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Danger in Deep Space (Dramatic Reading)

<h2>CHAPTER 19</h2> "Major!" shouted Astro. "Look! The Polaris! The Polaris is blasting off!" The five Earthmen stared up at the silvery spaceship that was rapidly disappearing 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 anything the spaceman had ever encountered before. Again and again, the Solar Guard officer tried to raise the cadet on the Polaris. Finally he turned back to the four crewmen who hovered around the jet boat, hoping against hope. "Whatever it is," he said, "I'm sure Tom is doing the right thing. We came down here to do a job and we're going to do it! Get moving! We still have to set up the rest of these reactor units." Without a word, the five men returned to their small ships and followed their commanding officer. The sun grew larger and the heat more intense with each minute, since each minute brought them almost thirteen hundred miles closer to the sun's blazing surface. With the humidity-control and air-cooling mecha[186]nisms in the space suits working at top capacity but affording little relief, Alfie, Roger, Shinny, and Astro buried the fourth reactor unit and headed for the fifth and last emplacement. Occasionally one of them would turn and cast a swift glance at the clear blue space overhead, secretly hoping to find the rocket cruiser had returned. Or, they would strain their ears for Tom's voice counting off the minutes so carefully for them. But they saw nothing and they heard nothing. They concentrated on their jobs, working like demons to complete the installations as planned. They could not stop now and wonder what had happened to the Polaris, or even hope for its speedy return. They had a 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 from Major Connel's jet boat. They gently lowered it into the hole and stepped back while Shinny, under the watchful eyes of Major Connel, set the 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 the reactor units, but he knew immediately that his words had been taken to mean something each felt but had not dared to put into words. Connel started to correct this misunderstanding but caught himself in time. It would not do, he thought, for him to make excuses for what they knew to be the truth. "All right, everyone in my jet boat," he snapped. "Astro, you and Roger take all the fuel out of the other boats and pour it into mine. It'll be a tight squeeze, but we can all fit into one craft. No use expending fuel wastefully."[187] Astro and Roger bent to the task of draining the fuel from their jet boats and loading it into Connel's. Alfie came over to join them, while Shinny and Connel scanned the sky overhead for some sign of the Polaris. "This is really a desperate situation to be in, isn't it, Roger?" asked Alfie. "Offhand, I'd say yes," drawled Roger, "but since we've got two big huskies like Astro and Major Connel along, I don't think we'll have much trouble." "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 outside and let him talk about himself. That oughta give us enough gas to get us away 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 at Astro. "It sure is, Alfie," said Astro soberly, "and I'm the first one to say I'm a little scared!" Alfie smiled. "I'm very glad you said that, Astro," he said, "because I feel exactly the same way!" He turned and walked back to Major Connel. "What was the idea of telling him that?" hissed Roger at Astro. "What are 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 guy like me is scared, then he's got a right to be scared too!" Roger grunted in appreciation of the way Astro had[188] treated Alfie's fears and turned back to the loading of the fuel. Major Connel walked over and watched them transfer the last of the fuel into 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 the sun, even a ship the size of the Polaris wouldn't be able to break out." "How much time have we got, sir?" asked Roger. "Not too much, Manning," said Connel. "Of course we can blast off in the jet 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 runs out on us up there, we'll have to come back and take our chance on Junior 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 reactor units go off, wouldn't it, sir?" "That's right, Manning," said Connel, admitting to the danger. "Even if Junior were blasted out of the pull of the sun, we couldn't survive the explosions." "Couldn't we blast off in the jet boat and then land after the explosions, sir?" asked Astro. "Yes," admitted Connel, "we could do that. But the radioactivity would be so powerful we couldn't last more than a few days. We have no antiradiation gear. Not even food or water." He paused and scanned the sky. "No," he said in a surprisingly casual voice, "the[189] only way we can get 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. No one said anything. There wasn't anything to say. Each of them felt the heat burning through his space suit. Each felt the same fear tugging at his throat. There was nothing to say. The Polaris was not to be seen; the sky was empty of everything except Alpha Centauri, the great burning mass of gases that once they had all seen only as a quiet twinkling star in the heavens, never dreaming that someday it would be pulling them relentlessly into its molten self. Tom Corbett had a plan. He sat at the control board of the great rocket cruiser, apparently watching the needles and gauges on the panel, but his mind was racing desperately. The two-hour deadline had just passed. The great solar clock had swung its red hand past the last second. Only a miracle could save 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 behind him. "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 to you. 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 me staying free or[190] going back to a prison asteroid. So you don't think I'm going to let them stay alive, do you?" He grinned crookedly. "You dirty space crawler!" growled Tom and suddenly leaped up from the control seat. Loring raised the paralo-ray gun threateningly. "One more move outta you and I'll freeze you so solid you'll think you're a chunk of ice!" he yelled. Mason stepped to the other side of the control deck. They had Tom blocked on either side. "Now get back to them controls, Corbett," snarled Loring, "or I'll give it to you right now." "O.K., Loring, you win," said Tom. He sat down and faced the control panel. He tried hard not to smile. They had fallen for it. Now they were separated. Mason remained on the opposite side of the room. Tom took a deep breath, crossed his fingers, and put the next step of his plan into action. He reached out and pulled the master acceleration switch all the way 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 <ins class="correction" title="Transcriber's Note: The original text reads paralo ray">paralo-ray</ins>," Tom replied. He got up leisurely, so as not to excite the nervous trigger finger of Loring, 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 kick out on you and we'll have to clean out the tubes." "Yeah," sneered Loring. "Well, I happen to know you do that right on the control board." He motioned with the paralo-ray gun. "Get back down!"[191] "On regular space drive, you do," agreed Tom. "But we're on hyperdrive now. It has to be done there"—he pointed to a cluster of valves and wheels 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 of his voice. He had to sound as casual as possible. "The red one. Turn it to the right, hard!" he said. Loring sat down and Mason bent over the valve wheel. He gave the wheel a vicious twist. Suddenly there was the sound of a motor slowing down somewhere inside the great ship. Tom gripped the edge of the control board and waited. Slowly at first, but surely, Tom felt himself beginning to float off his chair. "Hey!" yelled Mason. "I'm—I'm floating!" "It's the gravity generators," yelled Loring. "Corbett's pulled a fast one. We're in free fall!" Tom lifted his feet and pushed as hard as he could against the control panel. He shot out of the chair and across the control room just as Loring 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 suddenly shoved by the recoil of the charge. Tom huddled in the upper corner of the control deck like a spider, his legs drawn up underneath him waiting for Mason to fire. But the smaller spaceman was tumbling head over heels in the center of the room. The more he exerted himself, the more helpless he became. His arms and legs splayed out in an effort to level himself, as he kept trying to fire the ray gun. Tom saw his chance and lunged through the air again, straight at the floating spaceman. He passed him in mid-air. Mason made an attempt to grab him, but[192] Tom wrenched his body to one side and pulled the ray gun out of the other's hand. He flipped over and turned his attention to Loring who was more dangerous, since he was now backed up against a bulkhead waiting for Tom to present a steady target. Loring started to fire, but Tom saw him in time and shot away from the wall toward the hatch. He twisted his body completely around, and with his shoulder hunched over, fired at Loring with his ray gun. The charge hit the target and Loring became rigid, his body slowly floating above the deck. His back to the wall, braced for the recoil, Tom brought his arm around slowly and aimed at Mason. He fired, 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 had unwittingly turned off. Tom turned it on and clung to an overhead pipe until he felt the reassuring grip of the synthetic gravity pull him to the deck. Loring and Mason, in the same positions they had been in when Tom fired, settled slowly to the deck. Tom walked over and looked at both of them. He knew they could hear him. "For smart spacemen like you two," said Tom, "you sure forgot your basic physics. Newton's laws of motion, remember? Everything in motion tends to 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 a prison asteroid! And you'd better start praying that I can pull those fellows off that satellite, because if I don't, you'll wind up frying in the sun with us!" He started to drag them to a locker and release them from the effects of the ray blast, but, remembering[193] their cold-blooded condemnation of Connel and the others to death on the satellite, he decided to let them remain where they were. He turned to the control board and flipped on the microphone. He was too far away to pick up an image on the teleceiver, but the others could hear him on the audio, if, thought Tom, they were still alive. "Attention! Attention! Polaris to Major Connel! Major Connel, can you hear 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 to Junior. <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/img005.png" width-obs="387" height-obs="125" alt="Spaceman in foreground, rocket in background" title="Spaceman in foreground, rocket in background" /></div> <hr style="width: 65%;" /> <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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