CHAPTER FIFTEEN - THE ROCKETEERS
Rip ran for the snapper-boat, feet moving as rapidly as lack of gravitywould permit. He called instructions. "Santos! Turn the launcher over toPederson and come with me. Koa, take over. Start throwing rockets at thatboat and don't stop until you run out of ammunition."
He reached the snapper-boat and squeezed in, Santos close behind him. Ashe strapped himself into the seat he called, "Koa! Get this, and get itstraight. At twenty-three-oh-five, fire the bomb. Fire it whether I'm backor not. Got that?"
Koa replied, "Got it, sir."
That would give the Planeteers a minute's leeway. Not much of a safetymargin, especially when he wasn't sure how much power the improvisedatomic charge would produce.
He plugged into the snapper-boat's communicator and called, "Ready,Santos?"
"Ready, Lieutenant."
He braced himself against acceleration and flipped the speed control tofull power. The fighting rocket rammed out from the asteroid, snapping himback against the seat. He made a quick check. Gunsight on, fuel tanksalmost full, propulsion tubes racked handy to his hand, space patchesready to be grabbed and slapped on in case an enemy shot holed helmet orsuit.
They drove toward the enemy cruiser at top speed, swerving in a great arcas the sun pulled at them. The enemy's big boat was out of the ship, itsjets firing as it started for the asteroid.
Rip leaned over his illuminated gunsight. The boat showed up clearly, therings of the sight framing it. He estimated distance and the pull of thesun, then squeezed the trigger on the speed control handle. The cannon inthe nose spat flame. He watched tensely and saw the charge explode on thehull of the Connie cruiser. He had underestimated the sun's drag. Hecompensated and tried again.
He missed. Now that he was closer and the charge had less distance totravel, he had overestimated the sun's effect. He gritted his teeth. Thenext shot would be at close range.
The fighting rocket closed space, and the landing boat loomed large in thesight. He fired again and the shot blew metal loose from the top of theboat's hull. A hit, but not good enough. He leaned over the sight to fireagain, but before he had sighted an explosion blew the landing boatcompletely around.
Koa and Pederson had scored a hit from the asteroid!
The big boat fired its side jets and spun around on course again. Flamebloomed from its side as Connie gunners tried to get the range on thesnapper-boat.
Rip was within reach now. He fired at point-blank range and flashed overthe boat as its front end exploded. Santos, firing from the rear, hit itagain as the snapper-boat passed.
Rip threw the rocket into a turn that rammed him against the top of hisharness. He steadied on a line with the crippled Connie craft. It was hardhit. The bow jets flickered fitfully, and the stern tubes were dead. Hesighted, fired. A charge hit the boat aft and blew its stern tubes offcompletely.
And at the same moment, a Connie gunner got a perfect bead on thesnapper-boat.
Space blew up in Rip's face. The snapper-boat slewed wildly as the Connieshot took effect. Rip worked his controls frantically, trying tostraighten the rocket out more by instinct than anything else.
His eyes recovered from the blinding flash and he gulped as he saw theraw, twisted metal where the boat's nose had been. He managed to correctthe boat's twisting by using the stern tubes, but he was no longer in fullcontrol.
For a moment panic gripped him. Without full control he couldn't get backto the asteroid! Then he forced himself to steady down. He sized up thesituation. They were still underway, the stern tubes pushing, but theirtrajectory would take them right under the crippled Connie boat. The sunwas blazing into the fighting rocket with such intensity that he hadtrouble seeing.
There was nothing he could do but pass close to the Connie. The enemygunners would fire, but he had to take his chances. He looked down at theasteroid and saw an orange trail as Koa launched another rocket.
The shot from the asteroid ticked the bottom of the Connie boat andexploded. The Connie rolled violently. Tubes flared as the pilot fought tocorrect the roll. He slowed the spinning as Rip and Santos passed, justlong enough for a Connie gunner to get in a final shot.
The shell struck directly under Rip. He felt himself pushed violentlyupward, and at the same moment he reacted, by hunch and not by reason. Herammed the controls full ahead and the dying rocket cut space, curvingslowly as flaming fuel spurted from the ruptured tanks.
Rip yelled, "Santos! You all right?"
"I think so. Lieutenant, we're on fire!"
"I know it. Get ready to abandon ship."
When the main mass of fuel caught, the rocket would become an inferno. Ripsmashed at the escape hatch above his head, grabbed propulsion tubes fromthe rack and called, "Now!"
He pulled the release on his harness, stood up on the seat, and thrustwith all his leg power. He catapulted out of the burning snapper-boat intospace.
Santos followed a second later and the crippled rocket twisted wildlyunder the two Planeteers.
"Don't use the propulsion tubes," Rip called. "Slow down with your airbottles." He thrust the tubes into his belt, found his air bottles, andpointed two of them in the direction they had been traveling. He wanted tocome to a stop, to let the wild snapper-boat get away from them.
The compressed air bottles did the trick. He and Santos slowed down as thelittle jets overcame the inertia that was taking them along with theburning boat. The boat was spiraling now, and burning freely. It movedaway from them, its stern jets firing weakly as fuel burned in the tank.
Rip took a look toward the enemy cruiser. The assault boat was no longershowing an exhaust. Instead, it was being dragged rapidly away from theConnie cruiser by the pull of the sun. At least they had hit it in time toprevent launching of the atomic guided missiles. Or, he thought, perhapsthe enemy had never intended using them. The principal effect, besideskilling the Planeteers, would have been to drive the asteroid into the sunat an even faster rate.
The enemy assault boat was no longer a menace. Its occupants would belucky if they succeeded in saving their own lives.
Rip and Santos Fell Through Space]
Rip and Santos Fell Through Space
Rip wondered what the Connie cruiser commander would try now. Only onething remained, and that was to set the cruiser down on the asteroid. Ifthe Connie tried, he would arrive at just about the time set for releasingthe nuclear charge. And that would be the end of the cruiser--and probablyof the Planeteers as well.
Santos asked coolly, "Lieutenant, wouldn't you say we're in sort of a badspot?"
Rip had been so busy sizing up the situation that he hadn't thought abouthis own predicament. Now he looked down and suddenly realized that he wasfloating free in space, a considerable distance above the asteroid, andwith only small propulsion tubes for power.
He gasped, "Great space! We're in a mess, Santos."
The Filipino corporal asked, still in a calm voice, "How long before we'redragged into the sun, sir?"
Rip stared. Santos had used the same tone he might have used in asking fora piece of Venusian _chru_. An officer couldn't be less calm, so Ripreplied in a voice he hoped was casual, "I wouldn't worry, Santos. Wewon't know it. The heat will get through our suits long before then."
In fact, the heat should be overloading their ventilating systems rightnow. In a few minutes the cooling elements would break down and that wouldbe the end. He listened for the accelerated whine as the ventilatingsystem struggled under the increased heat load, and heard nothing.
Funny. Had it overloaded and given out already? No, that was impossible.He would be feeling the heat on his body if that were the case.
He looked for an explanation and realized for the first time that theyweren't in the sunlight at all. They were in darkness. His searchingglance told him they were in the cone of shadow stretching out from behindthe asteroid. The thorium rock was between them and the sun!
His lips moved soundlessly. Ma
jor Joe Barris had been right! _In a jam,trust your hunch._ He had acted instinctively, not even thinking what hewas doing as he used the last full power of the stern tubes to throw theminto the shadow cone.
And he knew in the same moment that it could save their lives. The sun'spull would only accelerate their fall toward the asteroid. He saidexultantly, "We're staying out of high vack, Santos. Light off apropulsion tube. Let's get back to the asteroid."
He pulled a tube from his belt, held it above his head, and thumbed thestriker mechanism. The tube flared, pushing downward on his hand. He heldsteady and plummeted feet first toward the rock.
Santos was only a few seconds behind him. Rip saw the corporal's tubeflare and knew that everything was all right, at least for the moment,even though the asteroid was still a long way down.
He looked upward at the Connie cruiser and saw that it was moving. Itsexhaust increased in length and deepened slightly in color as Rip watched,his forehead creased in a frown. What was the Connie up to?
Then he saw side jets flare out from the projecting control tubes and knewthe ship was maneuvering. Rip realized suddenly that the cruiser was goingto pick up the crippled assault boat.
He hadn't expected such a humane move after his first meeting with theConnie cruiser when the commander had been willing to sacrifice his ownmen. This time, however, there was a difference, he saw. The commanderwould lose nothing by picking up the assault boat, and he would save a fewmen. Rip supposed that manpower meant something, even to Consops.
His propulsion tube reached brennschluss, and for a few moments hewatched, checking his speed and direction. Then, before he lit off anothertube, he checked his chronometer. The illuminated dial registered 2301.They had just four minutes to get to the asteroid!
He spoke swiftly. "Waste no time in lighting off, Santos. That nuclearcharge goes in four minutes!"
The Filipino corporal said merely, "Yessir."
Rip pulled a tube from his belt, held it overhead, and triggered it. Hisflight through space speeded up but he wasn't at all sure they would makeit. He turned up his helmet communicator to full power and called, "Koa,can you hear me?"
The sergeant-major's reply was faint in his helmet. "I hear you weakly. Doyou hear me?"
"Same way," Rip replied. "Get this, Koa. Don't fail to explode that chargeat twenty-three-oh-five. Can you see us?"
The reply was very slightly stronger. "I will explode the charge asordered, Lieutenant. We can see a pair of rocket exhausts, but no boats.Is that you?"
"Yes. We're coming in on propulsion tubes."
Koa waited for a long moment, then: "Sir, what if you're not with us bytwenty-three-oh-five?"
"You know the answer," Rip retorted crisply.
Of course Koa knew. The nuclear blast would send Rip and Santos spinninginto outer space, perhaps crippled, burned, or completely irradiated. Butthe lives of two men couldn't delay the blast that would save the lives ofeight others, not counting prisoners.
Rip estimated his speed and course and the distance to the asteroid. Hewas increasingly sure that they wouldn't make it, and the knowledge waslike the cold of space in his stomach. It would be close, but not closeenough. A minute would make all the difference.
For a few heartbeats he almost called Koa and told him to wait that extraminute, to explode the nuclear charge at 2306, at the very last second.But even Planeteer chronometers could be off by a few seconds and hecouldn't risk it. His men had to be given some leeway.
The decision made, he put his mind to the problem. There must be some wayout. There must be!
He surveyed the asteroid. The nuclear charge was on his left side, prettyclose to the sun line. At least he and Santos could angle to the right, toget as far away from the blast as possible.
The edge of the asteroid's shadow was barely visible. That it was visibleat all was due to the minute particles of matter and gas that surroundedthe sun, even millions of miles out into space. He reduced helmet powerand told Santos, "Angle to the right. Get as close to the edge of shadowas you can without being cooked."
As an afterthought, he asked, "How many tubes do you have?"
"One after this, sir. I had three."
Rip also had one left. That was correct, because snapper-boats carriedthree in each man's position.
"Save the one you have left," he ordered.
He didn't know yet what use they would be, but it was always a good ideato have some kind of reserve.
The Connie cruiser was sliding up to the crippled assault boat. Rip took aquick look, then shifted his hands, and angled toward the edge of shadow.When he was within a few feet he reversed the direction of the tube tokeep from shooting out into sunlight. A second or two later the tubeburned out.
Santos was several yards away and slightly above him. Rip saw that thePlaneteer was all right and turned his attention to the cruiser once more.It was close enough to the assault boat to haul it in with grapplinghooks. The hooks emerged and engaged the torn metal of the boat, then drewit into the waiting port. The massive air door slid closed.
The question was, would the Connie try to set his ship down on theasteroid? Rip grinned without mirth. Now would be a fine time. Hischronometer showed a minute and half to blast time.
He took another look at his own situation. He and Santos were gettingclose to the asteroid, but there was still over a half mile earth distanceto go. They would cover perhaps three-fourths of that distance before Koafired the charge.
He had a daring idea. How long could he and Santos last in directsunlight? The effect of the sun in the open was powerful enough to makelead run like water. Their suits could absorb some heat and theventilating system could take care of quite a lot. They might last as muchas three minutes, with luck.
They had to take a risk with the full knowledge that the odds were againstthem. But if they didn't take the risk, the blast would push them outwardfrom the asteroid-into full sunlight. The end result would be the same.
"We're not going to make it, Santos," he began.
"I know it, sir," Santos replied.
Rip thought, anyone with that much coolness and sheer nerve rated somekind of special treatment. And the Filipino corporal had shown his abilitytime and time again. He said, "I should have known you knew, _Sergeant_Santos. We still have a slight chance. When I give the word, use an airbottle to push you into the sunlight. When I give the word again, lightoff your remaining tube."
"Yessir," Santos replied. "Thank you for the promotion. I hope I live tocollect the extra rating."
"Same here," Rip agreed fervently. His eyes were on his chronometer, andwith his free hand he took another air bottle. When the chronometerregistered exactly one minute before blast time, he called, "Now!" Hetriggered the bottle and moved from shadow into glaring sunlight. A slightmotion of the bottle turned him so his back was to the sun, then he usedthe remaining compressed air to push him downward along the edge ofshadow. The sun's gravity tugged at him.
He pulled the last tube from his belt and held it ready while he watchedhis chronometer creep around. With five seconds to go, he called to Santosand fired it. Acceleration pushed at him.
In the same moment, the nuclear charge exploded.
Rip Foster Rides the Gray Planet Page 16