"I don't know a thing," Southwick said. "We got instructions to pack up a
pretty strange assortment of supplies for the _Scorpius_, and that's all
I know. The order was in special cipher, though, so we're all wondering
about it."
The deputy commander returned, reported to O'Brine, then walked up to Rip
and Southwick. "Nothing else needed," he said curtly. "We'll get off at
once."
Southwick nodded, shook hands with Rip, and said in a voice the deputy
could hear, "Don't let these spacemen bother you. Trouble with them is
they all wanted to be Planeteers and couldn't pass the intelligence
tests." He winked, then hurried to the air lock.
Spacemen worked quickly to clear the deck of the new supplies, stowing
them in a nearby workroom. Within five minutes the engine control room
was clear. The safety officer signaled, and the radiation warning
sounded. Taking off!
Rip hurried to the squad room and climbed into an acceleration chair. The
other Planeteers were already in the room, most of them in their bunks.
Koa slid into the chair beside him. "Find out anything, sir?"
"Nothing useful. A bunch of equipment came aboard, but it was in plain
crates. I couldn't tell what it was."
Acceleration pressed them against the chairs. Rip sighed, picked up an
audio-circuit set, and put it over his ears. Might as well listen to what
the circuit had to offer. There was nothing else to do. Music was
playing, and it was the kind he liked. He settled back to relax and
listen.
_Brennschluss_ came some time later. It woke Rip up from a sound sleep.
He blinked, glancing at his chronometer. Great Cosmos! With that length
of acceleration they must be high-vacking for Jupiter! He waited until
the ship went into the gravity spin, then got out of his chair and
stretched. He was hungry. Koa was still sleeping. He decided not to wake
him. The sergeant major would see that the men ate when they wanted to.
In the messroom only one table was occupied--by Commander O'Brine.
Rip gave him a civil hello and started to sit alone at another table. To
his surprise, O'Brine beckoned to him.
"Sit down," the spaceman invited gruffly.
Rip did and wondered what was coming next.
"We'll start to decelerate in about ten minutes," O'Brine said. "Eat
while you can." He signaled, and a spaceman brought Rip the day's ration
in an individual plastic carton with thermo-lining. The Planeteer opened
it and found a block of mixed vegetables, a slab of space meat, and two
units of biscuit. He wrinkled his nose. Space meat he didn't mind. It was
chewy but tasty. The mixed vegetable ration was chosen for its food value
and not for taste. A good mouthful of Earth grass would be a lot more
palatable. He sliced off pieces of the warm stuff and chewed
thoughtfully, watching O'Brine's face for a clue as to why the commander
had invited him to sit down.
It wasn't long in coming. "Your orders are the strangest things I've ever
read," O'Brine stated. "Do you know where we're going?"
Rip figured quickly. They had accelerated for six and a half hours. Now,
ten minutes after _Brennschluss_, they were going to start deceleration.
That meant they had really high-vacked it to get somewhere in a hurry. He
calculated swiftly.
"I don't know exactly," he admitted. "But from the ship's actions, I'd
say we were aiming for the far side of the asteroid belt. Anyway, we'll
fall short of Jupiter."
There was a glimmer of respect in O'Brine's glance. "That's right. Know
anything about asteroids, Foster?"
Rip considered. He knew what he had been taught in astronomy and
astrogation. Between Mars and Jupiter lay a broad belt in which the
asteroids swung. They ranged from Ceres, a tiny world only 480 miles in
diameter, down to chunks of rock the size of a house. No accurate count
of asteroids--or minor planets, as they were called--had been made, but
the observatory on Mars had charted the orbits of thousands. A few were
more than a mile in diameter, but most were great boulders of irregular
shape, from a few feet to several hundred feet at their greatest
dimension.
"I know the usual stuff about them," he told O'Brine. "I haven't any
special knowledge."