The Golden Age of Science Fiction Novels Vol 05

by Anthology

  Rip got his instruments and pulled out a special slide rule designed for use in space. He had Koa stand by with stylus and computation board and take down his figures.

  He recalculated the safety factor he had used when deciding how close to the sun to put the asteroid, then took quick star sights to determine their exact position. They were within a few miles of perihelion, the point at which they would be closest to Sol.

  Rip tapped gloved fingers on his helmet absently. If they could blast out of the orbit and drive into the sun.... He estimated the result. A few miles per second of less speed would let them be pulled so far within the sun's field of gravity that, within an hour or so, small boats would venture into space only at their peril.

  He reviewed the equipment. They had tubes of rocket fuel, but the tubes wouldn't give the powerful thrust needed for this job. They had one atomic bomb. One wasn't enough. Not only must they drive toward the sun, but also they must keep reserve power to blast free again. If only they had a pair of nuclear charges!

  He called his Planeteers together and outlined the problem. Perhaps one of them would have an idea. But no useful suggestions were forth-coming--until Dominico spoke up. "Sir, why don't we make two bombs from one?"

  "I wish we could," Rip said. "Do you know how?"

  "No, Lieutenant. If we had parts, I could put bombs together. I can take them apart, but I don't know how to make two out of one." The Italian Planeteer looked accusingly at Rip. "I thought maybe you knew, sir."

  Rip grunted. If they had parts, he could assemble nuclear bombs, too. Part of his physics training had been concerned with fission and its various applications. But no one had taught him how to make two bombs out of one.

  The theory behind this particular bomb design was simple. Two or more correctly sized pieces of plutonium or uranium isotope, when brought together, formed what was known as a critical mass, which would fission. The fissioning released energy and produced the explosion.

  But there was a wide gap between theory and practice. A nuclear bomb was actually pretty complicated. It had to be complicated to keep the pieces of the fissionable material apart until a chemical explosion drove them together fast and hard enough to create a fission explosion. If the pieces weren't brought together rapidly enough, the mass would fission in a slow chain reaction with no explosion.

  Rip was trained in scientific analysis. He tackled the problem logically, considering the design of a nuclear bomb and the reasons for it.

  Atomic bombs had to be carried. That meant an outer casing was necessary. The casing had a lot to do with the design. Suppose no casing were required? What would be needed?

  He took the stylus and computation board from Koa and jotted down the parts required. First, two or more pieces of plutonium large enough to form a critical mass. Second, a neutron source--the type of radioactivity that produced neutrons--to accelerate the reaction. Third, some kind of neutron reflector. And fourth, explosive to drive the pieces together.

  Did they have all those items? He checked them off. Their single five KT bomb contained at least enough plutonium for two critical masses, if brought together inside a good neutron reflector. Each mass should give about a two kiloton explosion. And they did have a good neutron reflector--nuclite. There wasn't anything better.

  "What have we got for a neutron source?" he asked aloud. He was really asking himself, but he got a quick answer from Koa.

  "Sir, some of the stuff left in the craters from the other explosions gives off neutrons."

  "You're right," Rip agreed instantly. A small piece from one of the craters, when combined with half of the neutron source in the bomb, should be enough. As for the explosive, they had exploding heads on their attack rockets.

  In other words, he had what he needed--except for a method of putting all the pieces together to create a bomb.

  If only they had a tube of some sort that would withstand the chemical explosion--the one that brought the critical mass together!

  He told the Planeteers what he had been thinking, then asked, "Any ideas for a tube?"

  "How about a tube from the snapper-boat?" Santos suggested.

  Rip shook his head. "Not strong enough. They're designed to withstand the slow push of rocket fuel, not the fast rap of an explosion. When I say slow, I mean slow-burning when compared with explosive. Any more ideas?"

  Kemp, the expert torchman, said, "Sir, I can burn you a tube into the asteroid."

  Rip grabbed the Planeteer so hard they both floated upward. "Kemp, that's wonderful! That's it!" The details took form in his mind even as he called orders. "Dominico, tear down that bomb. Santos, remove two heads from your rockets and wire them to explode on electrical impulse. Kemp, we'll want the tube just a fraction of an inch wider than a rocket head. Get your torch ready."

  He took the stylus and began calculating. He talked as he worked, telling the Planeteers exactly what they were up against. "I'm figuring out where to put the charge so it will do the most good, but my data isn't complete. If our homemade bomb goes off, I don't know exactly how much power it will give. If it gives too much, we'll be driven so close to the sun we'll never get free of its gravity."

  Bradshaw, the English Planeteer, said mildly, "Don't worry, Lieutenant. If it isn't the solar frying pan, it's Connie fire."

  A chorus of agreement came from the other Planeteers. "What a crew!" Rip thought. "What a great gang of space pirates!"

  He finished his calculations and found the exact place where Kemp would cut. A few feet away from the spot was a thick pyramid of thorium. That would do, and they could cut into it horizontally instead of drilling straight down. He pointed to it. "Let's have a hole straight in for six feet. And keep it straight, Kemp. Allow enough room for a lining of nuclite. Koa, cut a sheet of nuclite to size."

  Kemp's torch already was slicing into the metal. Rip asked, "Can you weld with that thing, Kemp?"

  "Just show me what you want, sir."

  "Good." Rip motioned to Trudeau. "Frenchy, we'll need a strong rod at least eight feet long."

  The French Planeteer hurried off. Rip consulted his chronometer. Less than ten minutes had passed since the call from Terra base.

  He went over his plan again. It had to work! If it didn't, asteroid and Planeteers would end up as subatomic particles in the sun's photosphere, because he had calculated his blast to drive the asteroid past the limit of safety. It was the only way he could be sure of putting them beyond danger from Connie landing boats or snapper-boats. The Connie would have only one chance--to bring his cruiser down.

  If he tried that, Rip thought grimly, he would get a surprise. The second nuclear charge would be set, ready to be fired. The Connie cruiser was so big that no matter how it pulled up to the asteroid, some part of it would be close enough to the charge to be blown into space dust. No cruiser could survive an atomic explosion within five hundred yards, and the Connie would have to get closer to the nuclear charge than that.

  Dominico reported that the bomb had been dismantled. Rip went to it and examined the raw plutonium, being careful to keep the pieces widely separated.

  This particular bomb design used five pieces of plutonium which were driven together to form a ball. Rip made a quick estimate. Two were enough to form a critical mass. He would use two to blast into the sun and three to blast out again. He would need the extra kick.

  There was only one trouble. The pieces were wedge shaped. They would have to be mounted in thorium in order to keep them rigid. Only Kemp could do that. They had no cutting tool but the torch.

  Santos appeared, carrying a rocket head under each arm. They had wires wound around them, ready to be attached to an electrical source.

  Rip hurried back to where Kemp was at work. The private was using a cutting nozzle that threw an almost invisible flame five feet long. In air, the nozzle wouldn't have worked effectively beyond two feet, but in space it cut right down to the end of the flame. Kemp had his arm inside the hole and was peering past it as he fini
shed the cut.

  "Done, sir," he said, and adjusted the flame to a spout of red fire. He thrust the torch into the hole and quickly withdrew it as pieces of thorium flew out. A stream of water hosed into the tube would have worked the same way.

  Rip took a block of plutonium from Dominico and handed it to Kemp. "Cut a plug and fit this into it. Then cut a second plug for the other piece. They have to match perfectly, and you can't put them together to try out the fit. If you do, we'll have fission right here in the open."

  Kemp searched and found a piece he had cut in making the tube. It was perfectly round, ideal for the purpose. He sliced off the inner side where it tapered to a cone, then, working only by eye estimate, cut out a hole in which the wedge of fission material would fit. He wasn't off by a thirty-second of an inch. Skillful application of the torch melted the thorium around the wedge and sealed it tightly.

  Koa was ready with a sheet of nuclite. Trudeau arrived with a pole made by lashing two crate sticks together.

  Rip gave directions as they formed a cylinder of nuclite. Kemp spot-welded it, and they pushed it into the hole.

  Nunez found a small piece of material in one of the earlier craters. It would provide some neutrons to start the chain reaction. Rip added it to the front of the plutonium wedge, along with a piece of beryllium from the bomb, and Kemp welded it in place.

  They put the thorium block which contained the plutonium into the hole, the plutonium facing outward. Trudeau rammed it to the bottom with his pole. The neutron source, the neutron reflector, and one piece of fissionable material were in place.

  Kemp sliced another round block of thorium out of a nearby crystal and fitted the second wedge of plutonium into it. At first Rip had worried about the two pieces of plutonium making a good enough contact, but Kemp's skillful hand and precision eye removed that worry.

  The torchman finished fitting the plutonium and carried the block to the tube opening. He tried it, removed a slight irregularity with his torch, then said quietly, "Finished, sir."

  Rip took over. He slid the thorium-plutonium block into the tube, took a rocket head from Santos, and used it to push the block in farther. When the rocket head was about four inches inside the tube, its wires trailing out, Rip called Kemp. At his direction, the torchman sliced a thin slot up the face of the crystal. Rip fitted the wires into it and held them in place with a small wedge of thorium.

  Kemp cut a plug, fitted it into the hole, and welded the seams closed. The tube was sealed. When electric current fired the rocket head, the thorium carrying the plutonium wedge would be driven forward to meet the wedge in the back. And, unless Rip had miscalculated the mass of the two pieces, they would have their nuclear blast. Rip surveyed the crystal with some anxiety. It looked right.

  Dominico already had rigged the timer from the atomic bomb. He connected the wires. "Do I set it, sir?"

  "Load the communicator, the extra bomb parts, the rocket launcher and rockets, the cutting equipment, my instruments, and the tubes of fuel," Rip ordered. "Leave everything else in the cave."

  The Planeteers ran to obey. Rip waited until the landing boat was nearly loaded, then told Dominico to set the timer for five minutes. He wondered how they would explode the second charge, since they had only the one timer left, then forgot about it. Time enough to worry when faced with the problem.

  "I'll take the snapper-boat," he stated. "Santos in the gunner's seat. Koa in charge in the landing boat. Dowst pilot. Let's show an exhaust."

  He fitted himself into the tight pilot seat of the snapper-boat while Santos climbed in behind. Then, handling the controls with the skill of long practice, he lifted the tiny fighting rocket above the asteroid and waited for the landing boat. When it joined up, Rip led the way to safety. As he cut his exhaust to wait for the explosion, he sighted past the snapper-boat's nose to the asteroid.

  Even though both boats had been careful to match velocity with the asteroid as closely as possible, the slight difference remaining caused them to drift sunward. Rip cut his jets in to compensate, and saw Dowst do the same.

  Another few miles toward the sun, and the landing boat wouldn't have the power to get away from Sol's gravity. A few miles beyond that, even the powerful little snapper-boat would be caught.

  Below, the timer reached zero. A mighty fan of fire shot into space. The asteroid shuddered from the blast, then swerved gradually, picking up speed as well as new direction.

  Rip swallowed hard. Now they were committed. They would reach a new perihelion far beyond the limits of safety. P for perihelion and P for peril. In this case, they were the same thing!

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Between Two Fires

  Back on the asteroid, the Planeteers started laying the second atomic charge. Rip selected the spot, found a nearby crystal that would serve to house the bomb, and Kemp started cutting.

  The Planeteers knew what to do now, and the work went rapidly. Rip kept an eye on his chronometer. According to the message from Terra base, he had about fifteen minutes before the Consops cruiser arrived.

  "We have one advantage we didn't have back in the asteroid belt," he remarked to Koa. "Back there they could have landed anywhere on the rock. Now they have to stick to the dark side. Snapper-boats could last on the sun side, but men in ordinary space suits couldn't."

  "That's good," Koa agreed. "We have only one side to defend. Why don't we put the rocket launcher right in the middle of the dark side?"

  "Go ahead. And have all men check their pistols and knives. We don't know what's likely to happen when that Connie flames in."

  Rip walked over to the communicator and plugged his suit into the circuit. "This is the asteroid calling Terra base. Over."

  "This is Terra base. Go ahead, Foster. How are you doing?"

  "If you need anything cooked, send it to us," Rip replied. "We have heat enough to cook anything, including tungsten alloy." He explained briefly what action they had taken.

  A new voice came on the communicator. "Foster, this is Colonel Stevens."

  Rip responded swiftly, "Yes, sir!" Stevens was the top Planeteer, commanding officer of all the Special Order Squadrons.

  "We've piped this circuit into every channel in the system," the colonel said. "Every Planeteer in the Squadrons is listening and rooting for you. Is there anything we can do?"

  "Yes, sir," Rip replied. "Do you know if Terra base has been plotting our course this far?"

  There was a brief silence, then the colonel answered, "Yes, Foster. We have a complete track from the time you started showing on the Terra screens, about halfway between the orbits of Mars and Earth."

  "Did you just get our change of direction?"

  "Yes. We're following you on the screens."

  "Then, sir, I'd appreciate it if you'd put the calculators to work and make a time-distance plot for the next few hours. The blast we're saving to push to escape velocity is about three kilotons. Let us know the last moment when we can fire."

  "You will have it within fifteen minutes. Anything else, Foster?"

  "Nothing else I can think of, sir."

  "Then, good luck. We'll be standing by."

  "Yes, sir. Foster off."

  Rip disconnected and turned up his helmet communicator, repeating the conversation to his men. Koa came and stood beside him. "Lieutenant, how do we set off this next charge?"

  There was only one way. When the time came to blast, they would be too close to the sun to take to the boats. The blast had to be set off from the asteroid.

  "We'll get underground as far away from the bomb as we can," Rip said. He surveyed the dark side, which was rapidly growing less dark. "I think the second crater will do. Kemp can square it off on the side toward the blast to give us a vertical wall to hide behind."

  Koa looked doubtful. "Plenty of radiation left in those holes, sir."

  Rip grinned mirthlessly. "Radiation is the least of our problems. I'd rather get an overdose of gamma then get blasted into space."

&nbs
p; A yell rang in his helmet. "Here comes the Connie!"

  Rip looked up, startled. The Consops cruiser passed directly overhead, about ten miles away. It was decelerating rapidly. Rip wondered why they hadn't spotted it earlier, then realized the Connie had come from the direction of the hot side.

  The enemy cruiser was probably the same one that had attacked them before. He must have lain in wait for days, keeping between the sun and Terra. That way, the screens wouldn't pick him up, since very few observatories scanned the sun with regularity. To the observatories, the cruiser would have been only a tiny speck, too small to be noticed. Or, if they had noticed it, the astronomers probably decided it was just a very tiny sunspot.

  The Planeteers worked with increased speed. Kemp welded the final plug into place, then hurried to the crater from which they would set off the charge. Dominico and Dowst connected wires from the rocket head to a reel of wire and rolled it toward the crater. Nunez got a hand-driven dynamo from the supplies and tested it for use in setting off the charge. Santos stood by the rocket launcher, with Pederson ready to put another rack of rockets into the device when necessary.