Danger in Deep Space

by Carey Rockwell

  CHAPTER 19

  "Major!" shouted Astro. "Look! The _Polaris_! The _Polaris_ is blastingoff!"

  The five Earthmen stared up at the silvery spaceship that was rapidlydisappearing into the clear blue void of space. Without hesitation,Connel raced for the nearest jet boat and roared into the communicator.

  "Corbett! Corbett! Come in, Tom!"

  He waited, the silence of the loud-speaker more menacing than anythingthe spaceman had ever encountered before. Again and again, the SolarGuard officer tried to raise the cadet on the _Polaris_. Finally heturned back to the four crewmen who hovered around the jet boat, hopingagainst hope.

  "Whatever it is," he said, "I'm sure Tom is doing the right thing. Wecame down here to do a job and we're going to do it! Get moving! Westill have to set up the rest of these reactor units."

  Without a word, the five men returned to their small ships and followedtheir commanding officer.

  The sun grew larger and the heat more intense with each minute, sinceeach minute brought them almost thirteen hundred miles closer to thesun's blazing surface. With the humidity-control and air-coolingmechanisms in the space suits working at top capacity but affordinglittle relief, Alfie, Roger, Shinny, and Astro buried the fourth reactorunit and headed for the fifth and last emplacement. Occasionally one ofthem would turn and cast a swift glance at the clear blue spaceoverhead, secretly hoping to find the rocket cruiser had returned. Or,they would strain their ears for Tom's voice counting off the minutes socarefully for them. But they saw nothing and they heard nothing. Theyconcentrated on their jobs, working like demons to complete theinstallations as planned. They could not stop now and wonder what hadhappened to the _Polaris_, or even hope for its speedy return. They hada job to do, and they went about it silently, efficiently, and surely.

  Astro stood up, the small spade in his hand hanging loosely at his side.He watched Roger and Alfie bring the last of the reactor units fromMajor Connel's jet boat. They gently lowered it into the hole andstepped back while Shinny, under the watchful eyes of Major Connel, setthe fuse. Shinny stepped back, and Astro began covering up the lead box.

  "That's it," said Connel. "We're finished!"

  What Connel meant was that they were finished with the placement of thereactor units, but he knew immediately that his words had been taken tomean something each felt but had not dared to put into words.

  Connel started to correct this misunderstanding but caught himself intime. It would not do, he thought, for him to make excuses for what theyknew to be the truth.

  "All right, everyone in my jet boat," he snapped. "Astro, you and Rogertake all the fuel out of the other boats and pour it into mine. It'll bea tight squeeze, but we can all fit into one craft. No use expendingfuel wastefully."

  Astro and Roger bent to the task of draining the fuel from their jetboats and loading it into Connel's.

  Alfie came over to join them, while Shinny and Connel scanned the skyoverhead for some sign of the _Polaris_.

  "This is really a desperate situation to be in, isn't it, Roger?" askedAlfie.

  "Offhand, I'd say yes," drawled Roger, "but since we've got two bighuskies like Astro and Major Connel along, I don't think we'll have muchtrouble."

  "Why not?" asked Alfie.

  "We'll just let them get out and help push!"

  "And if that doesn't work," snorted Astro, "we'll stick Manning outsideand let him talk about himself. That oughta give us enough gas to get usaway from this hunk of copper."

  "I believe," said Alfie emphatically, "that you're joshing me, Manning."

  "Now, whatever gave you that idea?" asked Roger in a hurt tone.

  "This _is_ a serious situation, isn't it?" asked Alfie, looking atAstro.

  "It sure is, Alfie," said Astro soberly, "and I'm the first one to sayI'm a little scared!"

  Alfie smiled. "I'm very glad you said that, Astro," he said, "because Ifeel exactly the same way!" He turned and walked back to Major Connel.

  "What was the idea of telling him that?" hissed Roger at Astro. "Whatare you trying to do? Get the little guy space happy, or something?"

  "Look at him!" said Astro. "I'm twice his size. He figures if a big guylike me is scared, then he's got a right to be scared too!"

  Roger grunted in appreciation of the way Astro had treated Alfie'sfears and turned back to the loading of the fuel.

  Major Connel walked over and watched them transfer the last of the fuelinto the tanks.

  "How much have you got there, Astro?" he asked.

  "I'd say enough to sustain flight for about three hours, sir.Considering we'll have such a big load."

  "Ummmmh," mused Connel. "You know we're up against big odds, don't you?"

  Roger and Astro nodded.

  "If Tom doesn't come back soon, we'll be so far into the pull of thesun, even a ship the size of the _Polaris_ wouldn't be able to breakout."

  "How much time have we got, sir?" asked Roger.

  "Not too much, Manning," said Connel. "Of course we can blast off in thejet boat and get up a few hundred miles, in case Tom does come back.Then he won't have to bring the _Polaris_ down here. But if time runsout on us up there, we'll have to come back and take our chance onJunior being blasted out of the sun's grip."

  There was a pause while Astro and Roger considered this.

  "That would mean," asked Roger, "that we'd be here when the reactorunits go off, wouldn't it, sir?"

  "That's right, Manning," said Connel, admitting to the danger. "Even ifJunior were blasted out of the pull of the sun, we couldn't survive theexplosions."

  "Couldn't we blast off in the jet boat and then land after theexplosions, sir?" asked Astro.

  "Yes," admitted Connel, "we could do that. But the radioactivity wouldbe so powerful we couldn't last more than a few days. We have noantiradiation gear. Not even food or water." He paused and scanned thesky. "No," he said in a surprisingly casual voice, "the only way we canget out of this is for Tom to come back and get us."

  Shinny and Alfie came over and joined the group around the jet boat. Noone said anything. There wasn't anything to say. Each of them felt theheat burning through his space suit. Each felt the same fear tugging athis throat. There was nothing to say. The _Polaris_ was not to be seen;the sky was empty of everything except Alpha Centauri, the great burningmass of gases that once they had all seen only as a quiet twinkling starin the heavens, never dreaming that someday it would be pulling themrelentlessly into its molten self.

  Tom Corbett had a plan.

  He sat at the control board of the great rocket cruiser, apparentlywatching the needles and gauges on the panel, but his mind was racingdesperately. The two-hour deadline had just passed. The great solarclock had swung its red hand past the last second. Only a miracle couldsave the five men on Junior now. But Tom was not counting on miracles.He was counting on his plan.

  "Keep this space wagon driving, Corbett!" ordered Loring from behindhim. "Keep them rockets wide open!"

  "Listen, Loring," pleaded Tom. "How about giving those fellows a break?If I don't pick them up, they'll all be killed."

  "Ain't that too bad," snarled Mason.

  "Look," said Tom desperately, "I'll promise you nothing will happen toyou. We'll let you go free. We'll--"

  Loring cut him off. "Shut your trap and concentrate on them controls!You and Major Connel and them other punks are the only guys between mestaying free or going back to a prison asteroid. So you don't think I'mgoing to let them stay alive, do you?" He grinned crookedly.

  "You dirty space crawler!" growled Tom and suddenly leaped up from thecontrol seat.

  Loring raised the paralo-ray gun threateningly. "One more move outta youand I'll freeze you so solid you'll think you're a chunk of ice!" heyelled.

  Mason stepped to the other side of the control deck. They had Tomblocked on either side.

  "Now get back to them controls, Corbett," snarled Loring, "or I'll giveit to you right now."

  "O.K., Loring, you win," said Tom. He sat down a
nd faced the controlpanel. He tried hard not to smile. They had fallen for it. Now they wereseparated. Mason remained on the opposite side of the room. Tom took adeep breath, crossed his fingers, and put the next step of his plan intoaction. He reached out and pulled the master acceleration switch all theway back. The _Polaris_ jumped ahead as if shot out of a cannon.

  "Hey," growled Mason, "what're you doing?"

  "You want more speed, don't you?" demanded Tom.

  "O.K.," said Mason, "but don't try any funny stuff!"

  "I don't see how I can. You've got me nailed with that paralo-ray," Tomreplied.

  He got up leisurely, so as not to excite the nervous trigger finger ofLoring, and turned slowly.

  "What is it this time?" demanded Loring.

  "I just gave you an extra burst of speed. All the _Polaris_ will take.Now I've got to adjust the mixture of the fuel, otherwise she'll kickout on you and we'll have to clean out the tubes."

  "Yeah," sneered Loring. "Well, I happen to know you do that right on thecontrol board." He motioned with the paralo-ray gun. "Get back down!"

  "On regular space drive, you do," agreed Tom. "But we're on hyperdrivenow. It has to be done there"--he pointed to a cluster of valves andwheels at one side of the control deck--"one of those valve wheels."

  "Stay where you are," said Mason. "I'll do it!" He moved to the corner."Which one is it?" he asked.

  Tom gulped and struggled hard to keep the terrible nervousness out ofhis voice. He had to sound as casual as possible. "The red one. Turn itto the right, hard!" he said.

  Loring sat down and Mason bent over the valve wheel. He gave the wheel avicious twist. Suddenly there was the sound of a motor slowing downsomewhere inside the great ship. Tom gripped the edge of the controlboard and waited. Slowly at first, but surely, Tom felt himselfbeginning to float off his chair.

  "Hey!" yelled Mason. "I'm--I'm floating!"

  "It's the gravity generators," yelled Loring. "Corbett's pulled a fastone. We're in free fall!"

  Tom lifted his feet and pushed as hard as he could against the controlpanel. He shot out of the chair and across the control room just asLoring fired his ray gun. There was a loud hiss as the gun was fired,and then the thud of a body against the wall, as Loring was suddenlyshoved by the recoil of the charge.

  Tom huddled in the upper corner of the control deck like a spider, hislegs drawn up underneath him waiting for Mason to fire. But the smallerspaceman was tumbling head over heels in the center of the room. Themore he exerted himself, the more helpless he became. His arms and legssplayed out in an effort to level himself, as he kept trying to fire theray gun.

  Tom saw his chance and lunged through the air again, straight at thefloating spaceman. He passed him in mid-air. Mason made an attempt tograb him, but Tom wrenched his body to one side and pulled the ray gunout of the other's hand.

  He flipped over and turned his attention to Loring who was moredangerous, since he was now backed up against a bulkhead waiting for Tomto present a steady target. Loring started to fire, but Tom saw him intime and shot away from the wall toward the hatch. He twisted his bodycompletely around, and with his shoulder hunched over, fired at Loringwith his ray gun. The charge hit the target and Loring became rigid, hisbody slowly floating above the deck. His back to the wall, braced forthe recoil, Tom brought his arm around slowly and aimed at Mason. Hefired, and the spaceman stiffened.

  Tom smiled. Neither of the spacemen would give him any more trouble now.He pushed slightly to the left and shot over to the valve that Mason hadunwittingly turned off. Tom turned it on and clung to an overhead pipeuntil he felt the reassuring grip of the synthetic gravity pull him tothe deck. Loring and Mason, in the same positions they had been in whenTom fired, settled slowly to the deck. Tom walked over and looked atboth of them. He knew they could hear him.

  "For smart spacemen like you two," said Tom, "you sure forgot your basicphysics. Newton's laws of motion, remember? Everything in motion tendsto keep going at the same speed, unless influenced by an outside force.Firing the ray gun was the outside force that will land you right on aprison asteroid! And you'd better start praying that I can pull thosefellows off that satellite, because if I don't, you'll wind up frying inthe sun with us!"

  He started to drag them to a locker and release them from the effects ofthe ray blast, but, remembering their cold-blooded condemnation ofConnel and the others to death on the satellite, he decided to let themremain where they were.

  He turned to the control board and flipped on the microphone. He was toofar away to pick up an image on the teleceiver, but the others couldhear him on the audio, if, thought Tom, they were still alive.

  "Attention! Attention! _Polaris_ to Major Connel! Major Connel, can youhear me? Come in, Major Connel--Astro--Roger--somebody--come in!"

  He turned away from the mike and fired the starboard jets full blast,making a sweeping curve in space and heading the _Polaris_ back toJunior.