"I think so. Lieutenant, we're on fire!"
"I know it. Get ready to abandon ship."
When the main mass of fuel caught, the rocket would become an inferno.
Rip smashed at the escape hatch above his head, grabbed propulsion tubes
from the rack, and called, "Now!"
He pulled the release on his harness, stood up on the seat, and thrust
with all his leg power. He catapulted out of the burning snapper-boat
into space.
Santos followed a second later, and the crippled rocket twisted wildly
under the two Planeteers.
"Don't use the propulsion tubes," Rip called. "Slow down with your air
bottles." He thrust the tubes into his belt, found his air bottles, and
pointed two of them in the direction they had been traveling. He wanted
to come to a stop, to let the wild snapper-boat get away from them.
The compressed-air bottles did the trick. He and Santos slowed down as
the little jets overcame the inertia that was taking them along with the
burning boat. The boat was spiraling now, burning freely. It moved away
from them, its stern jets still firing weakly.
Rip took a look toward the enemy cruiser. The assault boat was no longer
showing an exhaust. Instead, it was being dragged rapidly away from the
Connie cruiser by the pull of the sun. At least it was hit in time to
prevent launching of the atomic guided missiles. Or, he thought, perhaps
the enemy had never intended using them. The principal effect, besides
killing the Planeteers, would have been to drive the asteroid into the
sun at an even faster rate.
The enemy assault boat was no longer a menace. Its occupants would be
lucky if they succeeded in saving their own lives.
Rip wondered what the Connie cruiser commander would try now. Only one
thing remained, and that was to set the cruiser down on the asteroid.
If the Connie tried, he would arrive at just about the time set for
releasing the nuclear charge. And that would be the end of the
cruiser--and probably of the Planeteers as well.
Santos asked coolly, "Lieutenant, wouldn't you say we're in a sort of bad
spot?"
Rip had been so busy sizing up the situation that he hadn't thought about
his own predicament. Now he looked down and suddenly realized that he was
floating free in space, a considerable distance above the asteroid, and
with only small propulsion tubes for power.