidden in the tube
chamber!"
"Why, you old space crawler!" roared Connel. "You put one over on me!"
[Illustration]
Roger and Astro and Alfie had never known Connel's first name. They
rolled the name over in their minds, fitting the name to the man.
Unknown to each other, they decided that the name fitted the man. Lou
Connel!
"Say, Lou," asked Shinny, "where in the blessed universe did you come
from? You never told me."
There was a long pause. "A place called Telfair Estates, in the deep
South on the North American continent. I was raised on a farm close by.
I used to go fishing late at night and stare up at the stars." He paused
again. "I ran away from home. I don't know if--if--anyone's still there
or not. I never went back!"
There was a long silence as each man saw a small boy fishing late at
night, barefoot, his toes dangling in the water, a worm wiggling on the
end of a string, more interested in the stars that twinkled overhead
than in any fish that might swim past and seize the hook.
"Where are you from, Nick?" asked Connel.
"Born in space," cackled Shinny, "on a passenger freighter carrying
colonists out to Titan. Never had a breath of natural fresh air until I
was almost a grown man. Nothing but synthetic stuff under the atmosphere
screens. My father was a mining engineer. I was the only kid. One night
a screen busted and nearly everybody suffocated or froze to death. My pa
and ma was among 'em. I blasted off after that. Been in the deep ever
since. And you know, by the blessed rings of Saturn, I'd be on a nice
farm near Venusport, living on a pension, if you hadn't kicked me out of
the Solar Guard!"
"Why, you broken down old piece of space junk," roared Connel, "I
oughta--" Connel never finished what he was going to say.
"Attention! Attention! Roger--Astro--Major Connel--come in, please! This
is Tom on the _Polaris_!"
As if they had been struck by a bolt of lightning, the five spacemen sat
up and then raced to the jet boat.
"Connel to Corbett!" roared the major. "Where are you? What happened?"
"I haven't got time to explain now, sir," said Tom. "Loring and Mason
escaped and forced me to take them to Tara. I managed to overcome them
and blast back here. Meet me up about fifty miles above Junior, sir. I'm
bringing the _Polaris_ in!"
"No!" yelled Connel. "It's no use, Tom. We're out of fuel. We've used up
all our power."
"Then stand by," said Tom grimly. "I'm coming in for a landing!"
"No, Tom!" roared Connel. "There's nothing you can do. We're too far
into the sun's pull. You'll never blast off again!"
"I don't care if we all wind up as cinders," said Tom, "I'm coming in!"
The communicator went dead and from the left, over the close horizon of
the small satellite, the _Polaris_ swept into view like a red-tailed
fire dragon. It shot up in a pretouchdown maneuver, and then began to
drop slowly to the surface of the planetoid.
No sooner had the _Polaris_ touched the dry airless ground than the
air-lock hatch was opened. From the crystal port on the control deck,
Tom waved to the men below him.
Shinny climbed into the lock first, followed by Astro, Alfie, Roger, and
Connel. While Roger and Alfie closed the hatch, Astro and Connel
adjusted the oxygen pressure and waited for the supply to build to
normal. At last the hissing stopped, and the hatch to the inner part of
the ship opened. Tom greeted them with a smile and an outstretched hand.
"Glad to have you aboard!" he joked.
After the back slapping between Roger, Astro, and Tom was over, Connel
questioned Tom on his strange departure from the satellite.
"It was just like I told you, sir," explained Tom. "They got out of the
brig," he paused, not mentioning the spoon that Loring had used or how
he had gotten it. "They forced me to take them to Tara. I managed to get
the gravity turned off and gave them a lesson in free-fall fighting.
They're still frozen stiff up on the control deck."
"Good boy!" said Connel. "I'll go and have a talk with them. Meantime,
Astro, you and Shinny and Alfie get below and see how much fuel we have
in emergency supply. We're going to need every ounce we have."
"Aye, aye, sir," said Astro. The three hurried to the power deck.
Connel followed Roger and Tom to the control deck. Loring and Mason were
still in the positions they were in when Tom had fired his paralo-ray.
Connel took Tom's gun and switched to the neutralizer. He fired twice
and the two men rose shakily to their feet. Connel faced them, his eyes
burning.
"I'm going to say very little to you two space-crawling rats!" snapped
Connel. "I'm not going to lock you in the brig; I'm not going to confine
you in any manner. But if you make one false move, I'll court-martial
you right here and now! You've caused enough trouble with your
selfishness, jeopardizing the lives of six men. If we fail to get off
this satellite, it'll be because _you_ put us in this position. Now get
below and see what aid you can give Astro. And if either of you so much
as raises your voice, I'm going to let _him_ take care of you! Is that
clear?"
"Yes, sir!" mumbled Loring. "We understand, sir. And we'll do everything
we can to--to--make up for what we've done."
"The only thing you can do is to stay out of my sight!" said Connel
coldly.
Loring and Mason scuttled past Connel and climbed down to the power
deck.
"Attention! Attention! Control deck--Major Connel! Sir, this is Roger on
the radar bridge. I just checked over Tom's figures on thrust, sir, and
I'm not sure, but I think we've passed the point of safety."
"Thanks, Roger," said Connel. He turned to the intercom. "Power deck,
check in!"
"Power deck, aye," said Astro.
"Loring and Mason there?" asked Connel.
"Yes, sir. I'm putting them right to work in the radiation chamber, sir.
I'm piling all emergency fuel into the reaction chambers to try for one
big push!"
"Why?" asked Connel.
"I heard what Roger said, sir," replied Astro. "This'll give us enough
thrust to clear the sun's gravity, but there's something else that might
not take it."
"What?" asked Connel.
"The cooling pumps, sir," said Astro. "They may not be able to handle a
load as hot as this. We might blow up."
Connel considered this a moment. "Do what you can, Astro. I have
absolute faith in you."
"Aye, aye, sir," said Astro. "And thank you. If this wagon holds
together, I'll get her off."
Connel turned to Tom who stood ready at the control panel.
"All set, sir," said Tom. "Roger's given me a clear trajectory forward
and up. All we need is Astro's push!"
"Unless Astro can build enough pressure in those cooling pumps to handle
the overload of reactant fuel, we're done for. We'll get off this moon
in pieces!"
"Power deck to control deck."
"Come in, Astro," said Tom.
"Almost ready, Tom," said Astro. "Maximum pressure is eight hundred and
we're up to seven seventy now."
"Very well, Astro," replied Connel. "Let her build all the way to an
even eight hundred and blast at my command."
"Aye, aye, sir," said Astro.
The mighty pumps on the power deck began their piercing shriek. Higher
and higher they built up the pressure, until the ship began to rock
under the strain.
"Stand by, Tom," ordered Connel, "and if you've ever twisted those
dials, twist them now!"
"Yes, sir," replied Tom.
"Pressure up to seven ninety-one, sir," reported Astro.
"Attention! All members strap into acceleration cushions!"
One by one, Shinny and Alfie, Loring and Mason, Astro and Roger strapped
themselves into the acceleration cushions. Roger set the radar scanner
and strapped himself in on the radar bridge. Connel slumped into the
second pilot's chair and took over the controls of the ship, strapping
himself in, while Tom beside him did the same. The whine of the pumps
was now a shrill whistle that drowned out all other sounds, and the
great ship bucked under the force of the thrust building in her heart.
In front of the power-deck control panel Astro watched the pressure
gauge mount steadily.
"Pressure up to seven ninety-six, sir," he called.
"Stand by to fire all rockets!" roared Connel.
"Make it good, you Venusian clunk," yelled Roger.
"Seven ninety-nine, sir!" bellowed Astro.
Astro watched the gauge of the pressure creep slowly toward the
eight-hundred mark. In all his experience he had never seen it above
seven hundred. Shinny, too, his merry eyes shining bright, watched the
needle jerk back and forth and finally reach the eight-hundred mark.
"Eight hundred, sir," bellowed Astro.
"Fire all stern rockets!" roared Connel.
Astro threw the switch. On the control board, Connel saw a red light
flash on. He jammed the master switch down hard.
It was the last thing he remembered.
[Illustration]