Danger in Deep Space

  CHAPTER 12

  "How much longer before we reach the atmosphere of Tara, Manning?" askedLoring.

  Roger bent over the chart table and quickly measured the distancebetween his present position and that of Tara.

  "About two hours," he said, straightening up.

  "Good!" said Loring. "Let me know soon as we get close."

  "O.K.," replied the cadet.

  "Hey, radar deck!" Mason's voice came over the intercom from the powerdeck of the _Space Devil_. "Don't forget to let me know when I have tocut down on thrust!"

  "Take it easy, spaceboy," snapped Roger. "You'll know in plenty oftime!" He turned back to the radar scanner and continued thenever-ending sweep of space ahead.

  After a week of checking and reconditioning the _Space Devil_ in thewild Venusian jungles, Roger had become more and more disgusted withhimself. Being a wanted spaceman had had its disadvantages on Spaceman'sRow, but working in the steaming jungles, fighting deadly reptiles andinsects, with Loring and Mason on his neck every minute had soured hisappetite for adventure. Several times, when Roger had suggested acertain part be replaced, Loring and he had argued violently, and Rogerhad threatened to quit. Now, after the long tedious trip through space,Roger's relationship with the others was more strained than ever. Thesure dependability of Tom on the control deck and Astro on the powerdeck made the work of Loring and Mason sloppy by comparison. Once, whenRoger had been on radar watch, while the ship roared through theasteroid belt, collision with a small asteroid had threatened. Rogerordered a course change, but Mason, who had taken over the power deck,had been asleep. Luckily, Shinny had been near by, had made the coursechange, and saved the ship. Seething with anger, Roger had gone to thepower deck and given the shiftless spaceman a terrific beating.

  Over and over, conflicts had arisen among them as they blasted throughdeep space, and always, it seemed to Roger, he was in the middle of it.The only satisfaction he could find in the hazardous venture was theprospect of the five million credits. And even this had lost itsexcitement in the last few days, as his nerves stretched to the breakingpoint. Only the sly humor of Shinny had saved Roger from the monotony ofthe long haul through space.

  Roger absently flipped the scanner to its farthest range. He had beenobserving the planet Tara for several hours and knew its shape fairlywell. But he suddenly jerked to attention. His hands trembled slightlyas he peered intently at the scope. Finally he slumped back. There wasno doubt about it. On the scanner was a jet boat in flight.

  "Hey, Loring! Shinny! Mason! Get up here on the double!" he yelled intothe intercom.

  "What's up?" demanded Loring.

  "Get up here!" shouted Roger. "We're in for trouble--plenty of trouble!"

  Presently the three spacemen were grouped around the scanner, staring atthe unmistakable outline of a jet boat.

  "By the rings of Saturn," declared Loring, "it must be Connel and hiscrew!"

  "What're we going to do?" whined Mason.

  Loring's face darkened. "Only one thing we can do now," he growled.

  "What do you mean?" asked Roger.

  "I mean that we're going to blast them!" Loring snarled. "Connel andwhoever else is with him!"

  "But--but--" stammered Roger, "the _Polaris_ crew is down there!"

  "Listen, Manning!" Loring turned to the cadet. "Have you forgotten thatyou're wanted by the Solar Guard? You give that bunch down there achance and they'll make you a space crawler on prison rock!"

  "Why--I--" stammered Roger. He knew what Loring had said was the truth.If it was Connel, there would be no question what would happen to him.He faced Loring. "What will you do to them?"

  "One well-placed reactant bomb, and they'll never know a thing!" sneeredLoring.

  "But you don't have any bombs aboard," said Roger.

  "A little of the fuel and I can build one easily enough," repliedLoring. He turned to Mason. "Go below and suit up to go into thereaction chamber," he ordered. "Get an extra lead suit out. I'll go inand help you. And find something we can use for a trigger and a fuse."He smiled at Roger. "It might be a little crude, but it'll be fancyenough for what we want. I'm going to blast the _Polaris_ from here backto your sweet little Space Academy!"

  Mason and Loring left the radar bridge while Shinny and Roger watchedthe white blip of the jet boat.

  "That could be Tom and Astro in that jet boat," said Roger softly tohimself.

  "I guess I'd better stand by the power deck while we maneuver," saidShinny. "We wanta stay hidden until Loring and Mason get that thingready."

  Roger nodded, and Shinny disappeared.

  Maneuvering cautiously, Roger brought the _Space Devil_ around to thenight side of Tara opposite to the landing site of the _Polaris_.

  Four hours later Loring and Mason came out of the reactant chambercarrying a small lead box. They placed it gently on the deck and begantaking off their lead suits. Roger and Shinny stared at the box.

  "There she is," said Loring. "Not much to look at, but there's enoughjuice in there to blast the _Polaris_ into space junk!"

  "Wait a minute, Loring!" said Roger. "There'll be no killing! No onegets hurt!"

  "Got a squeamish stomach, eh, kid?" Loring laughed. He slapped Mason onthe back. "Our little Space Cadet is suddenly worrying about hisfriends. The same friends that wanted to send him away to the prisonasteroid."

  "Blast the ship if you want," said Roger coldly, "but don't hurt thecrew!"

  "Listen, Manning!" snarled Loring. "If the crew gets hurt it ain't myfault. If they're in the ship, that's tough. If not, then that's O.K.with me. I ain't sending them any letter telling them I'm going toblast their ship and then have them come up after me with a spacetorpedo!"

  Roger didn't answer. He turned away and climbed back to the radarbridge. Loring followed him up the ladder.

  "Don't get any ideas about warning your buddies, Manning, 'cause if youdo, I'll blast you before I blast them!"

  "Don't worry," replied Roger. "It's daytime on the other side of Taranow, where the _Polaris_ is. The crew might be out on a scouting missionor making observations away from the ship. There's less chance of theirbeing on the ship. If we're going to do it, let's get it over with!"

  "O.K. with me," said Loring. "Take this wagon up toward Alpha Centauri alittle way. Coming out of the sun, they won't see us. We'll use one ofthe jet boats to deliver our little present. I'll set the fuse, put thejet boat on automatic, and aim it right for the _Polaris_."

  "All right," agreed Manning reluctantly. He turned to the chart table,plotted a course, and issued orders to Shinny at the controls and toMason on the power deck. Soon the _Space Devil_ was blasting away fromthe night side of the planet, heading toward the sun. When they reachedan altitude of a thousand miles above the surface of the planet, Loringmaneuvered the jet boat into position outside the ship and placed thecrude reactant bomb inside. Ready, he gave Roger the signal to make therun out of the sun toward the _Polaris_. Roger relayed the orders toShinny and Mason, and the _Space Devil_ rocketed back toward the planetagain.

  Loring, sitting inside the jet boat, waited until they had reached analtitude of five hundred miles.

  "All right, Manning," said Loring, "give me the course!"

  Roger calculated the rotational speed of the planet, the _Space Devil's_altitude, and the speed of the jet boat. He drew a line between the_Space Devil_ and _Polaris_, checked it on the astro compass, andreached for the intercom mike. He ran a dry tongue over his lips andcalled out the course.

  "Course is one forty-three--" He caught himself and stared at the chart.Suppose Tom or Astro or anyone was near the ship? Even if he missed byseveral hundred yards, the bomb would certainly be fatal. If he onlychanged the course one degree, at a range of five hundred miles, itwould miss the _Polaris_ by several miles. And Loring wouldn't be ableto see anything because of the dust cloud.

  "Course corrected," said Roger. "New course is one forty-two!"

  "One forty-two!" repeated Loring.

  Roge
r sat back and waited for the small space craft to blast off fromthe ship. In his mind, he saw Loring setting the trigger on the bomb,adjusting the controls, setting the automatic pilot, and then pressingthe acceleration button. Roger gripped the sides of the chart table andstared at the radar scanner. A fast-moving blip was streaking across itssurface. Loring had started the jet boat.

  His eyes showing his great fear, Roger watched the blip as it sped downlike a maddened hornet toward the _Polaris_ resting on its directionalfins in the green jungle. He could hear the hatch slam closed below asLoring re-entered the ship, but he continued to watch the rapidly movingblip.

  Suddenly it disappeared, and Roger knew it had reached Tara. He slumpedback in his chair. His eyes were glassy, his ears deaf to the roar oftriumph from below as Loring and Mason, watching the flight of the jetboat on the control deck teleceiver screen, saw it explode. Rogercouldn't move. He had fired a reactant bomb at Tom and Astro.

  "By the craters of Luna," roared Connel, "we've been attacked!"

  The four Earthmen, exploring a valley several miles north of the_Polaris_, had been thrown to the ground when the bomb landed. Connel'sreaction was immediate and decisive.

  "Get into the jet boat! All of you! We've got to get back to the_Polaris_! If our ship is smashed, we'll spend the rest of our livesfighting this jungle!"

  In a matter of seconds the four spacemen were rocketing over the jungletoward the _Polaris_. Presently they came to an enormous dust cloud thathad mushroomed out over the trees. It was so thick Tom found itdifficult to pilot the small craft.

  "Any danger of radioactivity in this dust, sir?" asked Astro.

  "Always that possibility, Astro," answered Connel. "We'll know soonenough!" He flipped on a built-in Geiger counter on the dashboard of thejet boat, and immediately the cabin was filled with a loud ticking thatwarned of danger.

  "The count is up to seven fifty, sir," said Astro. "Not enough to botheryou unless you're in it a long time."

  "There's the _Polaris_, sir," yelled Tom. "She's still on herdirectional fins! They missed her! She's O.K.!"

  "By the blessed rings of Saturn, she is!" exclaimed Connel. "Go on, Tom,give this baby the gun! If we have to die, let's die like spacemen, inspace, fighting with spaceman's weapons, not crawling around here in thejungle like worms!"

  The three boys smiled at their skipper's rousing statement. "This is thetime," thought Tom, "when I'd rather have Major Connel in command thananyone else in the Solar Guard." If there was to be a fight, then theycertainly had found the man who knew how to do just that! Fight!

  Tom swooped over the treetops recklessly, and fearing the blast haddamaged the jet-boat air lock, brought the small craft to rest in theblinding dust a few yards away from the _Polaris_.

  Three minutes later the four spacemen had separated and were standing bytheir respective posts. Hasty but thorough checks were made to determinethe damage, and finding none, they prepared to raise ship.

  "All clear forward and up," Alfie reported in a high squeaking voice.

  "Energize the cooling pumps," shouted Tom.

  Astro had already started the mighty pumps, their vibrations rocking theship, and Tom began counting the seconds.

  "Stand by to raise ship. Minusfive--four--three--two--one--_zeeroooooo!_"

  Paying scant attention to the crush of sudden acceleration, Tom gave theship all the power she could take for the climb out of Tara'satmosphere, and soon they were rocketing through the airless void ofspace. Alfie and Connel hurriedly swept the area with the radar scannerfor the attacking intruder.

  "There she is!" roared Connel. "There!" He placed a finger on a whiteblip on the scanner. "By the craters of Luna, that's an Earth ship!" Thefear of an outer-space invasion by hostile people from another world hadbeen in the back of his mind, but he had been reluctant to voice hisfears in front of the cadets. "And she's an old one at that!" heexclaimed. "Not even armed. I know that class vessel. Corbett!" heshouted.

  "Aye, aye, sir," replied Tom.

  "Put the ship on automatic flight, attack-approach pattern number three.Then stand by to send a message to whoever's manning that ship!"

  "Aye, aye, sir!" replied Tom. He hurriedly set the delicate device thatwould fly the ship in a preplanned course of zigzag maneuvers and openedthe circuits of the teleceivers.

  "All set for the message, sir," reported Tom.

  "Tell them," said Connel heavily, his voice cold, "whoever they are,that I'll give them two minutes to surrender. If they don't, I'll blastthem into protons!"

  "Very well, sir," said Tom. He turned to the teleceiver and begantwirling the dials.

  "Attention! Attention! Rocket cruiser _Polaris_ to spaceship X._Polaris_ to spaceship X. You are ordered to surrender within twominutes or we will attack. By order of Major Connel, Senior LineOfficer, Solar Guard."

  He switched the teleceiver for reception and waited. In a moment thescreen blurred and then an image appeared. Tom gasped. It was Roger!

  "Tom, Tom," yelled Roger. "Tom, this is me--Roger!"

  "Roger! What're you doing out here? How'd you get here?"

  "I can't explain now," said Roger. "I--I--"

  Tom interrupted him. "Roger, you've been cleared! The investigation ofthe crash on the station proved that Loring and Mason are guilty.They're wanted for the crash and the deaths of Jardine and Bangs!"

  "What! You mean--" stammered Roger.

  "Yes. Loring and Mason did the whole thing!" supplied Tom.

  "Look, Tom," pleaded Roger, "give me ten minutes. Don't fire for tenminutes! I'm going to try an idea. If I'm not successful, then open upand blast us back to Mars!"

  "Roger, wait!" shouted Tom. "What's going on? What're you doing on thatship?"

  "I can't talk now," answered Roger. "Loring and Mason are on the shipwith me. Remember--ten minutes--and if I don't contact you, then openfire!"