CHAPTER 20
"There's only one answer, boys," said Connel. "Loring and Mason haveescaped and taken over the ship. I can't think of any other reason Tomwould abandon us like this."
The jet boat was crowded. Alfie, the smallest, was sitting on Astro'slap. For more than an hour they had circled above the copper satellite,searching the surrounding skies in vain for some sign of the _Polaris_.
"Major," said Roger, who was hunched over the steering wheel of thesmall space craft, "we're almost out of fuel. We'd better drop down onthe night side of Junior, the side away from the sun. At least therewe'd be out of the direct heat."
"Very well, Roger," said Connel. "In fact, we could keep shifting intothe night side every hour." Then he added quietly, thoughtfully, "Butwe're out of fuel, you said?"
"Yes, sir," said Roger. "There's just enough to get down." Roger sentthe craft in a shallow dive. Suddenly the rockets cut out. The last ofthe fuel was gone. Roger glided the jet boat to a smooth stop on thenight side of the planetoid.
"How much longer before the reactor units go up?" asked Shinny.
Connel turned, thinking he had heard something on the communicators,then answered Shinny's question. "Only four hours," he said.
The crew of spacemen climbed out of the jet boat into the stillblackness of the night side of the planet. There wasn't anything left todo.
They sat around on the hard surface of the planet, staring at thestrange stars overhead.
"You know," said Astro, "I might be able to set up something to convertsome of the U235 in the reactors to fuel the jet boat."
"Impossible, Astro," said Alfie. "You'd need a reduction gear. And notonly that, but you haven't any tools to handle the mass. If you openedone of those boxes, you'd be fried immediately by the radiation!"
"Alfie's right," said Connel. "There's nothing to do but wait."
Major Connel turned his face up as far as he could in the huge fish-bowlhelmet to stare at the sky. His eyes wandered from star cluster to starcluster, from glowing Regulus, to bright and powerful Sirius. He stifleda sigh. How much he had wanted to see more--and more--and more of thegreat wide, high, and deep! He remembered his early days as a youth onhis first trip to Luna City; his first sensation at touching an alienworld; his skipper, old, wise, and patient, who had given him his creedas a spaceman: "Travel wide, deep, and high," the skipper had said tothe young Connel, "but never so far, so wide, or so deep as to forgetthat you're an Earthman, or how to act like an Earthman!" Even now,years later, the gruff voice rang in his ears. It wasn't long after thatthat he had met Shinny. Connel smiled behind the protection of hishelmet, as he looked at the wizened spaceman, who was now old andtoothless, but who still had the same merry twinkle in his eye thatConnel had noticed the first time he saw him. Connel had signed on asfirst officer on a deep spacer bound for Titan. Shinny had come aboardand reported to Connel as rocketman. Shinny had promptly started roaringthrough the passageways of the huge freighter in his nightshirt singingsnatches of old songs at the top of his voice. It had taken Connel fourhours to find where Shinny had hidden the bottle of rocket juice! Connellaughed. He looked over at the old man fondly.
"Say, Nick," said Connel, addressing the man by his given name for thefirst time, "you remember the time it took me four hours to find thatbottle of rocket juice you hid on that old Titan freighter?"
Shinny cackled, his thin voice coming over the headphones of the othersas well as Connel's.
"I sure do, Lou!" replied Shinny, using Connel's first name. They werejust old spacemen now, reliving old times together. "Funny thing,though, you never knew I had two more bottles hidden in the tubechamber!"
"Why, you old space crawler!" roared Connel. "You put one over on me!"
Roger and Astro and Alfie had never known Connel's first name. Theyrolled the name over in their minds, fitting the name to the man.Unknown to each other, they decided that the name fitted the man. LouConnel!
"Say, Lou," asked Shinny, "where in the blessed universe did you comefrom? You never told me."
There was a long pause. "A place called Telfair Estates, in the deepSouth on the North American continent. I was raised on a farm close by.I used to go fishing late at night and stare up at the stars." He pausedagain. "I ran away from home. I don't know if--if--anyone's still thereor not. I never went back!"
There was a long silence as each man saw a small boy fishing late atnight, barefoot, his toes dangling in the water, a worm wiggling on theend of a string, more interested in the stars that twinkled overheadthan in any fish that might swim past and seize the hook.
"Where are you from, Nick?" asked Connel.
"Born in space," cackled Shinny, "on a passenger freighter carryingcolonists out to Titan. Never had a breath of natural fresh air until Iwas almost a grown man. Nothing but synthetic stuff under the atmospherescreens. My father was a mining engineer. I was the only kid. One nighta screen busted and nearly everybody suffocated or froze to death. My paand ma was among 'em. I blasted off after that. Been in the deep eversince. And you know, by the blessed rings of Saturn, I'd be on a nicefarm near Venusport, living on a pension, if you hadn't kicked me out ofthe Solar Guard!"
"Why, you broken down old piece of space junk," roared Connel, "Ioughta--" Connel never finished what he was going to say.
"Attention! Attention! Roger--Astro--Major Connel--come in, please! Thisis Tom on the _Polaris_!"
As if they had been struck by a bolt of lightning, the five spacemen satup and then raced to the jet boat.
"Connel to Corbett!" roared the major. "Where are you? What happened?"
"I haven't got time to explain now, sir," said Tom. "Loring and Masonescaped and forced me to take them to Tara. I managed to overcome themand blast back here. Meet me up about fifty miles above Junior, sir. I'mbringing the _Polaris_ in!"
"No!" yelled Connel. "It's no use, Tom. We're out of fuel. We've used upall our power."
"Then stand by," said Tom grimly. "I'm coming in for a landing!"
"No, Tom!" roared Connel. "There's nothing you can do. We're too farinto the sun's pull. You'll never blast off again!"
"I don't care if we all wind up as cinders," said Tom, "I'm coming in!"
The communicator went dead and from the left, over the close horizon ofthe small satellite, the _Polaris_ swept into view like a red-tailedfire dragon. It shot up in a pretouchdown maneuver, and then began todrop slowly to the surface of the planetoid.
No sooner had the _Polaris_ touched the dry airless ground than theair-lock hatch was opened. From the crystal port on the control deck,Tom waved to the men below him.
Shinny climbed into the lock first, followed by Astro, Alfie, Roger, andConnel. While Roger and Alfie closed the hatch, Astro and Conneladjusted the oxygen pressure and waited for the supply to build tonormal. At last the hissing stopped, and the hatch to the inner part ofthe ship opened. Tom greeted them with a smile and an outstretched hand.
"Glad to have you aboard!" he joked.
After the back slapping between Roger, Astro, and Tom was over, Connelquestioned Tom on his strange departure from the satellite.
"It was just like I told you, sir," explained Tom. "They got out of thebrig," he paused, not mentioning the spoon that Loring had used or howhe had gotten it. "They forced me to take them to Tara. I managed to getthe gravity turned off and gave them a lesson in free-fall fighting.They're still frozen stiff up on the control deck."
"Good boy!" said Connel. "I'll go and have a talk with them. Meantime,Astro, you and Shinny and Alfie get below and see how much fuel we havein emergency supply. We're going to need every ounce we have."
"Aye, aye, sir," said Astro. The three hurried to the power deck.
Connel followed Roger and Tom to the control deck. Loring and Mason werestill in the positions they were in when Tom had fired his paralo-ray.Connel took Tom's gun and switched to the neutralizer. He fired twiceand the two men rose shakily to their feet. Connel faced them, his eyesburning.
"I'm
going to say very little to you two space-crawling rats!" snappedConnel. "I'm not going to lock you in the brig; I'm not going to confineyou in any manner. But if you make one false move, I'll court-martialyou right here and now! You've caused enough trouble with yourselfishness, jeopardizing the lives of six men. If we fail to get offthis satellite, it'll be because _you_ put us in this position. Now getbelow and see what aid you can give Astro. And if either of you so muchas raises your voice, I'm going to let _him_ take care of you! Is thatclear?"
"Yes, sir!" mumbled Loring. "We understand, sir. And we'll do everythingwe can to--to--make up for what we've done."
"The only thing you can do is to stay out of my sight!" said Connelcoldly.
Loring and Mason scuttled past Connel and climbed down to the powerdeck.
"Attention! Attention! Control deck--Major Connel! Sir, this is Roger onthe radar bridge. I just checked over Tom's figures on thrust, sir, andI'm not sure, but I think we've passed the point of safety."
"Thanks, Roger," said Connel. He turned to the intercom. "Power deck,check in!"
"Power deck, aye," said Astro.
"Loring and Mason there?" asked Connel.
"Yes, sir. I'm putting them right to work in the radiation chamber, sir.I'm piling all emergency fuel into the reaction chambers to try for onebig push!"
"Why?" asked Connel.
"I heard what Roger said, sir," replied Astro. "This'll give us enoughthrust to clear the sun's gravity, but there's something else that mightnot take it."
"What?" asked Connel.
"The cooling pumps, sir," said Astro. "They may not be able to handle aload as hot as this. We might blow up."
Connel considered this a moment. "Do what you can, Astro. I haveabsolute faith in you."
"Aye, aye, sir," said Astro. "And thank you. If this wagon holdstogether, I'll get her off."
Connel turned to Tom who stood ready at the control panel.
"All set, sir," said Tom. "Roger's given me a clear trajectory forwardand up. All we need is Astro's push!"
"Unless Astro can build enough pressure in those cooling pumps to handlethe overload of reactant fuel, we're done for. We'll get off this moonin pieces!"
"Power deck to control deck."
"Come in, Astro," said Tom.
"Almost ready, Tom," said Astro. "Maximum pressure is eight hundred andwe're up to seven seventy now."
"Very well, Astro," replied Connel. "Let her build all the way to aneven eight hundred and blast at my command."
"Aye, aye, sir," said Astro.
The mighty pumps on the power deck began their piercing shriek. Higherand higher they built up the pressure, until the ship began to rockunder the strain.
"Stand by, Tom," ordered Connel, "and if you've ever twisted thosedials, twist them now!"
"Yes, sir," replied Tom.
"Pressure up to seven ninety-one, sir," reported Astro.
"Attention! All members strap into acceleration cushions!"
One by one, Shinny and Alfie, Loring and Mason, Astro and Roger strappedthemselves into the acceleration cushions. Roger set the radar scannerand strapped himself in on the radar bridge. Connel slumped into thesecond pilot's chair and took over the controls of the ship, strappinghimself in, while Tom beside him did the same. The whine of the pumpswas now a shrill whistle that drowned out all other sounds, and thegreat ship bucked under the force of the thrust building in her heart.
In front of the power-deck control panel Astro watched the pressuregauge mount steadily.
"Pressure up to seven ninety-six, sir," he called.
"Stand by to fire all rockets!" roared Connel.
"Make it good, you Venusian clunk," yelled Roger.
"Seven ninety-nine, sir!" bellowed Astro.
Astro watched the gauge of the pressure creep slowly toward theeight-hundred mark. In all his experience he had never seen it aboveseven hundred. Shinny, too, his merry eyes shining bright, watched theneedle jerk back and forth and finally reach the eight-hundred mark.
"Eight hundred, sir," bellowed Astro.
"Fire all stern rockets!" roared Connel.
Astro threw the switch. On the control board, Connel saw a red lightflash on. He jammed the master switch down hard.
It was the last thing he remembered.