Garry had read about the rough effects of blast-off, but the real thing
was even worse than he had imagined. He felt like one of those
characters in movie cartoons who gets flattened to the thickness of
paper when run over. His lungs felt as though they had collapsed, and he
could suck in only the barest trace of breath.
But the discomfort did not last long. His body seemed to fill out like
an inflated balloon, although he still felt the ache of having been
nearly squashed. His stomach felt as though it had been stirred up with
an egg beater, and his head swam.
But no sooner had he recovered from the first violent thrust than it
came again as the rocket’s second stage began firing. Then the crushing
pressure eased once more, only to return once again as the third stage,
the occupied section of the _Orion_, began firing away. When this force
let up, Garry knew it was the last.
The ship did not appear to be moving, but Garry knew it must be
traveling many thousands of miles an hour.
Garry’s shaky hands groped for the belts of the harness that snugly
fitted his body. He worked the buckles loose from his upper body and sat
up on his G-couch. He did not release his legs, because he was already
feeling the dizzying effects of weightlessness. He looked across at
Patch on the next couch.
Patch was still lying flat, and his face was pasty white. His eyes were
closed, and this alarmed Garry.
“Patch!” Garry called, repeating the name over and over.
Patch had blacked out, but after a few minutes he came back to
consciousness.
“Wh—what happened?” Patch asked in a weak voice.
“We’re in space, Patch,” Garry replied. “They’ll probably think we’re
stowaways and send us to jail. Maybe Officer Mulroy will get in trouble
too.”
But this was the least of Patch’s worries right now. He put his hand to
his head, complaining, “Gee, I feel terrible. Everything’s going around!
And I had the worst nightmare all night long!”
Garry had to grin at this. “We haven’t been here all night, just a few
minutes. It just seems like a long time.”
Patch fumbled loose his upper straps and struggled to a sitting
position, but fell back down onto his contour seat. “Wow, I can’t make
it!” he said thickly.
“There’s no use trying to get up,” Garry said. “We’re weightless and
would never be able to get about. It’s funny how I wanted so terribly to
go into space, but now that I’m out here I’m not enjoying it. I guess
it’s because I’m afraid of what’s coming.”
Garry wondered what they should do. Should they turn themselves in and
take their chances on being believed that their being aboard the _Orion_
was due to an accident? But if they did this, then Mr. Mulroy might be
held responsible for not seeing that the boys had left the ship. And
yet, Garry realized, he and Patch could not stay in hiding indefinitely.
Sooner or later they must be found out. If they did not turn themselves
in, and they were discovered, they would surely be regarded as
stowaways.
Then a new fear came to Garry. What if his and Patch’s combined weight
was over the ship’s allowable limit? What if their being aboard would
keep them from reaching the space station and, instead, cause the
earth’s gravity to pull the _Orion_ back down? In that case the two of
them could possibly cost the space-ship line a new rocket worth
millions, not to mention the lives of all the persons aboard in case a
safe landing could not be made!
Garry was occupied with these grave thoughts until he heard the
public-address system saying: “We are now in braking orbit.”
Garry knew this meant that the ship had reached the vicinity of the
space station and was beginning to circle the station while the braking
rockets were cut in. This procedure would slow down the _Orion_ so that
she would be moving at the same orbital speed as the space station. Then
it would be easy for her to slip into dock.
Garry and Patch felt the tug of the ship’s gradually diminishing speed,
but this was not nearly as rough as the blast-off had been. As the
_Orion_ moved into dock, the boys felt their weight returning. This was
due to the station’s rotation and artificial gravity.
“Well, it looks like the ship has made it all right,” Patch said,
relieved. “They must not have had a full load.”
The boys heard the technical language of the docking procedure. Garry
listened closely, even though he could not understand much of it. But
this was all part of the spaceman’s education, and he was eager to learn
it, even at such a crucial moment as this.
Yet as he listened, he had another unpleasant thought. Now that he and
Patch had the blot of “stowaway” against them, would this misconduct
prevent them from realizing their dream of being future spacemen?
Finally, the ship’s motion stopped altogether. The _Orion_ had nestled
into her dock on the big Von Braun Space Station, named after the great
space scientist of the past century.
“Now where do we go from here?” Patch asked, as the two removed their
harness straps and got to their feet. “Garry, I’m scared, plenty scared!
Wow, I’m a little wobbly too!”
“Let’s stay put until we hear further announcements over the speaker,”
Garry suggested. “It’ll give us time to think this through a little
longer.”
“We’re just stalling, that’s what we’re doing, aren’t we, Garry? We
don’t want to turn ourselves in because we’re afraid of what will happen
to us,” Patch said.
Garry hung his head. “I guess that’s what it does amount to, Patch. I
keep thinking what this will do to our hopes of being spacemen. I’m
afraid we’ll never make it now.”
They stayed in hiding for another half hour. Then Garry said: “We’ve got
to have something to live on until we make up our minds what we’re going
to do, Patch. I think space ships have emergency-ration compartments
located along the corridors. I’m in favor of looking for one.”
“That’s better than just waiting here and doing nothing,” Patch agreed.
“I’ll look out and see if the coast is clear,” Garry said.
He looked around outside and then motioned to Patch. They started off
quietly down the corridor, but after a moment they heard footsteps
approaching from around the corner behind them.
“Garry, we’ve got to hide!” Patch whispered urgently. “Somebody’s
coming!”
Garry saw a door up ahead. “That leads into an air lock, Patch. We may
be safe in there.”
Garry turned a wheel on the door, and it swung open. They found
themselves in a short tunnel, at the other end of which was another
door. The air lock was used for entering and leaving the ship while it
was in space. The spaceman would enter the chamber and wait for the air
pressure to equalize before he left the air lock.
Garry quickly turned another wheel on the inside of the door, closing
it.
“We can’t stay in here very long without air,” Garry said. “The other
end of this air lock probably leads directly into the space station.
Shall we try it?”
“This running and hiding has got to end somewhere,” Patch replied with
discouragement. “Lead on.”
Garry checked the pressure gauge on the far door and saw that there was
normal pressure on the other side. He turned the wheel on the door, and
it swung open. The boys went through, and Garry wheeled the door shut
behind them.
They were in a huge enclosed dock of the space station. Lined up ahead
were several space taxis, or fliers, which were used for trips outside
the station and also doubled as lifeboats in time of emergency.
“Gee, it’s cold in here!” Patch said.
“The main thing, though, is that there’s no one around,” Garry said.
“It’ll give us time to collect our thoughts.”
“That’s what you think,” Patch whispered, tugging at Garry’s arm. “There
come a couple of men down that corridor across the way!”
Garry moved quickly and quietly, pulling Patch along. As the men entered
the dock, the boys ducked out of sight behind one of the space fliers.
The men approached the flier next to the outer door of the dock and
pressed a button on the taxi’s surface. Its door sprang open, and the
men entered the flier.
They were in there for fully five minutes. During that time, Garry began
to shiver, but it was not from fright so much as it was the coldness of
the dock. Garry felt Patch shaking beside him and knew his friend was
just as uncomfortable as he. But they had to stay put. There was no
other place they could go at this moment.
Finally, the men came out of the space taxi, closed the door, and, to
the relief of Garry and Patch, disappeared up the corridor.
Garry stood up and hugged himself.
“Garry, I—I’m freezing to death,” Patch chattered.
“So am I. We sure can’t stay here like this,” Garry replied.
“Why don’t we try getting into one of these ships?” Patch suggested.
“Maybe they’ve got heaters inside.”
Garry pressed the button of the ship which they had been hiding behind,
but the door did not open.
“The power is off or something,” Garry groaned.
“Maybe the first one will open,” Patch said. “It worked for those men.”
Garry went over to the first craft and pressed the door button.
Instantly, the door sprang open. A tiny air-lock chamber faced them.
“Thank goodness,” Patch murmured. “Let’s go in.”
“What if the men come back?” Garry cautioned. “They may be preparing for
a trip.”
“There are windows facing the corridor,” Patch said. “We can keep an eye
out for them and duck for cover again if they return. Gee, let’s try it
anyhow, Garry! I feel like a penguin that’s lost all its feathers!”
Garry agreed and entered the flier, Patch climbing in behind. A second
door led from the air lock chamber into the flier proper. Besides the
pilot’s seat, there were six other seats, three on a side. It was warmer
in here than outside, and Garry felt heat gently blowing. This made him
suspect that the men had just turned it on and that they were going to
return for a trip in the craft.
“I’m afraid we won’t have long to stay in here,” Garry told his friend
and mentioned his suspicion to him.
“I guess you’re right,” Patch agreed. “Where will we go from here?
Garry, I’m tired of running. And I’m getting more scared by the minute
because of what we’re doing. Why don’t we just turn ourselves in and
face the music, whatever it is?”
Through a window of the taxi, Garry was watching the corridor for signs
of the returning men. “I guess you’re right, Patch,” he said. “We’ll
give ourselves up when those men return.”
“I don’t think we should wait until then,” Patch objected. “It will go a
lot easier for us if we give ourselves up voluntarily instead of looking
as if we had been caught.”
Once again Garry agreed, but, as he was reaching for the button to open
the door, he heard a click.
“What was that?” Patch asked in alarm. “What did you do?”
“Nothing,” Garry said. “Something was operating all by itself.”
A soft purring sound began to be heard inside the craft, and Garry felt
the little ship vibrating ever so softly.
“Patch,” Garry said tensely, “I don’t like this.” He tried the door
button, but it would not work.
“What’s happening?” Patch asked, and there was fright in his voice.
A movement outside in the dock caught the boys’ eyes. Through the wide
front port of the ship, they watched a big door slide open, revealing a
dark air-lock tunnel—a tunnel large enough to hold the craft which they
were occupying!
“Garry,” Patch repeated, “what’s happening!”
Garry slumped into one of the seats, fear numbing his heart.
“Now I know what kind of ship this is, Patch,” he murmured. “It’s remote
controlled, guided by an operator inside the space station. We’re
heading straight out into space, Patch!”