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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."
About fifty yards apart. They will be out of my sight in a few seconds." Which meant they would be within sight of Rip and the others. He knew Koa had heard the message, too. Both groups put on more speed, and reached the safety of darkness. "Get down," Rip ordered. They could still be seen, if silhouetted against the edges of sunlight.
"That’s when they mean business, Lieutenant. Fleedling is more like us fighting with our fists. Sort of a sport. Great Cosmos! The way they dive at each other is something to see." Rip grinned. "I didn’t know I was going to fleedle those officers. It isn’t the way I usually enter a cruiser." He hadn’t entered many. He added, "I suppose I ought to report to someone." Koa shook his head.
"I'm staying here until I figure out some way to call them off. We can't just stand here and let them blast us. They're our own men." "Then I'm staying, too," Koa stated. A pair of snapper-boats flashed overhead and vanished below the horizon. Two more swept past from another direction. Rip watched, curious. What were they up to? Another pair quartered past them at high speed, then two more.
Some papers had been dropped over a pipe-hole in the floor of the room where Mackay was studying, and for some time he had been disturbed by a rustling among them. At last without looking up, he called to his boys below: "I think there are rats up here among my papers!" Koa Kau, one of the younger of the students, ran lightly up the stairs to give battle to the intruders.
Rip saw that the deputy commander and the safety officer had appeared not to notice the incident. Technically, there was no reason for an officer to take action. It had all been an "accident." He smiled. There was a lot he had to learn about dealing with spacemen, a lot Koa evidently knew very well indeed. Suddenly he began to feel weight. The ship was going into rotation.
The cruiser landed and deceleration cut to zero. At the same moment, the water came on. Rip hurriedly finished cleaning up, dressed, then took his radiation instruments and carefully monitored his men as they came from the shower. Private Dowst had to go back for another try at getting his hair clean, but the rest were all right. Rip handed his instruments to Koa.
Koa was waiting to give him a hand into the craft. The Planeteers were standing, except for Dowst. Rip had never seen an old-type railroad or he might have likened the landing boat to a railroad box car. It was about the same size and shape, but it had huge "windows" on both sides and in front of the pilot—windows that were not enclosed. The space-suited men needed no protection.
"As hostages, sir?" "That's it. If we could capture them, the Connie cruiser would be helpless. We could use the snapper-boat radios to warn the ship that any false move would mean harm to their men." Koa shook his head doubtfully. "I'm not sure the Connies worry about their men, but it's worth the try. We can capture some of them if they split up to search the asteroid.
"This is my first job, and I'll be pretty green, no matter what it is. I'll depend on you for a lot of things." To his surprise, Koa thrust out his hand. "Shake, Lieutenant." His grin showed strong white teeth. "You're the first junior officer I ever met who admitted he didn't know everything about everything. You can depend on me, sir. I won't steer you into any meteor swarms."
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