Leaving a bewildered and frightened Patch behind him, Garry left the
platform and began pulling himself as rapidly as possible along the
webbing of the tube toward the ship’s stern. Reaching the observatory
bubble, he went in.
“Captain Eaton!” Garry gasped. “I think I’ve found him! I think I’ve
found Mac!”
The captain swung from an instrument he was using, and looked at Garry
in amazement. “You _what_?” he cried.
Garry pulled himself into the observatory, the floor taking hold of the
soles of his shoes by its magnetic attraction. “Yes, Sir!” he declared.
“Patch and I were looking for the sealing gun in front of the flight
deck, and I found a body in the darkness below the platform!”
Captain Eaton clicked across the floor and entered the tube. Garry
tagged along behind, as the skipper of the _Carefree_ set out toward the
bow of the ship.
A few minutes later, Captain Eaton was checking on Garry’s discovery.
Then he came back onto the platform, excitement showing on his face.
“It _is_ Mac!” he burst out. “His body is warm, and I think he may be
alive! We must call some of the others so that we can get him up from
there. In this zero gravity it will take several of us.”
Garry and Patch were sent by the captain to round up the others.
Then several began helping to get Mac onto the platform. Of course he
weighed nothing, but, in the zero gravity, the difficulty in moving him
lay in the fact that the others could not push him without bracing some
part of their own body against something. Otherwise, they would only
succeed in pushing themselves backward.
Mac was finally moved onto the platform and stretched out. He lay,
suspended in air, a few inches above the platform. Captain Eaton looked
at the Scotsman’s eyes and tested his pulse.
“His pulse is a little slow,” he stated, “but his color is good, and I
think he’ll come around pretty soon. That bad gash on his forehead must
have knocked him out.”
They worked over Mac. Finally, he stirred and then opened his eyes. He
stared as if unseeing for several moments, but then, as he began to
recognize everybody, a weak smile formed on his lips.
“What happened?” he murmured.
“We don’t know what happened, Mac,” Captain Eaton replied. “Can you tell
us? Can you remember what did happen before you blacked out?”
Mac frowned, as if concentrating very hard. Then his face relaxed.
“I remember,” he said softly. “I was near the door when it hit
us—whatever it was. If I’d been in the pilot’s chair I would have been a
goner. But I had gotten up only a moment before to check the chart. The
door was open. I heard a terrific roar and saw the whole console burst
into a sheet of fire. At the same time I felt myself being blown
backward and right through the door onto the platform. I was dazed, but
somehow I had the presence of mind to know I had to get that door shut
or the ship would lose all her air. I managed to press the button and
saw it slide shut. But then my head began to hurt terrifically and I
felt dizzy. I reached out for the railing to hold on, but I guess I
missed it then and unconsciously floated off to wherever you found me.”
“Garry found you,” Captain Eaton said. “We thought you had been blown
into space by the collision.”
“Thanks, Garry,” Mac said, winking at him with gratitude.
“That’s all right,” Garry replied. “We’re just so glad to see that
you’re still alive.”
“Mac, don’t ever scare me again like that!” Isaac put in, his voice
shaky with emotion. “It was my fault the collision happened, because I
overlooked the satellite that hit us. I knew your death was on me, and I
was so torn up I don’t think I’d ever have gotten over it. Thanks,
buddy, for turning up as you did!”
“Forget it, Isaac,” Mac joked. “Maybe you can return the favor
sometime.”
They told Mac about the existing crisis. He wanted to do something to
help, but Captain Eaton insisted that he go to the dormitory to rest.
Garry and Patch went with Captain Eaton to the observatory to recheck
and see how much time the _Carefree_ had left.
After another period of figuring and using his instruments, the skipper
turned to the boys. “I wish I had better news, but it looks as if we
have less time than I had thought at first.”
The boys returned with Captain Eaton to the flier. Isaac had taken over
helping Ben, since he knew more about this kind of thing than Mr.
Klecker.
Captain Eaton stood at the door of the air lock. “How are you coming in
there?” he asked.
Ben gave him a report of their progress. The captain’s face was lined
and grave. “You may have to do better than that if we’re going to get
out of this alive,” he said. “The moon is very close.”
Captain Eaton and the boys spent the time that followed in the
observatory dome, watching the steadily growing disk of the moon. It was
like a mocking face in the sky, luring the travelers to destruction.
No telescope was needed, for the big, rocky satellite of earth appeared
to take up the whole heavens. Garry and Patch studied the knife-edged
mountaintops, the dry, gray wildernesses that were once thought to be
seas, and the mysterious bowl-like craters. Where would the _Carefree_
plunge to her death on the fierce moonscape, Garry wondered. And would
he and the others still be aboard her when she crashed? Garry shuddered
at the thought. As Captain Eaton had said, Luna was now so frightfully
close.
The captain made a final check of his instruments. Then he turned
abruptly, heading for the door. The boys followed him out.
In the flier, moments later, the captain said, “Ben, we’re in our last
hour. How do things look in here?”
Garry could see Ben’s grimy, tired face turned toward Captain Eaton.
“It’ll be close, Captain, awfully close,” Ben answered, and immediately
turned back to the network of wiring in the instrument panel.
“Anything I can do, Ben?” Captain Eaton asked.
“Just hope and pray,” was the reply. “I think it’ll be all up to me now.
It’s a one-man job getting these wires hooked up.”
“We could take one last look around the ship during this last hour,” Mr.
Klecker proposed. “I have some books I want to take along.”
“Sorry, Kleck,” Ben said, “but we won’t have room for them. The flier
will be crowded as it is. We won’t be able to take belongings of any
kind, not even for survival, except for the emergency supplies the flier
itself carries. The weight is that critical.”
“I don’t want a last look,” Gino spoke up. “Otherwise I might not want
to leave the good old _Carefree_, even if she is going to crash.”
“Me either,” Isaac Newton added. “I want to remember her the way she was
when all of us were very happy and really carefree.”
“One thing about Patch and me,” Garry put in. “We came aboard without
anything but the clothes we’re wearing, and we’ll be leaving the same
way.”
“There’s one thing I surely hate to leave behind,” Captain Eaton said.
“Katrinka. She’s only a robot, but I’ve had her for so long that she’s
almost like a member of the family.”
From now on, every minute was beginning to count desperately. Garry
wished he could hold back the hands of the clock. He wished he could
give Ben an extra hour. But this could not be.
A little later there came the announcement that Garry had known must be
coming finally. Captain Eaton had been in the observatory for the last
time, and now he had returned with a final announcement: “It’s now or
never, Ben. Which is it?”
Ben straightened up, and there was a pleased look on his weary face.
“Just finished, Captain. The instrument panel isn’t as good as new, but
I’m pretty sure the flier can be navigated by it, at least long enough
for a safe landing on Luna. Come here, Mac. Let me show you a few things
about the console.”
Garry wondered why Ben was taking time to instruct Mac in the navigation
of the ship. Why couldn’t he do the piloting himself? Garry could see
that Mac was a little puzzled too, as he went over to the instrument
panel.
Captain Eaton was looking at his wrist watch. “Ben, there’s no more
time. We’ve got to get off the _Carefree_ within five minutes, not a
second longer.”
After a few more hurried moments of instruction, Ben said, “We’re ready,
Captain. Everybody into the rocket.”
Those who were not already in filed into the rocket and belted down into
the seats. That is, everybody but one—Ben.
“Ben, where are you going?” Captain Eaton asked.
“To check on the air lock, Sir,” Ben answered, and walked through the
flier’s doorway into the air lock between the two ships.
Mac had belted down in the pilot’s seat, as Ben had asked him to do.
“How are you going to ride without a seat, Ben?” Mac called.
“Everybody ready?” Ben called from the air lock.
All answered that they were.
“Start the motors, Mac,” Ben said.
Mac started the rocket motors, at the same time calling, “Hurry up,
Ben!”
Garry heard a whirring sound, and the outer door of the flier slid shut,
with Ben still in the air lock beyond!
“Hey, wait!” Isaac shouted. “Ben’s in the air lock, and the door’s
closed!”
No one could do anything, for in the very next moment the flier kicked
out violently sideways, bending everyone over in his seat. There was
another jerk forward as the flier went into motion.
“What’s happened?” Captain Eaton called.
“Ben’s tricked us!” Mac replied. “He cut off the magnetic grapples from
the air lock that held us fast to the _Carefree_. How stupid I was! He
told me to take over while he checked on some last-minute things.”
“I see it all,” Isaac added. “If we check the weights we’ll probably
find out that we would be overloaded with one more passenger. Ben was
that one more, and he chose not to come aboard rather than risk the
safety of the rest of us!”
“Yes,” the captain said in a choked voice, “it seems that Ben elected to
go down with the _Carefree_.”