That night, on their way to dinner in the galley, the boys were
overtaken by the long-striding Mr. Klecker.
“I heard you’re leaving us, gentlemen,” he said to them.
“Yes, that’s right, Mr. Klecker,” Garry replied.
“Too bad. I was hoping I would have the opportunity to talk to you about
the old circus days. Yes, it’s too bad.”
Gino, too, showed how much he liked the boys. He baked them special pies
and told them that they were his going-away presents to them.
After supper, Patch said to Garry, as they were leaving the galley,
“Gee, they’re not making our leaving very easy, are they?”
“No, Patch, they’re not making it very easy at all,” Garry agreed.
“We’re not making what very easy?” asked a voice behind them.
They turned and saw the smiling face of Ben. Garry explained to him what
they were talking about.
“Then I guess you don’t want me to say I’m sorry to see you go either,
do you?” Ben said.
“Of course we really _do_ care,” Garry admitted. “But it makes us sad
when everybody tells us.”
“Then, I won’t tell you good-by, fellows,” Ben said. “I’ll just say ‘so
long’ for awhile. Before you know it, you’ll come back into space and
find us still cruising through the deeps in the _Carefree_. Yes, we’ll
all be here.”
“It does sound better that way, Ben,” Garry replied. “But until then,
we’ll still miss all of you terribly.”
“We’ll miss you too,” Ben said quietly, “but we’ll never forget you.”
The boys went to bed with a feeling of melancholy that night, for this
was their last sleep aboard Captain Eaton’s wonderland space ship. The
thought of leaving these good friends, possibly forever, brought a pang
to Garry’s heart. But no matter how sorrowful he felt, he was determined
to be brave about it.
Garry fell asleep thinking of all the fun he and Patch had had in the
brief happy hours of their stay aboard the _Carefree_. Since the time
passes quickly during slumber, the boy expected he would be awake before
he knew it on another quiet morning, and that very soon thereafter he
would be bidding good-by to his friends as he and Patch made
preparations for the voyage back to earth and the orphanage.
But Garry woke far sooner than he expected. It was not morning, nor was
it quiet; the air was charged with confusion and alarm.
Garry was aware of bustling footsteps and urgent voices in the
dormitory. His eyes popped open in the bright glare of the lights that
had been turned on fully. He had a feeling that it was the middle of the
night and not morning, although he was not to find this out until a
little later.
Garry sat bolt upright in his bunk. “What’s wrong?” he asked.
Gino, hastily pulling on his shirt, paused at Garry’s bunk. His eyes
showed the anxiety he felt.
“Hurry and get dressed, Garry!” he said. “You and Patch. We’re in great
danger. We’ve got to get ready for the captain’s orders.”
Garry leaped out of bed, his heart thumping swiftly. The cold floor on
the soles of his feet shocked him fully awake. He seized his peacefully
sleeping buddy and yanked him without mercy.
“Patch, get up! There’s trouble—I don’t know just what kind yet!”
Patch’s eyes were still drugged with sleep, but he struggled to a
sitting position.
“Trouble? Wh—what trouble?” Patched muttered.
“I told you I don’t know, but Gino warned us to get ready for the
captain’s orders. Hurry! Everyone else is already dressed and out of the
dorm!”
Patch needed no more urging and popped out of bed. He and Garry quickly
dressed and hurried out into the corridor to see what was going on.
There was no one in sight. The boys went farther along. Then, at the
foot of the stairs leading into the center tube, they heard excited
voices.
“Whatever it is, it seems to be up in the tunnel,” Garry said. “Let’s
go.”
They hurried up the stairs. Reaching the top, Garry, who was in the
lead, looked down the tunnel from which most of the sounds were coming.
He saw Ben, Captain Eaton, Mr. Klecker, and Gino on or near the platform
outside the flight deck, the door of which was closed.
Garry and Patch pulled their weightless bodies along the webbing of the
tube. As they approached the men, they heard Ben saying:
“This is terrible! Poor Mac! And what’s going to happen to the rest of
us?”
“What is going to happen?” Garry asked, as he and Patch came upon the
scene.
Captain Eaton turned to them with a distraught look. “I’m sorry, boys.
If I had hastened to get you back to the space station promptly, you
would have survived this—this disaster.”
“Disaster?” Garry echoed, with a sinking feeling in his stomach.
“Yes,” Captain Eaton answered, his voice shaking. “Mac is already done
for, and we shall soon follow after him.”
“What happened?” Patch asked Mr. Klecker.
The boys could see pain on the men’s faces.
“The _Carefree_ collided with an _Explorer_ satellite,” the butler
replied. “It destroyed the flight deck while Mac was on duty. It looks
as if he had managed to close the door before he was swept off into
space. The collision knocked us off course, and we’re plunging into
space—toward where, no one knows. We can’t so much as lift a finger to
bring her under control, and our antenna disk has been damaged so that
we can’t even send an SOS.”
“Oh, no!” was all Garry could say, sickened at the sudden fateful turn
of events.
Actually, he was thinking more of poor Mac than he was of their own grim
outlook. He remembered how much the likable Scotsman wanted to return to
the heather of his own land after his stint in space. Now he would never
see Scotland again. Garry absently watched Ben squirting a thick liquid
around the cracks of the flight-deck door, probably as a safeguard
against air escaping from the ship.
“Ben has been outside in a pressure suit to look over the damage,”
Captain Eaton said.
Patch turned away from the others, hanging his head in grief and
despair. Captain Eaton put an arm around Garry’s shoulder, but there was
a helpless look on his face that seemed to show the uselessness of
saying anything. Gino had lost his usual cheery smile and could only
stare numbly at the closed door of the flight deck, where their friend
had been the victim of such a cruel act of fate.
Garry looked around at the ship’s company. Everyone was accounted for
except Isaac.
“Where’s Mr. Newton?” he asked.
“Poor Isaac is completely crushed,” Captain Eaton replied. “He had just
changed shifts with Mac at the pilot’s chair only a few moments before
the accident. He’s blaming himself for the whole thing. It seems he
overlooked the position of the satellite that hit us. He missed it on
his last check, and Mac did not see it in time. Isaac’s gone off
somewhere.”
It was indeed a dark moment aboard the once-happy vessel. Things had
happened so swiftly that everyone appeared to be still in shock. No one
spoke again for several minutes. Everyone just stood around idly, as if
not knowing what to do next and not really caring.
Ben was the first to try to rally everyone’s deadened spirits. He had
just finished sealing the cracks in the door.
“It’ll be some time before we can tell which way the ship is heading.
The collision changed our course completely. Even when we do find out,
there’s nothing we can do to control the _Carefree_. She’s just a
runaway. But I still think there’s hope for us.”
All eyes turned upon Ben questioningly.
“That flier you two arrived in, Garry,” Ben continued. “I’ve only had a
quick look inside it, and the console seemed in pretty bad shape from
your and Patch’s efforts to start the engines. However, if I’m lucky and
we have time before the _Carefree_ hits another satellite or something,
I may be able to fix it up so that we can escape in it.”
“It’s our only hope,” Captain Eaton replied. “I suggest you get right on
the job, Ben, and call on anyone you need to help you. Meanwhile, we’ll
sweat out the flight, although I must say I feel like a duck in a
shooting gallery because of all the flying objects whirling out there
all around us.”
“If we are able to escape in the flier,” Mr. Klecker said, “we can use
its radio to send for help.”
Ben shook his head. “The radio was removed for some reason. There’s only
the empty compartment it came out of.”
With faint hope of survival, some measure of good spirits was restored
to the astronauts. Ben called upon Mr. Klecker to help him work on the
space taxi, and Captain Eaton said he would go to the observatory to
take a “fix” and try to determine the course the _Carefree_ had taken.
“I’ll have to change clothes,” Mr. Klecker said. “I don’t want to get my
uniform soiled.”
“Guess I’ll go and whip up some breakfast,” Gino said. “That’s about all
_I_ can do, although maybe nobody will be hungry.”
Captain Eaton turned to Garry and Patch before he left. “I know it’s
going to be hard for you,” he said, “but try to feel hopeful about this
situation. A terrible misfortune has come our way, but try to believe
that things will work out for us. Chins up, eh, fellows?”
He forced a smile. The boys gave him a brave smile in return, although
they did not feel it any more than he had.
“May we go with you to the observatory, Captain?” Patch asked. “Maybe we
can help.”
“Yes, if you like. I know how hard it will be to remain idle at a time
like this. Let’s go.”
In the observatory, Garry and Patch watched the captain at his telescope
and other instruments. He worked for a little while, then turned away
from his work with a brooding, disturbed look on his face. He stroked
his neat beard. Then he worked again for several more minutes.
He stopped once more, but then resumed his watching. He kept this up for
some time, and, as the minutes passed, his face grew more and more
serious.
Garry was afraid to ask, but he felt that he had to know. “Captain,
is—is it bad?” he said softly.
Captain Eaton shook his head grimly, the look of despair in his eyes.
“You may as well know,” he replied. “I’ve been hoping I was wrong, but
now I know I’m not. We’re moving into the gravity field of the moon. My
guess is that we’re only a few hours away from collision.”