Part 1 (1/2)
Danger in Deep s.p.a.ce.
by Carey Rockwell.
CHAPTER 1
”Stand by to reduce thrust on main drive rockets!” The tall, broad-shouldered officer in the uniform of the Solar Guard snapped out the order as he watched the telescanner screen and saw the Western Hemisphere of Earth looming larger and larger.
”Aye, aye, Captain Strong,” replied a handsome curly-haired s.p.a.ce Cadet.
He turned to the s.h.i.+p's intercom and spoke quickly into the microphone.
”Control deck to power deck. Check in!”
”Power deck, aye,” a bull-throated voice bellowed over the loud-speaker.
”Stand by rockets, Astro! We're coming in for a landing.”
”Standing by!”
The Solar Guard officer turned away from the telescanner and glanced quickly over the illuminated banks of indicators on the control panel.
”Is our orbit to s.p.a.ce Academy clear?” he asked the cadet. ”Have we been a.s.signed a landing ramp?”
”I'll check topside, sir,” answered the cadet, turning back to the intercom. ”Control deck to radar deck. Check in!”
”Radar bridge, aye,” drawled a lazy voice over the speaker.
”Are we cleared for landing, Roger?”
”Everything clear as gla.s.s ahead, Tom,” was the calm reply.
”We're steady on orbit and we touch down on ramp seven. Then”--the voice began to quicken with excitement--”three weeks' liberty coming up!”
The rumbling voice of the power-deck cadet suddenly broke in over the intercom. ”Lay off that s.p.a.ce gas, Manning. Just see that this s.p.a.ce wagon gets on the ground in one piece. Then you can dream about your leave!”
”Plug your jets, you big Venusian ape man,” was the reply, ”or I'll turn you inside out!”
”Yeah? You and what fleet of s.p.a.ces.h.i.+ps?”
”Just me, buster, with my bare hands!”
The Solar Guard officer on the control deck smiled at the young cadet beside him as the good-natured argument crackled over the intercom speaker overhead. ”Looks like those two will never stop battling, Corbett,” he commented dryly.
”Guess they'll never learn, sir,” sighed the cadet.
”That's all right. It's when they stop battling that I'll start getting worried,” answered the officer. He turned back to the controls. ”One hundred thousand feet from Earth's surface! Begin landing procedure!”
As Cadet Tom Corbett snapped orders into the intercom and his unit-mates responded by smooth co-ordinated action, the giant rocket cruiser _Polaris_ slowly arched through Earth's atmosphere, first nosing up to lose speed and then settling tailfirst toward its destination--the s.p.a.ceport at s.p.a.ce Academy, U.S.A.
Far below, on the grounds of the Academy, cadets wearing the green uniforms of first-year Earthworms and the blue of the upper-cla.s.smen stopped all activity as they heard the blasting of the braking rockets high in the heavens. They stared enviously into the sky, watching the smooth steel-hulled s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p drop toward the concrete ramp area of the s.p.a.ceport, three miles away.