[Illustration: TOM CORBETT SPACE CADET
THE SPACE PIONEERS
By CAREY ROCKWELL
WILLY LEY, Technical Adviser]
[Illustration]
THE SPACE PIONEERS
THE TOM CORBETT
SPACE CADET STORIES
By Carey Rockwell
STAND BY FOR MARS!
DANGER IN DEEP SPACE
ON THE TRAIL OF THE SPACE PIRATES
THE SPACE PIONEERS
THE REVOLT ON VENUS
TREACHERY IN OUTER SPACE
SABOTAGE IN SPACE
THE ROBOT ROCKET
[Illustration]
A TOM CORBETT Space Cadet Adventure
THE SPACE PIONEERS
By CAREY ROCKWELL
WILLY LEY _Technical Adviser_
GROSSET & DUNLAP _Publishers_ New York
COPYRIGHT, 1953, BY ROCKHILL RADIO
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
ILLUSTRATIONS BY LOUIS GLANZMAN
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
[Transcriber's Note: Extensive research can find no evidence of the
required copyright renewal on this work.]
ILLUSTRATIONS
_Frontispiece_
Her nose pointed skyward, the _Polaris_ was ready to blast off 21
The Solar Guard worked late into the night, examining every ship
in the Alliance 50
The speedy little ship shot ahead of the fleet toward the gigantic
mass of asteroids 90
The _Polaris_ landed safely on the surface of the satellite 105
Bush pulled a paralo-ray gun from his belt and said, "All right,
march!" 143
"Hasn't anybody figured out why four hundred ships crashed in
landing?" Strong asked. 159
"We better take it easy, Astro," said Tom. "Turn off the lights." 171
THE SPACE PIONEERS
CHAPTER 1
"Go on, Astro," shouted the young Space Cadet. "Boot that screwy ball
with everything you've got!"
The three cadets of the _Polaris_ unit raced down the Academy field
toward the mercuryball, a plastic sphere with a vial of mercury inside.
At the opposite end of the field, three members of the _Arcturus_ unit
ran headlong in a desperate effort to reach the ball first.
Astro, the giant Space Cadet from Venus, charged toward the ball like a
blazing rocket, while his two unit mates flanked him, ready to block out
their opponents and give Astro a clear shot at the ball.
On the left wing, Tom Corbett, curly-haired and snub-nosed, ran lightly
down the field, while on the opposite wing, Roger Manning, his blond
hair cut crew style, kept pace with him easily. The two teams closed.
Roger threw a perfect block on his opposing wingman and the two boys
went down in a heap. Tom side-stepped the _Arcturus_ cadet on his side
and sent him sprawling to the ground. He quickly cut across the field
and threw his body headlong at the last remaining member of the
opposition. Astro was free to kick the ball perfectly for a fifty-yard
goal.
Jogging back toward their own goal line, the three _Polaris_ cadets
congratulated each other. Astro's kick had tied the score, two-all.
"That was some feint you pulled on Richards, Tom," said Roger. "You
sucked him in beautifully. I thought he was going to tear up the field
with his nose!"
Tom grinned. Compliments from Roger were few and far between.
Astro clapped his hands together and roared, "All right, fellas, let's
see if we can't take these space bums again! Another shot at the
goal--that's all I need!"
[Illustration]
Lining up at the end of the field again, the cadets kept their eyes on
the cadet referee on the side lines. They saw him hold up his hand and
then drop it suddenly. Once again the teams raced toward the ball in the
middle of the field. When they met, Roger tried to duplicate Tom's feat
and feint his opponent, but the other cadet was ready for the maneuver
and stopped dead in his tracks. Roger was forced to break stride just
long enough for the _Arcturus_ cadet to dump him to the ground and then
race for Astro. Tom, covering Astro on the left wing, saw the cadet
sweeping in and lunged in a desperate attempt to stop him. But he
missed, leaving Astro unprotected against the three members of the
_Arcturus_ unit. With his defense gone, Astro kicked at the ball
frantically but just grazed the side of it. The mercury inside the ball
began to play its role in the game, and as though it had a brain of its
own, the ball spun, stopped, bounced, and spiraled in every direction,
with the cadets kicking, lunging, and scrambling for a clean shot.
Finally Astro reached the tumbling sphere and booted it away from the
group. There was a roar of laughter from the _Arcturus_ unit and a low
groan from Tom and Roger. Astro saw that he had kicked the ball over his
own goal line.
[Illustration]
"Why, you clobber-headed Venusian hick!" yelled Roger. "Can't you tell
the difference between our goal and theirs?"
Astro grinned sheepishly as the three jogged back to their own goal to
line up once more.
"Lay off, Roger," said Tom. "How come you didn't get Richards on that
play?"
"I slipped," replied the blond cadet.
"Yeah, you slipped all right," growled Astro good-naturedly, "with a
great big assist from Richards."
"Ah, go blast your jets," grumbled Roger. "Come on! Let's show those
space crawlers what this game is all about!"
But before the cadet referee could drop his hand, a powerful, low-slung
jet car, its exhaust howling, pulled to a screeching stop at the edge of
the field and a scarlet-clad enlisted Solar Guardsman jumped out and
spoke to him. Sensing that it was something important, the two teams
jogged over to surround the messenger.
"What's up, Joe?" asked Roger.
The enlisted spaceman, an Earthworm cadet who had washed out of the
Academy but had re-enlisted in the Solar Guard, smiled. "Orders for the
_Polaris_ unit," he said, "from Captain Strong."
"What about?" asked Roger.
"Report on the double for new assignments," replied the guardsman.
"_Yeeeeooooow!_" Astro roared in jubilation. "At last we can get out of
here. I've been doing so blamed much classroom work, I've forgotten what
space looks like."
"Know where we're going, Joe?" asked Tom.
"Uh-uh." Joe shook his head. He turned away, then stopped, and called
back, "Want a lift back to the Tower?"
Before Tom could answer, Richards, the captain of the _Arcturus_ unit
spoke up. "How about finishing the game, Tom? It's been so long since
we've had such good competition we hate to lose you. Come on. Only a few
more minutes."
Tom hesitated. It had been a long time since the two units had played
together, but orders were orders. He looked at Roger and Astro. "Well,
what about it?"
"Sure," said Roger. "We'll wipe up these space jokers in nothing flat!
Come on!"
There was a mock yell of anger from the _Arcturus_ unit and the two
teams raced back to their starting positions. In the remaining minutes
of play, the cadets played hard and rough. First one team would score
and then the other. A sizable crowd of cadets had gathered to watch the
game and cheered lustily as the players tore up and down the field.
Finally, when both teams were nearly exhausted, the game was over and
the score was eight to seven in favor of the _Polaris_ unit. Roger had
made the final point after Tony Richards had left the game with a badly
bruised hip. A substitute called in from the bystanders, an Earthworm
cadet, had eagerly joined the _Arcturus_ team for the last minutes of
play but had been hopelessly outclassed by the teamwork of the _Polaris_
unit.
Promising a return match soon, Roger, Tom, and Astro hurried to their
lockers, showered, and dressed in their senior cadet uniforms of vivid
blue, then raced to the nearest slidewalk to head toward the main group
of buildings that made up Space Academy.
Whisked along on the moving belt of plastic that formed the principle
method of transportation in and around the Academy grounds, Tom turned
to his unit mates. "What do you think it'll be?" he asked.
"You mean the assignment?" asked Roger, answering his own question in
the next breath. "I don't know. But anything to get out of here. I've
been on Earth so long that I'm getting gravity-itis!"
Tom smiled. "It'll sure be nice to get up in the wide, high, and deep
again," he said, glancing up at the cloudless sky.
"Say it again, spaceman," breathed Astro. "One more lesson on the
differential potential between chemical-burning rocket fuels and
reactant energy and I'll blast off without a spaceship!"
Roger and Tom laughed. They both sympathized with the big cadet's
inability to cope with the theory of atomic energy and fuel conservation
in spaceships. In charge of the power deck on the _Polaris_, Astro
earlier had gained firsthand experience in commercial rocket ships as an
able spaceman and later had been accepted in the Academy for cadet
training. The son of colonists on Venus, the misty planet, his formal
education was limited, and though he had no equal while on the power
deck of a rocket ship, in theory and classroom study he had to depend on
Roger and Tom to help him get passing grades.
The slidewalk moved smoothly and easily toward the gleaming Tower of
Galileo, the largest and most imposing of the structures of Space
Academy. Made entirely of clear crystal mined on Titan, satellite of
Saturn, the Tower rose over the smaller buildings like a giant
shimmering jewel. Housing the administration offices of the Solar Guard
and the Space Academy staff, it also contained Galaxy Hall, the museum
of space, which attracted thousands of visitors from every part of the
Solar Alliance.
Tom Corbett, his eyes caressing the magnificent gleaming Tower,
remembered the first time he had seen it. While it hadn't been so long
in months or years since becoming a Space Cadet, it seemed as though he
had been at the Academy all of his life and that it was his home. In the
struggle to develop into a well-knit dependable rocket team, composed of
an astrogator, power-deck cadet, and a command cadet, Tom had assumed
the leadership of the unit, and the relationship between Astro, Roger
Manning, and himself had ripened until they were more like brothers than
three young men who had grown up millions of miles apart.
As they rode toward the Tower, the three cadets could see the green-clad
first-year Earthworms getting their first taste of cadet life--hours of
close-order formations and drills. The nearer they came to the Tower,
the more intense and colorful became the activity as the crisscrossing
slidewalks carried enlisted guardsmen in their red uniforms, and the
officers of the Solar Guard in magnificent black and gold, across the
quadrangle to the various dormitories, laboratories, lecture rooms, mess
halls, and research rooms. Space Academy was a beehive of activity, with
the education of thousands of cadets and the operational mechanics of
the Solar Guard going on incessantly, day and night, never stopping in
its avowed task of defending the liberties of the planets, safeguarding
the freedom of space, and upholding the cause of peace throughout the
universe.
As their slidewalk glided over the quadrangle, Roger suddenly turned to
his unit mates. "Think we might get assigned to that radar project
they're setting up on the Moon?" he asked. "I have a few ideas--"
Tom laughed. "He can't wait until he gets his hands on that new scanner
Dr. Dale just finished, Astro," he said with a wink.
The big Venusian snorted. "Can you imagine the ego of that guy? Dr. Dale
spends almost a year building that thing, with the help of the leading
electronic scientists in the Alliance, and _he_ can't wait to _tell_
them about a few of _his_ ideas!"
"I didn't mean that," complained Roger. "All I said was--"
"You don't have to say a word, hot-shot," interrupted Astro. "I can read
your thoughts as though they were flashed on a stereo screen!"
"Oh, yeah!" growled Roger. "You should be that telepathic for your
exams. Why didn't you read my thoughts when I beat my brains out trying
to explain that thrust problem the other night?" He turned to Tom,
shrugging his shoulders in mock despair. "Honestly, Tom, if I didn't
know that he was the best power jockey in the Academy, I'd say he was
the dumbest thing to leave Venus, _including_ the dinosaurs in the
Academy Zoo!"
With a hamlike hand Astro suddenly grabbed for Roger's neck, but the
wiry cadet dashed along the slidewalk out of reach and the big Venusian
rumbled after him. Tom roared with laughter.
As he started to follow his unit mates, one of the passengers on the
slidewalk grabbed Tom by the arm and he turned to see Mike McKenny,
Chief Warrant Officer in the enlisted Solar Guard and the first
instructor the _Polaris_ unit had met on their arrival at the Academy.
"Corbett!" demanded McKenny. "Are those two space crawlers still acting
like monkeys out of their cages?"
Tom laughed and shook hands with the elderly spaceman. "Yes, sir," he
said. "But you could hardly call Astro a monkey!"
"More along the lines of a Venusian gorilla, if you ask me!" snorted
McKenny. The short, squat spaceman's eyes twinkled. "I've been hearing
some mighty fine things about you three space bongos, Tommy. It's a
wonder the Solar Guard didn't give you a unit citation for aiding in the
capture of Coxine, the pirate!"
"Thanks, Mike. Coming from you that compliment really means something!"
"Just be sure you keep those two space lunatics in their proper cages,"
said Mike, indicating Roger and Astro, who at the moment were racing
back and forth along the slidewalk bumping passengers left and right,
"and you'll all be heroes someday."
"Yes, sir," said Tom. He glanced up, and noticing that he was in front
of the Tower building, hopped to the walkway, waving a cheery good-by to
Mike. "Blast over to our mess and have dinner with us some night, Mike!"
he yelled to the departing figure.
"And interrupt the happiest hours in Astro's life?" bawled Mike. "No
thank you!"
Tom laughed and turned to the huge open doorway of the Tower where Roger
and Astro waited for him impatiently. In a few moments the three were
being carried to the upper floors of the crystal structure by a
spiraling band of moving plastic that stretched from the top of the
Tower to the many floors below surface level. Tom glanced at his wrist
chronograph as they stepped off the slidestairs and headed for Captain
Strong's quarters.
"We're about twenty minutes late," he said to Roger and Astro. "Hope
Captain Strong's in good spirits!"
"If he isn't," said Roger, "we can--"
"Don't say it," protested Astro. "I only just finished working off my
last bunch of galley demerits."
They stopped in front of a door, straightened their uniforms, and then
slid the door to one side and stepped smartly into the room. They came
to rigid attention before a massive desk, flanked by two wall windows of
clear sheet crystal reaching from ceiling to floor. Standing at the
window, Captain Steve Strong, _Polaris_ unit cadet supervisor, his broad
shoulders stretching under his black-and-gold uniform, turned to face
them, his features set in grim lines of trouble.
"_Polaris_ unit reporting for orders, sir," said Tom. The three cadets
saluted crisply.
Strong snapped a return salute and walked to the front of his desk.
"Getting pretty big for your britches, aren't you?" he growled. "I've
been watching you from this window. I saw the messenger deliver my
orders to you, and then, I saw you return to your game and finish it,
apparently deciding that the business of the Solar Guard can wait!"
"But, sir--" Roger started to say.
"Close your exhaust, Manning!" snapped Strong. "I'm doing the talking!"
"Yes, sir," stammered the blond-haired cadet.
"Well, Cadets," asked Strong in a silken voice, "if I sent you to
Commander Walters' office _on the double_, do you think I could trust
you to get there on the _double_?"
"Oh, yes, sir," replied Tom. "_Yes, sir!_" The other two boys nodded
violently.
"Then blast out of here and report to Commander Walters for your
assignments. Tell him I'll be there in a few minutes."
"Yes, sir!" said Tom, and the three cadets saluted sharply.
"Unit--" bawled Strong, "_dis_--missed!"
Outside in the hall once more, the three cadets wiped their faces.
"Captain Strong definitely was not in a good mood!" commented Roger.
"I've never seen him so angry!" said Tom. "Wonder why."
"Think it might be something to do with our assignments?" asked Astro.
"Never can tell, Astro," said Tom. "And there's only one way to find
out. That's to get to Commander Walters' office on the double!"
Without another word the cadets hurried to the slidestairs, each of
them hungry for excitement. Already having participated in three
outstanding adventures, the cadet members of the _Polaris_ unit were
eager to begin a fourth.
[Illustration]