The _Scorpius_ could have taken direct hits with little or no major damage
from a hundred rockets of the kind Rip had used, but Commander O’Brine
took no chances. When the alarm bell signaled that the outer hull had been
hit, the commander acted instantly with a bellowed order.
The Planeteers on the asteroid blinked with the speed of the cruiser’s
getaway. Fire flamed from the stern tubes for an instant and then there
was nothing but a fading glow where the _Scorpius_ had been.
Rip had a mental image of everything movable in the ship crashing against
bulkheads with the terrific acceleration.
And in the same moment, the Consops cruiser reacted. The Connie commander
was ready to fire guided missiles, when his target suddenly, mysteriously
blasted into space at optimum acceleration. There was only one reason the
Connie could imagine: his cruiser had been spotted. The ambush had failed.
It was one thing for the Connie to lie in ambush for a single, deadly
surprise blast at the Federation cruiser. It was quite another to face the
nuclear drive ship with its missile ports cleared for action. The Connie
knew he had lost.
Rip and the Planeteers saw the Consops ship suddenly flame away, then turn
and dive for low space below the asteroid belt in a direction opposite the
one the _Scorpius_ had taken. The helmet communicators rang with their
cheers.
The young officer clapped Santos on the shoulder and exclaimed weakly,
"Good shooting!"
The corporal turned anxiously to Koa. "The lieutenant’s pretty weak. Can’t
we do something?"
"Forget it," Rip said. There was nothing anyone could do. He was trapped
inside his space suit. There was nothing anyone could do for his wound
until he got into air.
Koa untied his safety line and moved to Rip’s side. "Sir, this is
dangerous, but there’s just as much danger without. I’m going to tie off
that arm."
Rip knew what Koa meant. He stood quietly as the big sergeant-major put
the line around his arm above the wound, then put his massive strength
into the task of pulling the line tight. The heavy fabric of the suit was
stiff, and the air pressure gave further resistance that had to be
overcome. Rip let most of the air out of the suit, then fought for breath
until the pain in his arm told him that Koa had succeeded. He inflated the
suit again and thanked the sergeant-major weakly.
The tight line stopped the bleeding, but it also cut off the air
circulation. Without the air, the heating system couldn’t operate
efficiently. It was only a matter of time before the arm froze.
"Stand easy," Rip told his men. "Nothing to do now but wait. The
_Scorpius_ will be back." He set an example by leaning against the thorium
crystal in which the cave was located. It was a natural but meaningless
gesture. With no gravity pulling at them they could remain standing
indefinitely, sleeping upright.
Rip closed his eyes and relaxed. The pain in his arm was less now, and he
knew the cold was setting in. He was getting light-headed, and most of all
he wanted to sleep. Well, why not? He slumped a little inside the suit.
He awoke with Koa shaking him violently. Rip stood upright and shook his
head to clear his vision. "What is it?"
"Sir, the _Scorpius_ has returned."
Rip blinked as he stared out into space to where Koa was pointing. He had
trouble focusing his eyes at first, and then he saw the glow of the
cruiser.
"Good," he said. "They’ll send a landing boat first thing."
"I hope so," Koa replied.
Rip wanted to ask why the big Planeteer doubted, but he was too tired to
phrase the question. He contented himself with watching the cruiser.
In a short time the _Scorpius_ was balanced with nose tubes counteracting
the thrust of stern tubes, ready to flash into space again at a second’s
notice.
Rip watched, puzzled. The cruiser was miles away. Why didn’t it come any
closer? Then, suddenly, it erupted a dozen fiery streaks.
"Snapper-boats," someone gasped.
Rip jerked fully awake. In the ruddy glow of the fighting rockets’ tubes
he had seen that the cruiser’s missile ports were yawning wide, ready to
spew forth deadly nuclear charges.
The snapper-boats flashed toward the asteroid in a group, sheered off, and
broke formation. They came back in pairs, streaking space with the sparks
of their exhausts.
"Into the cave," Koa shouted.
The Planeteers obeyed instantly. Koa took Rip’s arm, to lead him inside,
but the young officer shook him off. "No, Koa. I’ll take my chances out
here. I want to see what they’re up to."
"Great Cosmos, sir! They’ll go over this rock like Martian beetles. You’ll
get it for sure."
"Get inside," Rip ordered. He gathered strength enough to make his voice
firm. "I’m staying here until I figure out some way to call them off. We
can’t just stand here and let them blast us. They’re our own men."
"Then I’m staying, too," Koa stated.
A pair of snapper-boats flashed overhead, and vanished below the horizon.
Two more swept past from another direction.
Rip watched, curious. What were they up to? Another pair quartered past
them at high speed, then two more. The dozen boats seemed to be
criss-crossing the asteroid in a definite pattern. Why?
A pair streaked past, and something sped downward from one of them,
trailing yellow flame. It exploded in a ball of molten fire that licked
across the asteroid in waves. Rip tensed, then saw that the chemical would
burn out before it reached them.
"Fire bomb," Koa muttered.
Rip nodded. He had recognized it. The Planeteers were trained in the use
of fire bombs, tanks of chemicals that burned even in an airless world.
They were equipped with simple jets for use in space.
The snapper-boats drew off, back toward the _Scorpius_. Rip watched,
searching for some reason for their actions. Then one of the boats pulled
away from the others. It returned to the asteroid with stern jet burning
fitfully.
"Is he landing?" Koa asked.
Rip didn’t know. The snapper-boat was moving slowly enough to make a
landing.
Directly over the asteroid it changed direction, circled, and returned
over their heads. Rip could almost have picked it off with a pistol shot.
Santos could have blasted it into space dust with one rocket.
The snapper-boat changed direction, and for a fraction of a second stern
and side tubes "fought" each other, making the boat yaw wildly, then it
straightened out on a new course.
[Illustration: "They’re Using Fire Bombs," Muttered Koa.]
"They’re Using Fire Bombs," Muttered Koa.