United States or Bouvet Island ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Captain Go Sian-tek, a Chinese Planeteer officer, arrived in one of the cruiser’s landing boats accompanied by three enlisted Planeteers. They were all from the Special Order Squadron on Mercury. Captain Go greeted Rip and his men, then handed over a plastic stylus plate ordering Rip to deliver six cubic meters of thorium for use on Mercury.
The Planeteers on the asteroid blinked with the speed of the cruiser’s getaway. Fire flamed from the stern tubes for an instant and then there was nothing but a fading glow where the Scorpius had been. Rip had a mental image of everything movable in the ship crashing against bulkheads with the terrific acceleration. And in the same moment, the Consops cruiser reacted.
He saw the cruiser’s shape stand out in the glow of the sight, saw the sighting rings move as Santos corrected for its speed. The corporal fired. Fire flared back past his shoulder. The rocket flashed away, its trail dwindling as it sped toward the great bulk above. It reached brennschluss and there was darkness. Rip held his breath for long seconds, then he gave a weak cry of victory.
In the ruddy glow of the fighting rockets’ tubes he had seen that the cruiser’s missile ports were yawning wide, ready to spew forth deadly nuclear charges. The snapper-boats flashed toward the asteroid in a group, sheered off, and broke formation. They came back in pairs, streaking space with the sparks of their exhausts. "Into the cave," Koa shouted. The Planeteers obeyed instantly.
"Here he comes," Rip snapped, and braced for acceleration. The landing craft shot to safety as the cruiser’s nose jet flamed. Dowst was just in time. 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 a boat, dodging.
The cruiser’s glow was plain above the horizon, now. It was so close they could make out its form against the background of stars. O’Brine was decelerating and Rip was certain he was watching his screens for a sign of the enemy. He would see nothing, because the enemy was in the shadow of the asteroid.
Rip had an idea what was coming, and he didn’t like it. Nor did he like Commander O’Brine. It was not until much later that he learned that O’Brine had been on his way to Terra to see his family for the first time in four years when the cruiser’s orders were changed. To the commander, whose assignments had been made necessary by the needs of the Special Order Squadrons, it was too much.
If they could get close enough to the sun so small boats would be unable to break free of its gravity, the Connie wouldn’t dare send a landing force. The powerful engines of a cruiser could break loose from Sol’s pull, but not the chemical jets of a cruiser’s boats. Rip got his instruments and pulled out a special slide rule designed for use in space.
Got two Connies, and I don’t think they had a chance to yell. But I’m sorry about one, sir. Kemp had to swing at him and busted his bubble." "Fatal?" "No, we got a patch on in time. But worse than Bradshaw." "Tough." Rip couldn’t feel too sympathetic. After all, it was the Connie cruiser’s fault Bradshaw had felt high vack. "All right. We have four. That leaves nine." Santos came on the circuit.
"But let’s suppose the Connie isn’t as timid as I am," Rip went on. "He might be only a few miles out. The question is, would he wait to get closer before launching his snapper-boats?" The big Hawaiian answered frankly, "I’ve never been in a spacegrab like this before. I don’t know what the answer is." "That Connie Cruiser’s Not Too Close, Koa." "We’ll soon know," Rip replied grimly.
Word Of The Day