Rip Foster Rides the Gray Planet

  CHAPTER EIGHT - DUCK - OR DIE!

  Sergeant-major Koa's great frame loomed in front of Rip. "Think they'vespotted us, sir?"

  Rip hated to say it. "Probably. Koa, can you estimate from the exhaust howfar away they are?"

  "Not very well, Lieutenant. From the position of the streak, I'd saythey're decelerating."

  The Planeteers looked at Rip. He was in command, and they expected him todo something about the situation. Rip didn't know what to do. The rocketlauncher, their only weapon, wasn't designed for fighting spaceships. Itwas useful against snapper-boats and people, but firing at a cruiser wouldbe like sending mosquitoes to fight elephants.

  He sized up their position. For one thing, they were right out in theopen, exposed to anything the Connie cruiser might throw at them. If theycould get under cover, there might be a chance. It would at least take theConnies a while to find them.

  For a moment he thought of hurrying into the landing boat and sending outa call for help to the _Scorpius_, but he thought better of it. Theyweren't certain that Connie had spotted them. He would wait until therewas no doubt. Meanwhile, they had to find cover.

  His searching eyes fell on the cutting torch. If they could use that tocut themselves right into the asteroid ... suddenly he knew how it couldbe done. On the sun side he remembered a series of high-piled, giantcrystals of thorium. They could cut into the side of one of those. Andwith Kemp's skill, they might be able to do it in time.

  He called, "Kemp! Koa, bring the torch and fuel and follow me."

  In his haste he took a misstep and flew headlong a few feet above themetal surface. Koa, gliding along behind him, turned him upright again. Hesaw that the giant Hawaiian was grinning. Rip grinned back. It was thesecond time he had lost his footing.

  They reached the peaks of thorium and Rip looked them over. The tallestwas perhaps 40 feet high. It was roughly pyramidal, with a base about 60feet thick. It would do.

  "Kemp." The private hurried to his side. "Take the torch and make us acave. Make it big enough for all hands and the equipment."

  Kemp was a good Planeteer. He didn't stop to ask questions. He said, "I'llmake a small entrance and open the cave out inside." He picked up thetorch and got busy.

  Rip smiled. The Planeteer was right. He should have thought of it himself,but it was good to see increasing proof that his men were smart as well astough and disciplined.

  "Bring up all supplies," he told Koa. "Move the boat over here, too. Wewon't be able to bury that, but we want it close by." He had an idea forthe landing boat. It could maneuver infinitely faster than the bigcruiser. They could put the supplies in the cave, then take to the boat,depending on its ability to turn quickly and on Dowst's skill at pilotingto play hide and seek. Dowst certainly could keep the asteroid betweenthem and the cruiser.

  The plan would fail when the cruiser sent a landing party. They wouldcertainly come in snapper-boats, and the deadly little fighting craftcould blast rings around the landing boat. The snapper-boats had gottentheir name because fast acceleration and quick changes of position couldsnap a man right out of his seat, if he forgot to buckle his harnesstightly.

  The solution would be to keep the landing boat close to the asteroid. Atthe first sign of a landing party, they would blast in and take to thecave, using the rocket launcher as a defense.

  The supplies began to arrive. The Planeteers towed them two crates at atime in a steady line of hurrying men.

  Kemp's torch sent an incandescent knife three feet into the metal at eachcut. He was rapidly slicing out a cave. He cut the metal out in greattriangular bars, angling the torch from first one side, then the other.

  Koa came and stood beside Rip. "I haven't seen the Connie's exhaust for awhile, sir. Looks like they've stopped decelerating. We can't see them atall."

  "Meaning what?" Rip asked. He thought he knew, but he wanted Koa'sopinion.

  "They're in free fall now, sir. That could mean they're just hunting inthe area. Or it could mean, that they've stopped somewhere close by. Theycould be looking us over, for all we know."

  Rip surveyed the stars. "If that's so, they're not too close, Koa.Otherwise they'd block out a patch of stars."

  "Well, sir--" Koa hesitated. "I mean, if you were looking over thisasteroid and you weren't sure whether the enemy had it or not, how closewould you get?"

  "Probably about one AU," Rip said jokingly. That was one astronomicalunit, equal to about 93 million miles, the distance from earth to the sun.

  "That would be a good, safe distance, sir," Koa agreed with a grin.

  "But let's suppose the Connie isn't as timid as I am," Rip went on. "Hemight be only a few miles out. The question is, would he wait to getcloser before launching his snapper-boats?"

  The big Hawaiian answered frankly, "I've never been in a spacegrab likethis before. I don't know what the answer is."

  "That Connie Cruiser's Not Too Close, Koa."]

  "That Connie Cruiser's Not Too Close, Koa."

  "We'll soon know," Rip replied grimly. A thought had just struck him. The_Scorpius_ had trouble finding the asteroid because it was just one ofmany sailing along through the belt. But now the asteroid was the only onetraveling _across_ the belt. It would make an outstanding blip on anyradar 'scope. It wasn't possible that the Connie cruiser had missed theblip and its significance.

  "The Connie may be looking us over," Rip added, "but I can tell you onething for sure. He knows we've taken the asteroid." Only human hands couldswerve a heavenly body from its orbit.

  Koa looked wistfully at the atomic bomb which remained. "If we had a wayto throw that thing at them...."

  "But we haven't. And the thing wouldn't explode anyway. We don't have theoutside casing with an exploder mechanism, so it has to be turned onelectrically." Rip could see no way to use the atomic bomb against theConnies. It was too big for use against a landing party. Besides, it wouldput the Planeteers in danger.

  "Ever have trouble with the Connies before?" he asked Koa.

  "More'n once, sir. Sometimes it seems like I'll never get a job where Idon't have to fight Connies."

  Rip was trained in science and Planeteer techniques and he didn't pretendto know the ins and outs of interplanetary politics. Just the same, hecouldn't help wondering about the strange relationship between theConsolidation of People's Governments and the Federation of Free Nations.

  Connies and Feds, mostly Planeteers but sometimes spacemen, wereconstantly skirmishing. They fought over property, over control of portson distant planets and moons, and over space salvage. Often there wasbloodshed. Sometimes there were pitched battles between groups of platoonsize.

  But at that point, the struggle ended. The law of the Federation said thatno spaceship could fire on a Connie spaceship, or on Connie land bases,except with special permission of the Space Council. The theory was thatsmall struggles between men, or even between small fighting craft like thesnapper-boats, was not war. But firing on a spaceship was war, and thefirst such act could mean starting war throughout the Solar System.

  It made a sort of sense to Rip when he thought about it. Little fightshere and there were better than a full war among the planets.

  Koa suddenly gripped his arm. "Sir! Look up!"

  The short hairs on the back of Rip's neck prickled. Far above, blacknessblotted out stars in the shape of a spaceship. The Connie had arrived!

  Rip ordered urgently, "Kemp! Stop cutting. The rest of you get the stuffunder cover. Ram it!" He hurried to lend a hand himself, hustling cratesinto the cave.

  Kemp had made astonishing progress. There was room for the crates, ifstacked properly, and for the men besides. Rip supervised the stacking,then the placement of the rocket launcher at the entrance.

  "All hands inside the boat," he ordered. "Dowst, be ready to take off at amoment's notice. You'll have to buck this box around like never before."He explained to the pilot his plan to dodge, keeping the asteroid betweenthe boat and the cruiser.

  "W
e'll make it, sir," Dowst said.

  "I'm not worried," Rip replied, and wished it were true. He looked up atthe Connie again. It was getting larger. The cruiser was within a fewmiles of the asteroid.

  As Rip watched, fire spurted from the cruiser and it moved with gatheringspeed toward the asteroid's horizon. He watched the exhaust trail,wondering why the Connie had blasted off.

  "He has something up his sleeve," Koa muttered. "Wish we knew what."

  "Let's take no chances," Rip stated. "Come on."

  The men were already in the boat. He and Koa joined them. They stood at awindow, watching the Connie's trail.

  The trail dwindled. Koa said, "Something's up!" Suddenly new fire shotfrom one side of the cruiser and it spun. Balancing fire came from theother side, and for an instant the three exhausts formed a cross with thedarkness of the Connie's hull in the center. Then they could see only theexhausts from the sides. The stern flame was out of sight.

  "He's made a full turn to come back this way," Rip stated tensely. "Dowst,get ready."

  The Connie was perhaps 20 miles away. It grew larger, and the side jetswinked out. A few seconds later fire spurted from the nose.

  Rip figured rapidly. The cruiser had gone away far enough to make a turn.It had straightened out, heading right for them. Now the nose tube wasblasting, slowing the cruiser down.

  He sighted, holding out one glove and gauging the Connie's distance abovethe horizon, and his heart speeded. The Connie was right on the horizon!

  "Ram it!" Rip called. "Around the asteroid. Quick!"

  Acceleration jammed him back against his men as Dowst blasted. No soonerhad he recovered than acceleration in a different direction shoved him upto the ceiling so hard that his bubble rang. He clawed his way to thewindow as the Connie cruiser flashed by, bathing the asteroid in glowingflame.

  There was a chorus of gasps from the men, as they saw the thing Rip hadrealized a moment before. The Consops cruiser was playing it safe, usingits rocket exhaust as a great blowtorch to burn the surface of theasteroid clean!

  The sheer inhumanity of the thing made Rip's stomach tighten into a knot.No asking for surrender, no taking of prisoners. Not even a clean fight.The Connie was doing its arguing with fire, knowing that the exhaust wouldchar every man on the asteroid's surface.

  The Planeteers watched as the Connie sped away, blasted with its side jetsand turned to come back. Dowst tensed over the controls, trying toanticipate the next move. He touched the firing levers delicately, lettingout just enough flame to maneuver. He slid the craft over the asteroid'ssurface to the side away from the Connie, going slowly enough so theycould watch the enemy's every move.

  "Here he comes," Rip snapped, and braced for acceleration. The landingcraft shot to safety as the cruiser's nose jet flamed. Dowst was just intime. Tiny sparks from the edge of the fiery column brushed past the boat.

  Rip realized that the Connie couldn't know the Federation men were in aboat, dodging. The cruiser would make about two more runs, just enough toallow for hitting every bit of the asteroid. Then it would assume thatanything on it was finished and send a landing party.

  "He'll be back," he stated. "About twice more. Three at most." He suddenlyremembered the landing boat radio. "Dowst, where is the radio connection?"

  The pilot handed him a wire with a jack plug on the end of it. Rip pluggedit into his belt. Now his voice would be heard on the _Scorpius_.

  "Calling _Scorpius_! Calling _Scorpius_! Foster reporting. We are underattack. Repeat, we are under attack. Over to you."

  The answer rang in his helmet. "_Scorpius_ to Foster. Hold 'em,Planeteers. We're on our way!"

  "Here comes the Connie," Koa yelled.

  Rip braced. The landing boat shot forward, then piled the Planeteers in aheap on the bottom as Dowst accelerated upward.

  There was a sudden wrenching crash that sent the Planeteers in a jumbledmass into the front of the boat. It whirled crazily, then stopped.

  Rip was not hurt. He shoved at someone whose bubble was in his stomach andcleared the way. "Turn on belt lights," he called. "Quick!"

  Lights flared on. He searched quickly, swinging his light. The Planeteerswere getting to their feet. His light focused on Private Bradshaw and hegasped.

  Bradshaw's face was scarlet, and his skin was flecked with drops of blood.His eyes were closed, and bulging terribly.

  Rip jumped forward, but big Koa was even faster. The Hawaiian jerked arepair strip from a belt pouch, slapped it on the crack in Bradshaw'sbubble.

  Rip wasted no time, either. By the time Koa had the strip in place he hadpulled the connections from his belt light. He ran the tips of the wiresover the edges of the strip. The current sealed the patch in placeinstantly.

  Koa grabbed the atmosphere control on Bradshaw's belt and turned it. Thesuit puffed up. Rip watched the repair anxiously in the light from Koa'sbelt. It held.

  Rip reconnected his light as he asked swiftly, "Anyone else hurt? Answerby name."

  There were quick replies; No one else had been injured.

  "Run for the cave," Rip commanded. "Follow Koa. Santos and Pederson dragBradshaw."

  The Englishman's voice sounded bubbly. "I can make it."

  "Good for you!" Rip exclaimed. "Call for help if you need it."

  Koa was already out of the craft and leading the way. Rip went out througha window and saw the cause of the trouble. Dowst had been a hair too closeto the asteroid. A particularly high crystal of thorium had snagged thecraft.

  Rip looked for the Connie and saw it starting another turn. They had onlya moment or two before the next run. "Show an exhaust," he called. TheConnie must have blasted the opposite side of the asteroid while they werehung up.

  The cave was a quarter of the asteroid away. Rip stayed in the rear,watching for stragglers. But even Bradshaw was moving rapidly. Koa reachedthe cave well ahead of the rest, reached for a rack of rockets, andslapped it into the launcher.

  Rip urged the men on. The Connie was squared off for another run.

  They catapulted to safety as the cruiser flamed past, the exhaustsplashing over the metal and sending sparks into the cave.

  Rip looked out. That, if he had guessed right, was the last run. Hewatched the Connie's stern jet cut off, saw the nose exhaust as thecruiser decelerated to a fast stop.

  "Check your weapons," he ordered.

  He pulled his pistol from the knee pocket and checked it carefully. Therewas a clip in the magazine. Other clips were in his pocket. The clips wereloaded with high velocity shells that exploded on contact. One slug couldstop a Venusian _krel_, a mammoth beast that had been described as a crossbetween a sea lion and a cactus plant.

  His knife was in place in the other knee pocket.

  The Connie cruiser decelerated, went into reverse, and came to a full stopabout a mile from the asteroid. The Planeteers saw fire in two placesalong the hull, marking the exhausts of two small craft.

  "Snapper-boats," Koa said tonelessly. "Five men in each, if those are theregular Connie kind."

  Rip made a quick decision. With only one launcher they couldn't guard thewhole asteroid. "We'll stay under cover, except for Santos and Pederson.You two sneak out. Take advantage of every bit of cover you can find. Idon't want you spotted. When a boat lands, report its position. TheConnies operate on different communicator frequencies, so they won'toverhear. Well let them think they've burned the asteroid clean."

  He paused. "They'll search for a while. Then, when they're pretty wellsatisfied that all is quiet, we'll show up." Rip grinned at hisPlaneteers. "We can have a real, old-fashioned surprise party."

  Koa slid the safety catch from his pistol. "With fireworks," he added.