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The radio contact between the men outside had been limited to a few millimicrowatts of power necessarily, since radio waves of very small wattage can be decoded at tremendous distances in open space. The men inside the planetoid certainly should not have been able to pick up any more than the beginning of the conversation, before it had been cut off by solid rock. It was a high-speed air lock.
Then a tremendous plane of matter formed, and neatly bisected the planetoid, two great flat pieces of rock were left where one had been miles across, miles thick planetary chips. On the great framework that had been constructed, four tall shafts of cosmium appeared, and each was a hollow tube, up the center of which ran a huge cable of relux. At the peak of each mile-high shaft was a great globe.
The aged scientist used no tools whatever, as we understand the term. His laboratory was a power-house; at his command were the stupendous forces of a battery of planetoid accumulators, and added to these were the fourth-order, ninth-magnitude forces of the disintegrating copper bar.
One by one the white puffs of dust from the reactor units were exploding on the surface of the planetoid. Soon the whole satellite was covered with the radioactive cloud. "I'm sure glad we're not on that baby now," whispered Tom. "Same here, spaceman!" said Connel. It was evening of the first full day after leaving Junior before the routine of the long haul back to Space Academy had begun.
"I say, it seems a bit thick to dash off this way and leave the rest of them; but still, I suppose...." "You suppose correctly." Bland and heartless Nishimura filled in the pause. "A small part of the planetoid may be able to escape; which, to me at least, is pleasantly surprising news. It cannot carry all of our men and mechanisms, therefore only the most important of both are saved.
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