Rip Foster Rides the Gray Planet, Harold L. Goodwin [red white royal blue .txt] 📗

direct communication. He didn't want the others to hear what he had to say. His voice came like a roar from, the bottom of a well. "Lieutenant, do you suppose[pg 097] there's any chance the blast might break up the asteroid? Maybe split it in two?"

The same thought had occurred to Rip on the Scorpius. His calculations had showed that the metal would do little more than compress, except where it melted from the terrific heat of the bomb. That would be only in and around the shaft. He was sure the men at Terra base had figured it out before they decided that A-bombs would be necessary to throw the asteroid into a new orbit. He wasn't worried. Cracks in the asteroid would be dangerous, but he hadn't seen any.

"This rock will take more nuclear blasts than we have," he assured Koa. He turned his communicator back on and went to the edge of the hole for a look at Kemp's progress. He was far down, now. Pederson was holding one end of a measuring tape. The other end was fastened to Kemp's shoulder strap.

The Swedish corporal showed Rip that he had only about eight feet of tape left. Kemp was almost down. Rip called, "Kemp. When you reach bottom, cut toward the center. Leave an inverted cone."

"Got it, sir. Be up in two more cuts."

Dominico had connected cable to the bomb terminals and was attaching a timer to the other end. Without the wooden case, the bomb was like a fat, oversized can. It had been shipped without a combat casing.

"Koa, make a final check. You can untie the landing[pg 098] boat, except for one line. We'll be taking off in a few minutes."

"Right, sir." Koa glided toward the landing boat, which was out of sight over the horizon.

It was nearly time. Rip had a moment's misgiving. Had his figures or his sightings been off? His red hair prickled at the thought. But the ship's computer had done the work, and it was not capable of making a mistake.

Kemp tossed up the last section of thorium and then came out of the hole himself, carrying his torch.

Rip inspected the hole, saw with satisfaction it was in almost perfect alignment, and ordered the bomb placed. He bent over the edge of the hole and watched Trudeau pay out wire while Dominico pushed the bomb to the bottom. The Italian made a last minute check, then called to Rip. "Ready, sir."

He dropped into the hole and inspected the connections himself, then personally pulled the safety lever. The bomb was armed. When the timer acted, it would go off.

Back at ground level, he turned up his communicator. "Koa, is everything ready at the boat?"

"Ready, sir."

The Planeteers had already carried away the torch and its fuel and oxygen supplies. The area was clear of pieces of thorium.

Rip announced, "We're setting the explosion for ten minutes." He leaned over the timer, which rested[pg 099] near the lip of the hole, took the dial control in his glove and turned it to position ten. He held it long enough to glance at his chronometer and say, "Starting now!" Then he let it go.

Wasting no time, but not hurrying, he and Dominico returned to the landing boat. The Planeteers were already aboard, except for Koa, who stood by to cast off the remaining tie line. Rip stepped inside and counted the men. All present. He ordered, "Cast off." As Koa did so and stepped aboard, he added, "Pilot, take off. Straight up."

The landing boat rose from the asteroid. Rip counted the men again, just to be sure. The boat seemed a little crowded, but that was because the rear compartment took up quite a bit of room.

Rip watched his chronometer. They had plenty of time. When the boat reached a point about ten miles above the asteroid, he ordered, "Stern tube." The boat moved at an angle. He let it go until a sight at the stars showed they were about in the right position, 90 degrees from the line of blast and where they would be behind the asteroid as it moved toward the new course.

He looked at his chronometer again. "Two minutes. Line up at the side if you want to watch, but darken your helmets to full protection. This thing will light up like nothing you've ever seen before."

It was a good thing space cruisers depended on their radar and not on sight, he thought. Usually[pg 100] spacemen opened up visual ports only when landing or taking a star sight for an astro-plot. The clear plastic of the domes had to be shielded from chance meteors. Besides, radar screens were more dependable than eyes, even though they could pick up only solid objects. If the Consops cruiser happened to be searching visually, it would see the blast. But the chance had to be taken. It wasn't really much of a chance.

"One minute," he said. He faced the asteroid, then darkened his helmet, counting to himself.

The minute ticked off slowly, though his count was a little fast. When he reached five, brilliant, incandescent light lit up the interior of the boat. Rip saw it even though his helmet was dark. The light faded slowly, and he put his helmet back on full transparent.

A mighty column of fire now reached out from the asteroid into space. Rip held his breath until he saw that the little planet was sheering off its course under the great blast. Then he sighed with relief. All was well so far.

Someone muttered, "By Gemini! I'm glad we're out here instead of down there!"

The column of fire lengthened, thinned out, grew fainter until there was only a glow behind the asteroid. Rip took his astrogation instruments and made a number of sights. They looked good. The first blast had worked about as predicted, although he wouldn't[pg 101] be able to tell how much correction was needed until he had taken star sights over a period of five or six days.

"Let's go home," he ordered.

Back on the asteroid, a pit that glowed with radioactivity marked the site of the first blast. Rip ordered it covered as much as possible with the thorium that had been taken from the hole. While the men worked, he plotted the lines for the second blast, found the spot, and put Kemp back to work on a new hole.

Two hours later the second blast threw fire into space. In another three hours, with the asteroid now speeding on its new course, Rip set off the explosion that blasted straight back and gave extra speed.

Three radioactive craters marked the asteroid. Rip checked the radiation level and didn't like it a bit. He decided to set up the landing boat and their supplies as far away from the craters as possible, which was on the sun side. They could move to the dark side as they approached the orbit of earth. By then the radioactivity from the blasts would have died down considerably.

He was selecting the location for a base when Dowst suddenly called. "Lieutenant! Lieutenant Foster!"

There was urgency in the Planeteer's voice. "What is it, Dowst?"

"Sir, take a look, about two degrees south of[pg 102] Rigel!"

Rip found the constellation Orion and looked at bright Rigel. For a moment he saw nothing; then, south of the star, he saw a thin, orange line.

Nuclear drive cruisers didn't have exhausts of that color, and there was only one rocket-drive ship around, so far as they knew.

Rip said softly, "Let's get our house in order, gang. Looks like we're going to get a visit from our friends the Connies!"