CHAPTER 16
Roger Manning opened his eyes, then closed them. He lay perfectly stilland listened. The sound he heard was the unmistakable blasting roar of aspaceship. But there was another sound, much closer. In fact, it was inthe room with him.
He opened one eye to see Quent Miles moving about in the one-room,airtight space hut which had been his jail for the last week. Miles wasthrowing clothes into a space bag, keeping a wary eye on Roger, sprawledon the bunk. Hoisting the bag to his shoulder, Miles closed the faceplate of his space helmet, turned to the air lock, and stepped inside,slamming the portal behind him. From the bunk, Roger could hear thehissing of the change of pressure inside the lock from normal to thevacuum of space outside.
The entire week had been a time of waiting and wondering. He couldn'tunderstand Miles' actions in taking him prisoner the moment beforeblast-off from Earth, and then keeping him at the asteroid, seeminglygiving up all chances of winning the race.
Roger waited until he was sure that the black-clad spaceman had gone,then he sat up and worked desperately on the thin metal chain bindinghis wrists. He had been working on one of the links ever since hisarrival at Miles' strange asteroid base, scraping it against the roughmetal edge of one of the legs of his bunk. Two days before, he hadsucceeded in wearing it down to a point where he could snap it easilywhen the opportunity came for him to make a break. But so far the chancehad not presented itself. He had been kept prisoner in the space hut,and Miles had pushed his food in through a vent in the air lock. Now,however, with the sound of the spaceship outside, the cadet decided itwas time for action.
Working quickly, Roger snapped the link and tore off the chain, freeinghis hands. He allowed himself the longed-for luxury of stretching justonce, and then crossed to the small locker beside the air-lock door totake out a space suit. He climbed into it hurriedly, secured the helmet,and began searching the small room for a weapon. In the bottom of achest he found a rocketman's wrench. Grasping it tightly, he steppedinto the air lock. Just before he turned on the oxygen in his spacesuit, he listened again for the noise of the blasting ship. Then hegrinned as he realized that it wasn't the noise of the ship he heard,but the vibration it created on the surface of the asteroid. Soundwouldn't travel through the vacuum of space outside. Suddenly it stoppedand Roger realized the tubes were being blasted in preparation fortake-off. The young cadet closed the inner portal of the lock, adjustedthe pressure, turned on the oxygen of his suit, and waited. In a momentthe indicator showed the pressure to be equal to that outside in space,and he opened the outer portal cautiously.
A section of the asteroid belt swam above him. Hundreds of smallplanetoids and various-sized pieces of space junk drifted in the coldvacuum of space overhead. Roger looked around. The asteroid he was onwas so small and the horizon such a short distance away that the base ofMiles' giant black ship was half-covered by the curvature of theplanetoid.
Holding the wrench tightly in his hand, the blond-haired cadet circledaround the space hut cautiously, looking for Quent Miles, but thespaceman was nowhere in sight. He had walked all the way around the hutand back to the air lock when he saw a movement out of the corner of hiseye. It was Miles, returning to the space hut. Moving quickly, Rogerducked behind a huge boulder and waited for Miles to come closer. Itwould be impossible to hit Miles with the heavy wrench. The space helmetwould ward off the blow. His only chance was to get aboard the shipwhile Miles was inside the hut. And he would have to move fast. WhenMiles discovered the hut was empty, he would come looking for the youngcadet.
But to the cadet's great relief, Miles went past the hut and disappearedover the horizon of the asteroid in the opposite direction.
Slipping out from behind the boulder and utilizing the near lack ofgravity, Roger ran in giant leaps toward the black spaceship. His lastjump brought him to the base of the ship where he quickly clambered upthe ladder, opened the portal, and slipped into the air lock. In amatter of seconds he had built up the pressure in the lock to equal thepressure inside the ship. He opened the inner portal and raced up theladder to the control deck. Throwing himself into the pilot's chair, heprepared to raise ship. Then he slumped in despair. The master switchhad been removed. It was impossible for him to blast off!
He leaped out of the chair and scrambled up the ladder to the radardeck. He flipped on the audioceiver and nervously waited for the tubesto warm up. Nothing happened. Only then he remembered that thecommunications would not work without power from the generators and theycould not be started without the master switch.
"Boy! He sure wasn't taking any chances of me getting away and leavinghim here," Roger muttered to himself, as he turned back to the ladderand climbed down to the air lock. He stepped inside, and crossing to thesmall viewport, looked out over the dead landscape of the tiny world fora sign of Quent Miles. He saw the black-clad spaceman returning towardthe hut. Roger held his breath. If Miles went into the hut this time andfound him missing, he would know that the cadet was aboard the ship."Manning," Roger said to himself, "if you ever needed luck, you need itnow!"
Miles walked slowly, as if in no hurry, still heading for the space hut.But as Roger held his breath in fear, he passed it again, without somuch as pausing to look at it.
Roger grinned. "Spaceman, you are going to say your prayers every nightafter this," he murmured.
The cadet turned, and racing as fast as the cumbersome space suit wouldallow him, headed toward the power deck. Passing the galley, he snatchedup several plastic packages of food.
Down on the power deck, Roger went directly to the lead baffling shieldsaround the reactant chambers and carefully squeezed between them and theouter hull. It was going to be a rough ride on the power deck, jammed inbehind the firing chambers, but at least he was hidden--and moreimportant, _free_.
He listened for the clank of metal shoes on the ladder above him. Whenhe heard them, followed closely by the slam of the air-lock portal, hegrinned in satisfaction. Opening one of the plastic bags, he began toeat.
In a moment the ship came to life and the power deck became a ragingtorrent of noise and vibration. As Roger braced himself, he felt theship quiver and then shake, as under heavy acceleration, it blasted offinto space.
* * * * *
Captain Strong and young Sergeant Morgan hailed a passing jet truckloaded with Space Marines. "Get me to Commander Walters right away,Lieutenant!" said Strong to the young officer in charge. "This is anemergency."
"Yes, sir," acknowledged the young officer, and sent the truck roaringdown the empty avenue toward the electronics building where Walters wasstill checking the reports on the screens.
"Is there anything new, sir?" asked the young officer. "Have thetechnicians been able to find out what's making the screens fail?"
"We're on the right track, Lieutenant," said Strong shortly. "Can't youget any more speed out of this thing?"
_It would be a rough ride, but at least he was hidden_]
"Yes, sir," replied the officer. He rammed the accelerator to the floorand the small truck blasted through the streets as though shot out ofcannon.
In a few minutes the truck screamed to a halt in front of the buildingand Strong leaped toward the door, followed closely by Sergeant Morganand the Space Marine lieutenant.
Strong found Walters before the telemetering board waiting impatientlyfor some figures Dr. Joan Dale had sent him to be analyzed andevaluated. He spun around when Strong entered the room at a dead run.
"Steve!" he exclaimed. "What's the matter? Anything happen to thecadets?"
"We didn't find them, sir, but we did find something else. We--" BeforeStrong could finish, the calculator began pouring out its answers.
"Excuse me, Steve! These figures could tell us why the screens arefailing."
"But I know why they're failing, sir!" shouted Strong.
"You know what?" exclaimed Walters.
As all the men in the room stared at him, Strong hurriedly told thecommanding office
r what he had found, concluding, "I think the room Istumbled into was used as a repair shop. But it was gas-free and pureoxygen was coming out of the pipe I described."
"I see," said Walters grimly. "Let me check that against these figures."He turned to the calculator and with the assistance of Joe Howard, KitBarnard, and the chief electronics engineer began studying the figures.
Strong paced up and down nervously. The faces of the technicians in theroom clearly showed the strain they had been under the past few days.And when they heard the startling news Strong had delivered, therewasn't one who didn't feel his fingers tighten into fists at Brett andMiles' selfishness.
Walters straightened up and glanced at the faces of the men around him."Well, gentlemen," he said. "I think the figures speak for themselves."
There was a murmur of agreement. Walters turned back to Strong. "Thosefigures prove conclusively that what you say is true. It is impossiblefor the screens to collapse except from a vital leak--exactly such aleak as you have described."
Walters turned and began to snap orders to the men around him. "I wantevery available man sent out on the double. I want every inch of thatarea searched for an opening to a mine shaft or anything that leadsunderground. Take half the men off the spaceport detail."
"Shall we continue evacuation operations for the miners and theirfamilies?" asked the young Space Marine lieutenant. "There is quite aforce of men out there that could be used in the search."
"What do you think, Steve? Should we take off the guardsmen and suspendevacuation in the hope that we can find that leak?"
"I would say yes, Commander," said Strong. "Your figures and those Dr.Dale sent you point to a leak of this nature."
"Very well, Lieutenant," said Walters. "Order every man to the area andbegin search operations immediately. I want that leak found--and foundfast! And I want Charles Brett and Quent Miles arrested at once!"
* * * * *
Tom and Astro bent over the lead boxes again and heaved them to theirshoulders. A quick glance showed them that Miles had not followed themto the floor of the cavern as he had done before, but had remained onguard on the balcony.
As they struggled to lift the boxes to their shoulders, Tom whisperedout of the side of his mouth, "I know how we can get out of here,Astro."
"How?"
"Since Brett is staying on the ship for this trip, Miles is going tohave trouble watching both of us."
"Yeah, I know," muttered Astro. "Want me to jump him?"
"No," Tom growled. "Miles has been trailing us through the tunnel bytwenty to thirty feet each trip. When we pass that spot where the lightis, you drop your box. He'll be watching you then and that will give mea chance to grab that booby trap you took apart, remember?"
"Yeah!"
"O.K. Now remember, when I give you the word, you drop your box on theright-hand side of the tunnel."
"Hurry up down there!" yelled Miles from the balcony. "We haven't gotall night."
"Keep your shirt on, buster," growled Astro. "We're tired."
The two cadets balanced the heavy lead boxes on their shoulders, and,with Tom leading the way, climbed up the stairs past Miles and startedup the tunnel in front of the black-suited spaceman.
They walked slowly, side by side, and as before, Miles stayed a goodtwenty paces behind them. As they neared the light where they knew theexplosive charge would be, Tom began slowing his pace.
"Come on, get going, Corbett!" Miles yelled.
"He's tired," said Astro. "Leave him alone."
"What are you, his protector?" snarled Miles. "Get going, I said."
"O.K.," said Tom, struggling forward.
They came closer and closer to the light. Tom glanced at Astro andwinked. Astro winked back and braced himself to fake the accident.
As closely as Tom could remember, Astro had tossed the charge to oneside about ten feet beyond the light. If he knew exactly where it was,he could fall forward on top of it and stuff it in his tunic. He triedto recreate the scene as it happened. They passed under the light. Onestep ... two steps ... three steps.... "Now, Astro," Tom whispered.
The big cadet lunged to one side, dropping the heavy box to the floor.At the same time, Tom dropped his box and lunged forward, armsoutstretched, feeling along the floor for the precious explosives.
Miles ran up quickly, ray gun cocked and ready.
"Get up!" he shouted. "Get up or I'll freeze you both and leave youhere!"
Tom and Astro struggled to their feet. They lifted the heavy boxes totheir shoulders and started down the tunnel again.
When Astro dared a glance at Tom, he saw his unit mate grin and wink athim. Astro winked back. Suddenly it seemed that the heavy lead box wasas light as air!