CHAPTER 21
Tom stirred. He rolled his head from side to side. His mouth was dry andthere was a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. He opened his eyesand stared at the control panel in front of him. Instinctively he beganto check the dials and gauges. He settled on one and waited for hispounding heart to return to normal. His eyes cleared, and the gauge swaminto view. He read the figures aloud:
"Distance in miles since departure--fourteen thousand, five hundred ..."
Something clicked. He let out a yell.
"We made it! We made it!" He turned and began to pound Connel on theback. "Major Connel! Major, wake up, sir! We made it. We're in freefall! Junior's far behind us!"
"Uh--ah--what--Tom? What?" Connel said, rolling his eyes. In all hisexperience he had never felt such acceleration. He glanced at the gauge.
"Distance," he read, "fifteen thousand miles." The gauge ticked on.
"We made it, sir!" said Tom. "Astro gave us a kick in the pants we'llnever forget!"
Connel grinned at Tom's excitement. There was reason to be excited. Theywere free. He turned to the intercom, but before he could speak, Astro'svoice roared into his ears.
"Report from the power deck, sir," said Astro. "Acceleration normal.Request permission to open up on hyperdrive."
"Permission granted!" said Connel.
"Look, sir," said Tom, "on the teleceiver screen. Junior is getting hisbumps!"
Connel glanced up at the screen. One by one the white puffs of dust fromthe reactor units were exploding on the surface of the planetoid. Soonthe whole satellite was covered with the radioactive cloud.
"I'm sure glad we're not on that baby now," whispered Tom.
"Same here, spaceman!" said Connel.
It was evening of the first full day after leaving Junior before theroutine of the long haul back to Space Academy had begun. The _Polaris_was on automatic control, and everyone was assembled in the messroom.
"Well, boys," said Connel, "our mission is a complete success. I'vefinished making out a report to Space Academy, and everything's fine.Incidentally, Manning," he continued, "if you're worried about havingbroken your word when you escaped from the space station, forget it. Youmore than made up for it by your work in helping us get Loring andMason."
Roger smiled gratefully and gulped, "Thank you, sir."
Loring and Mason, who had eaten their meal separately from the others,listened silently. Loring got up and faced them. The room became silent.
Loring flushed.
_"I know we're going to be sent to the prison asteroidand we deserve it," said Loring._]
"I'd like to say something," he began haltingly, "if I can?"
"Go ahead," said Connel.
"Well," said Loring, "it's hard to say this, but Mason and myself,well--" He paused. "I don't know what happened to us on the first tripout here, Major, but when we saw that satellite, and the copper,something just went wrong inside. One thing led to another, and beforewe knew it, we were in so deep we couldn't get out."
The faces around the table were stony, expressionless.
"Nobody deserves less consideration than me and Mason. And--well, youknow yourself, sir, that we were pretty good spacemen at one time. Youpicked us for the first trip out to Tara with you."
Connel nodded.
"And well, sir, the main thing is about Jardine and Bangs. I know we'regoing to be sent to the prison asteroid and we deserve it. But we beenthinking, sir, about Jardine's and Bang's wives and kids. They mustalost everything in that crash of the _Annie Jones_, so if the majorwould recommend that Mason and me be sent to the Titan mines, instead ofthe rock, we could send our credits back to help take care of the kidsand all."
No one spoke.
"That's all," said Loring. He and Mason left the room.
Connel glanced around the table. "Well?" he asked. "This is your firststruggle with justice. Each of you, Tom, Roger, Astro, Alfie, will befaced with this sort of thing during your careers as spacemen. Whatwould you do?"
The four cadets looked at each other, each wondering what the otherwould say. Finally Connel turned to Alfie.
"You're first, Alfie," said Connel.
"I'd send them to the mines, sir," said Alfie.
Connel's face was impressive. "Roger?"
"Same here, sir," replied Roger.
"Astro?" asked Connel.
"I'd do anything to help the kids, sir," said Astro, an orphan himself.
"Tom?"
Tom hesitated. "They deserve the rock, sir. I don't have any feeling forthem. But if they go to the rock, that doesn't do any more than punishthem. If they go to the mines, they'll be punished and help someone elsetoo. I'd send them to Titan and exile them from Earth forever."
Connel studied the cadets a moment. He turned to Shinny.
"Think they made a good decision, Nick?"
"I like what young Tommy, here, had to say, Lou," answered Shinny. "Bestpart about justice is when the man himself suffers from his own guiltyfeelings, rather than what you do to him as punishment. I think they didall right!"
"All right," said Connel. "I'll make the recommendation as you havesuggested." Suddenly he turned to Shinny. "What about you in all this,Nick? I don't mean that you were hooked up with Loring and Mason. I knowyou were just prospecting and you've proved yourself to be a truespaceman. But what will happen to you now?"
"I'll tell you what's going to happen to me," snapped Shinny. "You'regoing to re-enlist me in the Solar Guard, right here! Right now!"
"What?" exploded Connel.
"And then you're going to retire me, right here, right now, with a fullpension!"
"Why you old space-crawling--" Suddenly he looked around the table andsaw the laughing faces of Tom, Roger, Astro, and Alfie.
"All right," he said, "but between your enlistment and your retirement,I'm going to make you polish every bit of brass on this space wagon,from the radar mast to the exhaust tubes!"
Shinny smiled his toothless smile and looked at Tom.
"Get the logbook, Tommy," he said. "This is official. I'm going to dosomething no other man in the entire history of the Solar Guard ever didbefore!"
"What's that, Mr. Shinny?" asked Tom with a smile.
"Enlist, serve time, and retire with a full pension, all on the sameblasted spaceship, the _Polaris_!"
+--------------------------------------------------------------+| Transcriber's Note || || Typographical errors corrected: || || 1) familarity changed to familiarity || 2) but's changed to buts || 3) word changed to work || || Possible typographical error left as is: || || All ready possibly should read Already || || Standardized hyphenation: || || 1) paralo ray changed to paralo-ray || 2) upperclassmen changed to upper-classmen || || In addition, the nickname Blast-off occurs in two forms || throughout the text: "Blast-off" and 'Blast-off'. One is || used consistently in descriptive text ("Blast-off") the || other is used consistently in dialog ('Blast-off'), || as such both forms have been retained. || |+--------------------------------------------------------------+
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