There were two things Rip could see from his hospital bed on the space
platform. One was the great curve of earth. He was anxious to get out of
the hospital and back to Terra.
The second thing was the asteroid. Spacemen were at work on it, slowly
cutting it to pieces. The pieces were small enough to be carried back to
earth in supply rockets. It would be a long time before the asteroid was
completely cut up and transported to Terra base.
Sergeant-major Koa came into the hospital ward and sat on Rip’s bed. The
plastifoam mattress compressed under his weight. "How are you feeling,
sir?"
"Pretty good," Rip replied. The worst of the radiation sickness was over
and he was mending fast. Here and there were little blood stains just
below the surface of his skin, and he had no more hair than a plastic
ball. Otherwise he looked normal. The stains would go away and his hair
would grow back within a matter of weeks.
Santos, now officially a sergeant, was in the same condition. The rest of
Rip’s Planeteers had resumed duties on the space platform. He saw them
frequently because they made a point of dropping in whenever they were
near the hospital area.
Koa looked out at the asteroid. "I sort of hate to see that rock cut up.
There isn’t much about a chunk of thorium to get sentimental over, but
after fighting for it the way we did, it doesn’t seem right to cut it into
blocks."
"I know how you feel," Rip admitted, "but after all, that’s what we
brought it back for."
He studied Koa’s brown face. The big Hawaiian had something on his mind.
"Got vack worms chewing at you?" he asked. Vack worms were a spaceman’s
equivalent of "the blues."
"Not exactly, sir. I happened to overhear the doctor talking today. You’re
due for a leave in a week."
"That’s good news!" Rip exclaimed. "You’re not unhappy about it, are you?"
Koa shrugged. "We were all hoping we’d be together on our next assignment.
The gang liked serving under you. But we’re overdue for shipment to
somewhere, and if you take eight weeks’ leave, we’ll be gone by the time
you come back to the platform."
"I liked serving with all of you, too." Rip replied. "I watched the way
you all behaved when the space-flap was getting tough and it made me proud
to be a Planeteer."
Major Joe Barris came in. He was carrying an envelope in his hand.
"Hello, Rip. How are you, Koa? Am I interrupting a private talk?"
"No, Major," Koa replied. "We’re just passing the time. Want me to leave?"
"Stay here," Barris said. "This concerns you, too. I’ve been reassigned.
My eight years on the platform are up, and that’s all an instructor gets.
Now I’m off for space on another job."
Rip knew that instructors were assigned for eight-year periods. And he
knew that the major’s specialty was the Planeteer science of exploration.
Barris’s specialty required him to be an expert in biology, zoology,
anthropology, navigation and astrogation, and in land fighting. Not to
mention a half dozen other lesser things. Only ten Planeteers rated expert
in exploration and all were captains or majors.
"Where are you going?" Rip asked. "Off to explore something?"
"That’s it." Major Barris smiled. "Remember once I said that when they
gave me the job of cleaning up the goopies on Ganymede I’d ask for you as
a platoon leader?"