Rip Foster Rides the Gray Planet

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN - BETWEEN TWO FIRES

  Back on the asteroid, the Planeteers started laying the second atomiccharge. Rip selected the spot, found a near-by crystal that would serve tohouse the bomb, and Kemp started cutting.

  The Planeteers knew what to do now, and the work went rapidly. Rip kept aneye on his chronometer. According to the message from Terra base, he hadabout fifteen minutes before the Consops cruiser arrived.

  "We have one advantage we didn't have back in the asteroid belt," heremarked to Koa. "Back there they could have landed anywhere on the rock.Now they have to stick to the dark side. Snapper-boats could last on thesun side, but men in ordinary space suits couldn't."

  "That's good," Koa agreed. "We have only one side to defend. Why don't weput the rocket launcher right in the middle of the dark side?"

  "Go ahead. And have all men check their pistols and knives. We don't knowwhat's likely to happen when that Connie flames in."

  Rip walked over to the communicator and plugged his suit into the circuit."This is the asteroid calling Terra base. Over."

  "This is Terra base. Go ahead, Foster. How are you doing?"

  "If you need anything cooked, send it to us," Rip replied. "We have heatenough to cook anything, including tungsten alloy." He explained brieflywhat action they had taken.

  A new voice came on the communicator. "Foster, this is Colonel Stevens."

  Rip responded swiftly, "Yes, sir!" Stevens was the top Planeteer,commanding officer of all the Special Order Squadrons.

  "We've piped this circuit into every channel in the system," the colonelsaid. "Every Planeteer in the Squadrons is listening, and rooting for you.Is there anything we can do?"

  "Yes, sir," Rip replied. "Do you know if Terra base has plotted our coursethis far?"

  There was a brief silence, then the colonel answered, "Yes, Foster. Wehave a complete track from the time you started showing on the Terrascreens, about halfway between the orbits of Mars and earth."

  "Did you just get our change of direction?"

  "Yes. We're following you on the screens."

  "Then, sir, I'd appreciate it if you'd put the calculators to work andmake a time-distance plot for the next few hours. The blast we're savingto push back to safety is about three kilotons. Let us know the lastmoment when we can fire and still get free of Sol's gravity."

  "You'll have it within fifteen minutes. Anything else, Foster?"

  "Nothing else I can think of, sir."

  "Then good luck. We'll be standing by."

  "Yes, sir. Foster off."

  Rip disconnected and turned up his helmet communicator, repeating theconversation to his men. Koa came and stood beside him. "Lieutenant, howdo we set off this next charge?"

  There was only one way. When the time came to blast, they would be tooclose to the sun to take to the boats. The blast had to be set off fromthe asteroid.

  "We'll get underground as far away from the bomb as we can," Rip said. Hesurveyed the dark side, which was rapidly growing less dark. "I think thesecond crater will do. Kemp can square it off on the side toward the blastto give us a vertical wall to hide behind."

  Koa looked doubtful. "Plenty of radiation left in those holes, sir."

  Rip grinned mirthlessly. "Radiation is the least of our problems. I'drather get an overdose of gamma than get blasted into space."

  A yell rang in his helmet. "Here comes the Connie!"

  Rip looked up, startled. The Consops cruiser passed directly overhead,about ten miles away. It was decelerating rapidly. Rip wondered why theyhadn't spotted it earlier and realized the Connie had come from thedirection of the hot side.

  The enemy cruiser was probably the same one that had attacked them before.He must have lain in wait for days, keeping between the sun and Terra.That way, the screens wouldn't pick him up, since only a few observatoriesscanned the sun regularly. To the observatories, the cruiser would havebeen only a tiny speck, too small to be noticed. Or if they had noticedit, the astronomers probably decided it was just a very tiny sunspot.

  The Planeteers worked with increased speed. Kemp welded the final pluginto place, then hurried to the crater from which they would set off thecharge. Dominico and Dowst connected the wires from the rocket head to areel of wire and rolled it toward the crater. Nunez got a hand-drivendynamo from the supplies and tested it for use in setting off the charge.Santos stood by the rocket launcher, with Pederson ready to put anotherrack of rockets into the device when necessary.

  Rip and Koa watched the Connie cruiser. It decelerated to a stop for abrief second, then started moving again, with no jets showing.

  "That's the sun pulling," Rip said exultantly. "They'll have to keepblasting to maintain position."

  The Consops commander didn't wait to trim ship against the sun's drag. Hisair locks opened, clearly visible to Rip and Koa because that side of thecruiser was brilliant with sunlight. Ten snapper-boats sped forth. Rip wascertain now that this was the enemy cruiser they had fought off back inthe asteroid belt. Two Connie snapper-boats had been destroyed in thatclash, which explained why the commander was sending out only ten boats,instead of the full quota of twelve.

  The squadron instantly formed a V, like a strange space letter made up ofglobes. The sun's gravity pulled at them, dragging them off course. Ripwatched as flames poured from their stern tubes. They were firing fullspeed ahead, but the drag of the sun distorted their line of flight into agreat arc.

  Rip saw the strategy instantly. The Connie commander knew the situationexactly, and he was staking everything in one great gamble, sending hissnapper-boats to land on the asteroid--to crash land if necessary.

  The asteroid was so close to the sun that even the powerful fightingrockets would use most of their fuel in simply combatting its gravity.

  "All hands stand by to repel Connies," Rip shouted, and drew his pistol.He looked into the magazine, saw that he had a full clip, and then chargedthe weapon.

  Santos was crouched over the rocket launcher, his space gloves workingrapidly as he kept the rockets pointed at the enemy.

  Rip called, "Santos, fire at will."

  The Planeteers formed a skirmish line which pivoted on the launcher. OnlyKemp remained at work. His torch flared, slicing through the thorium as heprepared their firing position.

  The atomic charge was ready. The wires had been laid up to the rim of thecrater in which Kemp worked, and the dynamo was attached.

  Rip was everywhere, checking on the launcher, on Kemp, on the pistols ofhis men. And Santos, hunched over his illuminated sight, watched theConnie snapper-boats draw near.

  "Here we go," the Filipino corporal muttered. He pressed the trigger.

  The first rocket sped outward in a sweeping curve, and for a moment Ripopened his mouth to yell at Santos. The sun's gravity affected the attackrockets, too! Then he saw that the corporal had allowed for the sun'spull.

  The rocket curved into the squadron of oncoming boats and they all triedto dodge at once. Two of them met in a sideways crash, then a thirdstaggered as its stern globe flared and exploded. Santos had scored a hit!

  Rip called, "Good shooting!"

  The corporal's reply was rueful, "Sir, that wasn't the one I aimed at. Thesun's pull is worse than I figured."

  The damaged snapper-boat instantly blasted from its nose tubes,decelerated and went into reverse, flipping through space crabwise as ittried to regain the safety of the cruiser. The two boats that had crashedwhile trying to dodge were blasting in great spurts of flame, followingthe example of their damaged companion.

  "Seven left," Rip called, and another rocket flashed on its way. Hefollowed its trail as it curved away from the asteroid and into thesquadron. Its proximity fuse detonated in the exhaust of a Connie boat,blowing the tube out of position. The boat yawed wildly, cut its sterntubes, and blasted to a stop from the bow tube. Then it, too, startedbackward toward the cruiser.

  Six left!

  Flame blossomed a few yards from Rip. He was picked up bodily an
d flunginto space, whirling end over end. Koa's voice rang in his helmet.

  "Watch it! They're firing back!"

  Rip tugged frantically at an air bottle in his belt. He pulled it out andused it to whirl him upright again, then its air blast drove him back tothe surface of the asteroid. Sweat poured from his forehead and the suitventilator whined as it worked to pick up the extra moisture. GreatCosmos! That was close.

  Koa called, "All right, sir?"

  "Fine."

  Santos fired again, twice, in rapid succession. The Connie snapper-boatsscattered as the proximity fuses produced flowers of fire among them. Twonear misses, but they threw the enemy off course. Rip watched tensely asthe boats fought to regain their course. He knew asteroid, cruiser, andboats were speeding toward the sun at close to 50 miles a second, and thedrag was getting terrific. The Connies knew it too.

  There was an exultant yell from the Planeteers as two of the boats gave upand turned back, using full power to regain the safety of the mother ship.

  Four left, and they were getting close!

  Santos scored a direct hit on the nose of the nearest one, but itsmomentum drove it within a few yards of the asteroid. Five space-suitedfigures erupted from it, holding hand propulsion units, tubes of rocketfuel used for hand combat in empty space.

  The Connies lit off their propulsion tubes and drove feet first for theasteroid. The Planeteers estimated where the enemy would land, and werethere waiting with pointed handguns. The Connies had their hands overtheir heads, holding the propulsion tubes. They took one look at thegleaming Planeteer guns and their hands stayed upright.

  The Planeteers lashed the Connies' hands behind them with their own safetylines and, at Rip's orders, dumped all but one of them into the craterwhere Kemp was just finishing.

  Three snapper-boats remained. Rip watched, holding tightly to the arm ofthe Connie he had kept at his side. The man wore the insignia of anofficer.

  The remaining snapper-boats were going to make it. Santos threw rocketsamong them and scored hits, but the boats kept coming. The Connies weretoo far away from the cruiser to return, and they knew it. Getting to theasteroid was their only chance.

  Rip called, "Santos. Cease fire. Set the launcher for ground level. Letthem land, but don't fire until I give the word." He hoped his plan wouldwork. Experience back in the asteroid belt had taught him something aboutConnies.

  He put his helmet against his prisoner's for direct communication. "Youspeak English?"

  The man shouted back, "Yes."

  "Good. We're going to let your friends land. As soon as they do, I wantyou to yell to them. Say we have assault rockets trained on them. Tellthem to surrender or they'll be killed in their tracks. Got that?"

  The Connie replied, "Suppose I refuse?"

  Rip put his space knife against the man's stomach. "Then we'll get themwith rockets. But you won't care because you won't know it."

  The truth was, Santos couldn't hope to get them all with his rockets. Theymight overcome the Connies in hand-to-hand fighting, but there would be acost to pay in Planeteer casualties. Rip hoped the Connie wouldn't callhis bluff, because that's all it was. He couldn't use a space knife on anunarmed prisoner.

  The Connie didn't know that. In Rip's place he would have no compunctionsabout using the knife, so instead of calling Rip's bluff he agreed.

  The snapper-boats blew their front tubes, decelerating, and squashed downto the asteroid in a roar of exhaust flames, sending the Planeteersrunning out of the way. Rip thrust harder with his space knife and yelled,"Tell them!"

  The Connie officer nodded. "Turn up my communicator."

  Rip turned it on full, and the Connie barked quick instructions. Theexhausts died and five men filed out of each boat with hands held high.Rip blew a drop of perspiration from the tip of his nose. Empty space! Itwas a good thing Connie morale was bad. The enemy's willingness tosurrender had saved them a costly fight.

  The Planeteers rounded up the prisoners and secured them while Rip took ananxious look at the communicator. It was about time he heard from Terrabase.

  The light was glowing. For all he knew, it might have been glowing formany minutes. He plugged into the circuit.

  "This is Foster on the asteroid."

  "Terra base to Foster. Listen, you will reach optimum position on thetime-distance curve at twenty-three-oh-six. Repeat back,twenty-three-oh-six."

  "Got it. We will reach optimum position at twenty-three-oh-six." He lookedat his chronometer and his pulse stopped. It was 2258! They had just eightminutes before the sun caught them forever, atomic blast or no!

  And the Connie cruiser was still overhead, with no friendly cruisers insight. He looked up, white-faced. Not only was the Connie still there, butits main air lock was sliding open to disclose a new danger.

  In the opening, ready to launch, an assault boat waited. The assault boatswere something only the Connies used. They were about four times the sizeof a snapper-boat, less maneuverable but more powerful. They carried 20men and a pair of guided missiles with atomic warheads!