"So am I," Rip answered. "Stand by."
The crystal appeared across the sun line and moved toward him. He met it,
slowed his speed, put the end of the tube into the hole and shoved. Kemp
had allowed enough clearance. The tube slid into place. Rip turned and
angled off as fast as he could glide. When he was far enough away from the
blast line he called, "Fire!"
[Illustration: "Fire!" Called Rip]
"Fire!" Called Rip
Koa squeezed the dynamo handle. The machine whined and current shot
through the wire. A column of orange fire spurted from the crystal.
Rip watched the stars instead of the exhaust. He kept running as it burned
soundlessly. In air, the noise would have deafened him. In airless space,
there was nothing to carry the sound.
The apparent motion of the stars was definitely slowing. The spinning
wouldn’t cease entirely, but it would slow down enough to give them more
time to work.
The tube reached brennschluss and Rip called orders. "Same process. Get
ready to repeat. Dominico, bring one of your tubes."
While Koa was connecting another exploder to the wire, Rip took a tube
from Dominico. "Take your space knife and saw through the tube you have
left. We’ll need about three-fifths of it. Keep both pieces."
Dominico pulled his knife, pressed the release, and the gas capsule shot
the blade out. He got to work.
Koa called that he was ready. Rip took the wired exploder from him and
thrust it into the tube Dominico had given him.
As the crystal came around again, the process was repeated. The hole was
undamaged.
There was more time to get clear because of the asteroid’s slower speed.
The second tube slowed the rock even more, so that they had to wait long
minutes while the crystal came around again.
Rip did some estimating. He wanted to be sure the next charge would do
nothing more than slow the asteroid to a stop. If the charge were too
heavy, it would reverse the spin. He didn’t want to make a career of
running on the asteroid. He was tired and he knew his men were getting
weary, too. He could see it in their strides—they were less sure o£ foot.
He decided it would be best to use a little less fuel rather than a little
more. If the asteroid failed to stop its spin completely, they could
always set off a small charge or two.
"Hold it," he ordered. "We’ll use the small end of Dominico’s tube and
save the big one."
The fuel was a solid mass, so cutting the tube in two sections caused no
difficulty. Rip pushed the exploder into the small section, seated it in
the hole, and hurried to cover. As he watched the fuel burn, he wondered
why the last nuclear charge had started the spin. He had made a mistake
somewhere. The earlier blasts had been set so they wouldn’t cause a spin.
He made a mental note to look at the place where the charge had exploded
when things were more quiet.
The rocket fuel slowed the asteroid down to a point where it was barely
turning, and Rip was glad he had been cautious. The heavier charge would
have reversed it a little. He directed the placing of a very small charge
and was moving away from it so Koa could set it off when Santos suddenly
yelled, "Sir! The Connie is coming!"
Rip called, "Fire the charge, Koa," then looked up. The Consops cruiser
was moving slowly toward them. The canny Connie had been waiting for
something to happen on the asteroid, Rip guessed. When the spinning slowed
and then stopped, the Connie probably had decided that now was the time
for a final try.
"Where is the communicator?" Rip asked Koa.
"One of the Connies has it."
"Get it. I’ll notify Terra base of what happened."
Koa found the Connie with the communicator, tested it to be sure the
prisoner hadn’t sabotaged it, and brought it to Rip.
"This is Foster to Terra base. Over."
"Come in, Foster."
Rip explained briefly what had happened and asked, "How is our orbit? I
haven’t had time to take sightings."
"You’re free of the sun," Terra base answered. "Your orbit will have to be
corrected sometime within the next few hours. The last blast pushed you
off course."
"That’s a small matter," Rip stated. "Unless we can think of something
fast, this will be a Connie asteroid by then. The Consops cruiser is
moving in on us. He’s careful, because he isn’t sure of the situation. But
even at his present speed he’ll be here in ten minutes."
"Stand by." Terra base was silent for a few moments, then the voice
replied. "I think we have an answer for you, Foster. Terra base off. Go
ahead, MacFife."
A Scottish burr thick enough to saw boards came out of the communicator.
"Foster, this is MacFife, commander of the _Aquila_. Y’can’t see me on
account of I’m on yer sunny side. But, lad, I’m closer to ye than the
Connie. We did it this way to keep the asteroid between us and him. Also,
lad, if ye’ll take a look up at Gemini, ye’ll see somethin’ ye’ll like.
Look at Alhena, in the Twins’ feet. Then, lad, if ye’ll be patient the
while, ye’ll have a grandstand seat for a real big show."
Rip tilted his bubble back and stared upward at the constellation of the
twins. He said softly, "By Gemini!" For there, a half degree south of the
star Alhena, was the clean line of a nuclear cruiser’s exhaust. The
_Sagittarius_, out of Mercury, had arrived.
He cut the communicator off for a moment and spoke exultantly to his men.
"Stand easy, you hairy Planeteers. Forget the Connie. He doesn’t know it,
but he’s caught. He’s caught between the Archer and the Eagle!"