Part 8 (1/2)

Jenledge was proud of his power deck, proud of the whole establishment, for that matter. He had conceived it, had drawn the plans, and had constructed this s.p.a.ce station.

Throughout the solar system it was considered his baby. And when he had asked for permission to remain on as senior power-deck chief, the Solar Alliance had jumped at the chance to keep such a good man on the job.

The station had become a sort of postgraduate course for power-deck cadets and junior Solar Guard officers.

Astro beamed. So, the great Jenledge had actually heard of him--of humble Cadet Astro. He could hardly restrain himself from ripping off his blue uniform and going right to work on a near-by machine that had been torn apart for repairs. Finally he managed to gasp, ”I think it's great, sir--just wonderful!”

”Very well, Cadet Astro,” said the officer. ”There's a pair of coveralls in my locker. You can start right to work.” He paused and his eyes twinkled. ”If you want to, that is!”

”Want to!” roared Astro, and was off to the locker room.

Jenledge turned to Scott. ”Leave him with me, Scotty. I don't think Cadet Astro's going to care much about the rest of the station!”

Scott smiled, saluted, and walked away. Tom and Roger came to attention, saluted, and followed the young officer off the power deck.

”Astro's probably happier now than he'll ever be in his life, Tom,”

whispered Roger.

”Yeah,” agreed Tom. ”Did you see the way his eyes lit up when we walked in there? Like a kid with a brand-new toy!”

A moment later Scott, Tom, and Roger, in a vacuum elevator, were being hurtled to the station's upper decks. They got out on the observation deck, and Scott walked directly to a small door at the end of a corridor. A light over the door flashed red and Scott stopped.

”Here's the weather and meteor observation room,” he said. ”Also radar communications. When the red light's on, it means photographs are being taken. We'll have to wait for them to finish.”

As they waited, Tom and Roger talked to Scott. He had graduated from s.p.a.ce Academy seven years before, they learned. He'd been a.s.signed to the Solar Alliance Chamber as liaison between the Chamber and the Solar Guard. After four years, he had requested a transfer to active s.p.a.ce operations.

Then, he told them, there'd been an accident. His s.h.i.+p exploded. He'd been badly injured--in fact, both his legs were now artificial.

The cadets, who had thought him a bit stuffy at first, were changing their minds fast. Why hadn't he quit, they wanted to know?

”Leave s.p.a.ce?” said Scott. ”I'd rather die. I can't blast off any more.

But here at the station I'm still a s.p.a.ceman.”

The red light went out, and they opened the door.

In sharp contrast to the bustle and noise on the power deck, the meteor, weather, and radar observation room was filled with only a subdued whisper. All around them huge screens displayed various views of the surface of Venus as it slowly revolved beneath the station. Along one side of the room was a solid bank of four-foot-square teleceiver screens with an enlisted s.p.a.ceman or junior officer seated in front of each one.

These men, at their microphones, were relaying meteor and weather information to all parts of the solar system. Now it was Roger's turn to get excited at seeing the wonderful radar scanners that swept s.p.a.ce for hundreds of thousands of miles. They were powerful enough to pick up a s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p's identifying outline while still two hundred thousand miles away! Farther to one side, a single teleceiver screen, ten feet square, dominated the room. Roger gasped.

Scott smiled. ”That's the largest teleceiver screen in the universe,” he said. ”The most powerful. And it's showing you a picture of the Andromeda Galaxy, thousands of light years away. Most of the lights you see there are no more than that, just light, their stars, or suns, having long ago exploded or burned. But the light continues to travel, taking thousands of years to reach our solar system.”

”But--but--” gasped Tom. ”How can you be so accurate with this screen?

It looks as though we were smack in the center of the galaxy itself!”

”There's a fifty-inch telescope attached to the screen,” Scott replied, ”which is equal to the big one-thousand-inch 'eye' back at the Academy.”

”Why is that, sir?” asked Roger.

”You don't get any distortion from atmosphere up here,” replied the young officer.

As Tom and Roger walked silently among the men at the teleceiver screens, Scott continued to explain. ”This is where you'll be, Manning,”

he said, indicating a large radarscope scanner a little to one side and partially hidden from the glow of the huge teleceiver screen. ”We need a man on watch here twenty-four hours a day, though there isn't much doing between midnight and eight A.M. on radar watch. A little traffic, but nothing compared to what we get during the regular working day.”