Rip Foster Rides the Gray Planet

by Harold L. Goodwin

  CHAPTER DIVE - THE SMALL GRAY WORLD

  Rip rejoined his Planeteers in the supply room and motioned for them togather around him. "I know why Terra base sent us the fighting equipment,"he announced. "They were afraid word of this thorium asteroid would leakout to Consops--and it has. A Connie cruiser blasted off from Marsport andheaded this way."

  He watched the faces of his men carefully, to see how they would take thenews. They merely looked at each other and shrugged. Conflict with Consopswas nothing new to them.

  "The freighter that found the asteroid landed at Marsport, didn't it?" Koaasked. Getting a nod from Rip, he went on, "Then I know what probablyhappened. The two things spacemen can't do are breathe high vack and keeptheir mouths shut. Some of the crew blabbed about the asteroid, probablyat the Space Club. That's where they hang out. The Connies hang out there,too. Result, we get a Connie cruiser after the asteroid."

  "You hit it," Rip acknowledged.

  Corporal Santos shrugged. "If the Connies try to take the asteroid away,they'll have a real warm time. We have ten racks of rockets, twenty-fourto a rack. That's a lot of snapper-boats we can pick off if they try tomake a landing."

  The Planeteers stopped talking as the voice horn sounded. "Get it! We aregoing into no-weight. Prepare to stay in no-weight indefinitely. Rotationstops in two minutes."

  Rip realized why the order was given. The _Scorpius_ could not maneuverwhile in a gravity spin and O'Brine wanted to be free to take action ifnecessary.

  The voice horn came on again. "Now get it again. The ship may maneuversuddenly. Prepare for acceleration or deceleration without warning. Oneminute to no-weight."

  Rip gave quick orders. "Get lines around the equipment and prepare to haulit. I'll get landing boats assigned and we can load. Then prepare spacepacks. Lay out suits and bubbles. We want to be ready the moment we getthe word."

  Lines were taken from a locker and secured to the equipment. As thePlaneteers worked, the ship's spinning slowed and stopped. They were inno-weight. Rip grabbed for a hand cord that hung from the wall and hauledhimself out into the engine control room. The deputy commander was at hispost, waiting tensely for orders. Rip thrust against a bulkhead with onefoot and floated to his side. "I need two landing boats, sir," herequested. "One stays on the asteroid with us."

  "Take numbers five and six. I'll assign a pilot to bring number five backto the ship after you've landed."

  "Thank you." Rip would have been surprised at the deputy's quick assent ifCommander O'Brine hadn't shown him that the spacemen were ready to doanything possible to aid the Planeteers. He went back to the supply roomand told Koa which boats were to be used, instructed him to get thesupplies aboard, then made his way to Commander O'Brine's office.

  O'Brine was not in. Rip searched and found him in the astro-plot room,watching a 'scope. Green streaks called "blips" marked the panel, each oneindicating an asteroid.

  "All too small," O'Brine said. "We've only seen two large ones, and theywere too large."

  "Space is certainly full of junk," Rip commented. "At least this corner ofit is full."

  A junior space officer overheard him. "This is nothing. We're on the edgeof the asteroid belt. Closer to the middle, there's so much stuff a shiphas to crawl through it."

  Rip wandered over to the main control desk. A senior space officer wasseated before a simple panel on which there were only a dozen smalllevers, a visiphone, and a radar screen. The screen was circular, withnumbers around the rim like those on an earth-clock. In the center of thescreen was a tiny circle. The central circle represented the Scorpius. Therest of the screen was the area dead ahead. Rip watched and saw severalblips on it that indicated asteroids. They were all small. He watched,interested, as the cruiser overtook them. Once, according to the screen,the cruiser passed under an asteroid with a clearance of only a fewhundred feet.

  "You didn't miss that one by much," Rip told the space officer.

  "Don't have to miss by much," he retorted. "A few feet are as good as amile in space. Our blast might kick them around a little, and maybethere's a little mutual mass attraction, but we don't worry about it."

  He pointed to a blip that was just swimming into view, a sharp green pointagainst the screen. "We do have to worry about that one." He selected alever and pulled it toward him.

  Rip felt sudden weight against his feet. The green point on the screenmoved downward below center. The feeling of weight ceased. He knew whathad happened, of course. Around the hull of the ship, set in evenly spacedlines, were a series of blast holes through which steam was fired. Thesteam was produced instantly by running water through the heat coils ofthe nuclear engine. By using groups or combinations of steam tubes, thecontrol officer could move the ship in any direction or set it rolling,spin it end over end or whirl it in an eccentric pattern.

  "How do you decide which tubes to use?" Rip asked.

  "Depends on what's happening. If we were ducking missiles from an enemy,I'd get orders from the commander. But to duck asteroids, there's noproblem. I go over them by firing the steam tubes along the bottom of theship. That way, you feel the acceleration on your feet. If I fired the toptubes the ship would drop out from under those who were standing. They'dall end up on the ceiling."

  Rip watched for a while longer, then wandered back to Commander O'Brine.He was getting anxious. At first, the task of capturing an asteroid andmoving it back to earth had been rather unreal, like some of the problemshe had worked out while training on the space platform. Now he was nolonger calm about it. He had faith in the Terra base Planeteerspecialists, but they couldn't figure everything out for him. Most of theproblems of getting the asteroid back to earth would have to be solved byLieutenant Richard Ingalls Peter Foster.

  A junior space officer suddenly called, "Sir, I have a reading at twoseventy degrees, twenty-three degrees eight minutes high."

  Commander O'Brine jumped up so fast that the action shot him to theceiling. He kicked down again and leaned over the officer's 'scope. Ripgot there by pulling himself right across the top of the chart table.

  The green point of light on the 'scope was bigger than any other he hadseen.

  "It's about the right size," O'Brine said. There was excitement in hisvoice. "Correct course. Let's take a look at it."

  All hands gripped something with which to steady themselves as the cruiserspun swiftly onto the new course. The control officer called, "I have itcentered, sir. We'll reach it in about an hour at this speed."

  "Jack it up," O'Brine ordered. "Heave some neutrons into it. Double speed,then decelerate to reach it in thirty minutes."

  The control officer issued orders to the engine control room. In a momentacceleration plucked at them. O'Brine motioned to Rip. "Come on, Foster.Let's see what Analysis makes of this rock."

  Rip followed the commander to the deck below where the technical analystswere located. His heart was pounding a little faster than usual, and notfrom acceleration, either. He found himself wetting his lips frequentlyand thought, "Get hold of it, boy. You got nothing to worry about but highvacuum."

  He didn't really believe it. There would be plenty to worry about. Likedetonating nuclear bombs and trying to figure their blast reaction. Likefiguring out the course that would take them closest to the sun withoutpulling them into it. Like a thousand things--all of them up to him.

  The chief analyst greeted them. "We got the orders to change course,Commander. That gave us the location of the asteroid. We're alreadyworking on it."

  "Anything yet?"

  "No, sir. We'll have the albedo measurement in a few minutes. It will takelonger to figure the mass."

  The asteroid's efficiency in reflecting sunlight was its albedo. Theefficiency depended on the material of which it was made. The albedo ofpure metallic thorium was known. If the asteroid's albedo matched it, thatwould be one piece of evidence.

  In the same way, the mass of thorium was known. The measurements of theasteroid were being taken. They would be compared with a ch
unk of thoriumof the same size. If it worked out, that would be evidence enough.

  Commander O'Brine motioned to chairs. "Might as well sit down while we'rewaiting, Foster." He took one of the chairs and looked closely at Rip.Suddenly he grinned. "I thought Planeteers never got nervous."

  "Who's nervous?" Rip retorted, then answered his own question truthfully."I am. You're right, sir. The closer we get, the more scared I get."

  "That's a good sign," O'Brine replied. "It means you'll be careful. Gotany real doubts about the job?"

  Rip thought it over and didn't think so. "Not any real ones. I think wecan do it. But I'm nervous just the same. Great Cosmos, Commander! This ismy first assignment, and they give me a whole world to myself and tell meto bring it home. Maybe it isn't a very big world, but that doesn't changethings much."

  O'Brine chuckled. "I never expected to get an admission like that from aPlaneteer."

  "And I," Rip retorted, "never expected to make one like that to aspaceman."

  The chief analyst returned, a sheet of computations in his hand. "Report,sir. The albedo measurement is correct. Looks like this may be the one."

  "How long before we get the measurements and comparisons?"

  "Ten minutes, perhaps."

  Rip spoke up. "Sir, there's some data I'll need."

  "What, Lieutenant?" The chief analyst pulled a notebook from his pocket.

  "I'll need all possible data on the asteroid's speed, orbit, and physicalmeasurements. I have to figure a new orbit and what it will take to blastthe mass into it."

  "We'll get those. The orbit will not be exact, of course. We have only tworeference points. But I think we'll come pretty close."

  O'Brine nodded. "Do what you can, Chief. And when Foster gets down todoing his calculations, have your men run them through the electroniccomputer for him."

  Rip thanked them both, then stood up. "Sir, I'm going back to my men. Iwant to be sure everything is ready. If there's a Connie cruiser headedthis way, we don't want to lose any time."

  "Good idea. I think we'll dump you on the asteroid, Foster, and then blastoff. Not too far, of course. Just enough to lead the Connie away from youif its screen picks us up."

  That sounded good to Rip. "We'll be ready when you are, sir."

  The chief analyst took less than the estimated ten minutes for his nextset of figures. Commander O'Brine called personally while Rip was stillsearching for the right landing boat ports. The voice horn bellowed, "Getit! Lieutenant Foster. The mass measurements are correct. This is yourasteroid. Estimated twelve minutes before we reach it. Your data will beready by the time you get back here. Show an exhaust!"

  Rip found Koa and the men and asked the sergeant-major for a report.

  "We're ready, sir," Koa told him. "We can get out in three minutes. Itwill take us that long to get into space gear. Your stuff is laid out,sir."

  "Get me the books and charts from the supplies," Rip directed. "HaveSantos bring them to the chief analyst. I'm going back and figure ourcourse. No use doing it the hard way on the asteroid when I can do it in afew minutes here with the ship's computer."

  He turned and hurried back, hauling himself along by handholds. The shiphad stopped acceleration and was at no-weight again. As he neared theanalysis section it went into deceleration, but the pressure was not toobad. He made his way against it easily.

  The chief analyst was waiting for him. "We have everything you need,Lieutenant, except the orbital stuff. We'll do the best we can on that andhave a good estimate in a few minutes. Meanwhile, you can mark up yourfigures. Incidentally, what power are you going to use to move theasteroid?"

  "Nuclear explosions," Rip said, and saw the chief's eyes pop. He added,"With conventional chemical fuel for corrections."

  He felt rising excitement. The whole ship seemed to have come to life.There was excited tension in the computer room when he went in with thechief. Spacemen, all mathematicians, were waiting for him. As the chiefled him to a table, they gathered around him.

  Rip took command. "Here's what we're after. I need to plot an orbit thatwill get us out of the asteroid belt without any collisions, take us asclose to the sun as possible without having it capture us, and land us inspace about ten thousand miles from earth. From then on I'll throw theasteroid into a braking ellipse around the earth and I'll be able to makeany small corrections necessary."

  He spread out a solar system chart and marked in the positions of theplanets as of that moment, using the daily almanac. Then he put down theposition of the asteroid, taking it from the paper the chief analysthanded him.

  "Will you make assignments, Chief?"

  The chief shook his head. "Make them yourself, Lieutenant. We're at yourservice."

  Rip felt a little ashamed of some of the unkind things he had said aboutspacemen. "Thank you." He pointed to a spaceman. "Will you calculate theinertia of the asteroid, please?" The spaceman hurried off.

  "First thing to do is plot the orbit as though there were no other bodiesin the system," Rip said. "Where's Santos?"

  "Here, sir." The corporal had come in unnoticed with Rip's referencebooks.

  Rip had plotted orbits before, but never one for actual use. His palmswere wet as he laid it out, using prepared tables. When he had finished hepointed to a spaceman. "That's it. Will you translate it into analoguefigures for the computer, please?" He assigned to others the task offiguring out the effect Mercury, the sun, and earth would have on theorbit, using an assumed speed for the asteroid.

  To the chief analyst he gave the job of putting all the data together inproper form for feeding to the electronic brain.

  It would have taken all spacemen present about ten days to complete thejob by regular methods, but the electronic computer produced the answer inthree minutes.

  "Thanks a million, Chief," Rip said. "I'll be calling on you again beforethis is over." He tucked the sheets into his pocket.

  "Any time, Lieutenant. We'll keep rechecking the figures as we go along.If there are any corrections, we'll send them to you. That will give you acheck on your own figures."

  "Don't worry," Rip assured him. "We'll have plenty of corrections."

  Deceleration had been dropping steadily. It ceased altogether, leavingthem weightless. O'Brine's voice came over the speaker. "Get it! Valvecrews take stations at landing boats five and six. The Planeteers willdepart in five minutes. Lieutenant Foster will report to central controlif he cannot be ready in that time."

  Santos grinned at Rip. "Here we go, Lieutenant."

  Rip's heart would have dropped into his shoes if there had been anygravity. Only a little excitement showed on his face, though. He waved histhanks at the analysts and grinned back at Santos.

  "Show an exhaust, Corporal. High vack is waiting!"