Trudeau held tight to the launcher, but the rocket racks opened and
spilled attack rockets into space. They flew in a dozen different
directions. Trudeau gave vent to his feelings in colorful French.
Koa and Santos laughed so hard they had trouble collecting the scattered
equipment. Rip, slowed by his crash with Trudeau, got his feet under him
again.
The asteroid had turned into the sun before they collected everything but
Rip’s stylus and five attack rockets. The space-pencil was the only thing
that could write on the computing board. It had to be found.
"Next time around," Rip called to the others, and led the way full speed
ahead until they regained the safety of shadow.
Rip suspected the stylus was somewhere above the rock and probably
wouldn’t return to the surface for some minutes. While he was wondering
what to do, there was a chorus of yells. A rocket sped between the
Planeteers and shot off into space.
"Our own rockets are after us," Trudeau gasped. There hadn’t been time to
collect them all after Rip’s unwilling attack on the Frenchman scattered
them. Now the sun was setting them off. Another flashed past, fortunately
over their heads. The sun’s heat was causing them to fire unevenly. Rip
hoped they would all go off soon and get it over with.
"Three more to go," Koa called. "Watch out!"
Only two went, and they were far enough away to offer no danger.
Santos had been fishing around in the instrument case. He triumphantly
produced another stylus. "It was under the sextant," he explained. "I
thought there was another one around somewhere."
"If we get through this I’ll propose you for ten more stripes," Rip vowed.
"We’ll make you the highest ranking sergeant that ever made a private’s
life miserable."
Working slowly but more safely, Rip figured that slightly more than two
and a half tubes would do the trick.
Now to fire them. That meant finding a thorium crystal properly placed and
big enough. There were plenty of crystals, so that was no problem. The
next step was for Kemp to cut holes with his torch, so that the thrust of
the rocket fuel would be counter to the direction in which the asteroid
was spinning.
Rip explained to all hands what had to be done. The burden would fall on
Kemp, who would need a helper. Rip took that job himself. He took one
oxygen tank from Kemp. Koa took the other, leaving the torchman with only
his torch.
Then Rip took a container of chemical fuel from Bradshaw. Working while
running, he lashed the two containers together with his safety line. Then
he improvised a rope sling so they could hang on his back. He wanted his
hands free.
Kemp, meanwhile, assembled his torch and put the proper cutting nozzle in
place. When he was ready, he moved to Rip’s side and connected the hoses
of the torch to the tanks the lieutenant carried. Kemp had the torch
mechanism strapped to his own back. It was essentially a high pressure
pump that drew oxygen and fuel from the tanks and forced them through the
nozzle under terrific pressure.
When he had finished, he pressed the trigger that started the cutting
torch going. The fuel ignited about a half inch in front of the nozzle.
The nozzle had two holes in it, one for oxygen and the other for fuel. The
holes were placed and angled to keep the flame always a half inch away,
otherwise the nozzle itself would melt.
"How do we work this?" Kemp asked.
"We’ll get ahead of the others," Rip explained. "Keep up speed until we’re
running at the forward sun line. Then, when the crystal we want comes
around into the shadow, we can stop running and work until it spins into
the sunshine again."
"Got it," Kemp agreed.
Rip estimated the axis on which the asteroid was spinning and selected a
crystal in the right position. He had to be careful, otherwise their
counter-blast might do nothing more than start the gray planet wobbling.
He and Kemp ran ahead of the others. The Planeteers and their prisoners
were running at a speed that kept them right in the middle of the dark
area.
It was like running on a treadmill. The Planeteers were making good speed,
but were actually staying in the same place relative to the sun’s
position, keeping the turning asteroid between them and the sun.
Rip and Kemp ran forward until they were right at the sun line. Then they
slowed down, holding position and waiting for the crystal they had chosen
to reach them. As it came across the sun line into darkness they stopped
running and rode the crystal through the shadow until it reached the sun
again. Then the two Planeteers ran back across the dark zone to meet the
crystal as it came around again. There was only a few minutes’ working
time each revolution.
Kemp worked fast, and the first hole deepened. Rip helped as best he could
by pushing away the chunks of thorium that Kemp cut free, but it was
essentially a one-man job.
As Kemp neared the bottom of the first hole, Rip reviewed his plan and
realized he had overlooked something. These weren’t nuclear bombs; they
were simple tubes of chemical fuel. The tubes wouldn’t destroy the hole
Kemp was cutting.
He reached a quick decision and called Koa to join them. Koa appeared as
Kemp pulled his torch from the hole and started running again to avoid the
sun. Rip and Koa ran right along with him, crossing the dark zone to meet
the crystal as it came around again.
"There’s no reason to drill three holes," Rip explained as they ran.
"We’ll use one hole for all three charges. They don’t have to be fired all
at once."
"How do we fire them?" Koa asked.
"Electrically. Who has the exploders and the hand dynamo?"
"Dowst has the exploders. One of the Connies is carrying the dynamo."
Speaking of the Connies ... Rip hadn’t seen the Consops cruiser recently.
He looked up, searching for its exhaust, and finally found it, a faint
line some distance away.
The Connie commander was stalemated for the time being. He couldn’t land
his cruiser on a spinning asteroid, and he had no more boats. Rip thought
he probably was just waiting around for any opportunity that might present
itself.
The Federation cruisers should be arriving. He studied his chronometer.
No, the nearest one, the _Sagittarius_ from Mercury, wasn’t due for
another ten minutes or so. He turned up his helmet communicator and
ordered all hands to watch for the exhaust of a nuclear drive cruiser,
then turned it down again and gave Koa instructions.
"Have Trudeau turn his load over to a Connie and collect the exploders and
the dynamo. We’ll need wire, too. Who has that?"
"Another Connie."
"Get a reel. Cut off a few hundred feet and connect the dynamo to one end
and an exploder to the other."
The crystal came around again and Kemp got to work. Rip stood by, again
reviewing all steps. They couldn’t afford to make a mistake. He had no
margin of error.
Kemp finished the hole a few seconds before the crystal turned into the
sunlight again. Rip told him to keep the torch going. There might be some
last minute cutting to do. Then the lieutenant hurried off at an angle to
where Dominico was plodding along with the fuel tubes.
Koa had turned the tube he carried over to a Connie. Rip got it, and told
Dominico to follow him. Then he angled back across the asteroid to where
Kemp was holding position.
The asteroid turned twice before Koa arrived. He had a coil of wire slung
over his arm and he carried the dynamo in one hand and an exploder in the
other, the two connected by the wire.
Rip took the exploder. "Uncoil the wire," he directed. "Go to its full
length at right angles to the hole. We have to time this exactly right.
When the crystal comes around again, I’ll shove the tube into the hole,
then scurry for cover. When I’m clear I’ll yell and you pump the dynamo.
Dominico and Kemp stay with Koa. Make sure no one is in the way of the
blast."
Koa unreeled the wire, moving away from Rip. The lieutenant pushed the
exploder into one end of the fuel tube and crimped it tightly with his
gloved hand.
Koa and the others were as far away as they could get now, the wire
stretching between them and Rip. Kemp had made sure no one was running
near the line of blast.
Rip watched for the crystal. It would be coming around any second now. He
held the tube with the exploder projecting behind him, ready for the hole
to appear.