Stand by for Mars!, Carey Rockwell [early readers .TXT] 📗

powerful rockets tore deeper into the gap that separated the ship from Earth, he saw the spaceport gradually grow smaller. The rolling hills around the Academy closed in, and then the Academy itself, with the Tower of Galileo shrinking to a white stick, was lost in the brown and green that was Earth. The rockets pushed harder and harder and he saw the needle of the acceleration gauge creep slowly up. Four⁠—five⁠—six⁠—seven⁠—eight⁠—nine⁠—ten miles a second!

When the awful crushing weight on his body seemed unbearable, when he felt as though he would never be able to draw another breath, suddenly the pressure lifted and Tom felt amazingly and wonderfully buoyant. He seemed to be floating in mid-air, his body rising against the webbed straps of his chair! With a start and a momentary wave of panic, he realized that he was floating! Only the straps kept him from rising to the ceiling of the control room!

Recovering quickly, he realized that he was in free fall. The ship had cleared the pull of earth’s gravity and was out in space where everything was weightless. Reaching toward the control panel, he flipped the switch for the synthetic-gravity generator and, seconds later, felt the familiar and reassuring sensation of the chair under him as the generator supplied an artificial-gravity field to the ship.

As he loosened the straps in his chair, he noticed Captain Strong rising from his position beside him and he grinned sheepishly in answer to the twinkle in Strong’s eye.

“It’s all right, Tom,” reassured Strong. “Happens to everyone the first time. Carry on.”

“Aye, aye, sir,” replied Tom and he turned to the microphone. “Control deck to all stations! We are in space! Observe standard cruise procedure!”

“Power deck, aye!” was Astro’s blasting answer over the loud-speaker. “Yeeeoooww! Out where we belong at last.”

“Radar bridge here,” Roger’s voice chimed in softly on the speaker. “Everything under control. And, Astro, you belong in a zoo if you’re going to bellow like that!”

“Ahhh⁠—rocket off, bubblehead!” The big Venusian’s reply was good-natured. He was too happy to let Roger get under his skin.

“All right, you two,” interrupted Tom. “Knock it off. We’re on a ship now. Let’s cut the kindergarten stuff!”

“Aye, aye, skipper!” Astro was irrepressible.

“Yes, sir!” Roger’s voice was soft but Tom recognized the biting edge to the last word.

Turning away from the controls, he faced Captain Strong who had been watching quietly.

“Polaris space-borne at nine hundred thirty-three hours, Captain Strong. All stations operating efficiently.”

“Very competent job, Corbett,” nodded Strong in approval. “You handled the ship as if you’d been doing it for years.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“We’ll just cruise for a while on this orbit so you boys can get the feel of the ship and of space.” The Solar Guard officer took Tom’s place in the command pilot’s chair. “You knock off for a while. Go up to the radar bridge and have a look around. I’ll take over here.”

“Yes, sir.” Tom turned and had to restrain himself from racing up the ladder to the radar bridge. When he climbed through the hatch to Roger’s station, he found his unit-mate tilted back in his chair, staring through the crystal blister over his head.

“Hiya, spaceboy,” smiled Roger. He indicated the blister. “Take a look at the wide, deep and high.”

Tom looked up and saw the deep blackness that was space.

“It’s like looking into a mirror, Roger,” he breathed in awe. “Only there isn’t any other side⁠—no reflection. It just doesn’t stop, does it?”

“Nope,” commented Roger, “it just goes on and on and on. And no one knows where it stops. And no one can even guess.”

“Ah⁠—you’ve got a touch of space fever,” laughed Astro. “You’d better take it easy, pal.”

Tom suppressed a smile. Now, for the first time, he felt that there was a chance to achieve unity among them. Kill him with kindness, he thought, that’s the way to do it.

“All right, boys!” Captain Strong’s voice crackled over the speaker. “Time to pull in your eyeballs and get to work again. We’re heading back to the spaceport! Take your stations for landing!”

Tom and Astro immediately jumped toward the open hatch and started scrambling down the ladder toward their respective stations while Roger strapped himself into his chair in front of the astrogation panel.

Within sixty seconds the ship was ready for landing procedure and at a nod from Captain Strong, who again strapped himself into the second pilot’s chair, Tom began the delicate operation.

Entering Earth’s atmosphere, Tom gave a series of rapid orders for course changes and power adjustments, and then, depressing the master turn control, spun the ship around so that she would settle stern first toward her ramp at the Academy spaceport.

“Radar deck to control deck,” called Roger over the intercom. “One thousand feet to touchdown!”

“Control deck, aye,” answered Tom. “Control deck to power deck. Check in.”

“Power deck, aye,” replied Astro.

“Stand by to adjust thrust to maximum drive at my command,” ordered Tom.

“Power deck, aye.”

The great ship, balanced perfectly on the hot exhaust, slowly slipped toward the ground.

“Five hundred feet to touchdown,” warned Roger.

“Main rockets full blast,” ordered Tom.

The sudden blast of the powerful jets slowed the descent of the ship, and finally, fifty feet above the ground, Tom snapped out another order.

“Cut main rockets! Hold auxiliary!”

A moment later there was a gentle bump and the Polaris rested on the ramp, her nose pointed to the heavens.

“Touchdown!” yelled Tom. “Cut everything, fellas, and come up and sign the log. We made it⁠—our first hop into space! We’re spacemen!”

X

“The next event will be,” Warrant Officer McKenny’s voice boomed over the loud-speaker and echoed over the Academy stadium, “the last semifinal round of mercuryball. Polaris unit versus Arcturus unit.”

As two thousand space cadets, crowded in the grandstands watching the annual academy tournament, rose to their feet and cheered lustily, Tom Corbett turned to his unit-mates Astro and Roger and called enthusiastically, “OK, fellas. Let’s go out there and show them how to play this game!”

During the two