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Updated: May 17, 2025
Tom, who had at first had to control an impulse to laugh at the strange seriousness of Astro's manner and tone, now found it equally difficult to hold back the tears that were welling up in his eyes. Connel was not going to let the incident stand there. He had secretly hoped that such a situation would present itself, because he wanted to see what material the Polaris unit was made of.
He began running his fingers along a few of the valves, apparently paying no attention to the guard who was just now staggering to his feet. The little assistant paused and considered Astro's question. Finally he replied weakly, "I don't know. It's all right, I guess. It's better here in the shops than in the caves where the others go." "Others? What others?"
Finally the hose and rope stopped moving. Tom and Roger looked at each other, worried. "You think something might be wrong?" asked Tom. "I don't know " Roger caught himself. "Say, look the rope! It's jerking Astro's signaling!" "He made it!" cried Tom. "I wonder if " Roger suddenly picked up the end of the hose and spoke into it. "Astro? Hey, Astro, can you hear me?" "Sure I can."
Astro's involved and detailed reply in engineering terms was almost gibberish to Tom, but he understood enough of the unit construction to sense that Astro had done something extraordinary. "And he did it all himself, too," said Sid quietly. "I didn't do any more than hold the tools." "But I still don't understand," protested Kit. "The by-pass won't take more than D-18."
"Hey knock it off!" yelled Tom, jumping between them and grabbing Astro's arm. "If you guys don't lay off each other, you're going to be thrown out of the Academy, and I'll be thrown out with you! I'll be blasted if I'll suffer for your mistakes!" "That's a very interesting statement, Corbett!"
Some guys have to have a fire built under them before they get moving. Astro's one of them." "That doesn't answer my question," said Tom. "Why did you say the things you did before a guy goes to take an exam?" "I said what I did to make Tony Richards give me odds. And to make Astro mad enough to pass.
He made a slight movement toward Vidac and Bush, but they leveled their guns quickly. "None of that," warned Vidac. Astro's shoulders drooped. He was almost in tears as he walked toward Tom. The curly-haired cadet stood immovable, staring at his friend. The Venusian leaned over and picked up Tom gently. "Take it easy, Astro," whispered Tom, not moving his lips. "I'm not frozen. He missed me!"
He pointed to the ragged remains of Astro's jungle suit dangling on the near-by thornbush. The blood was stiff on the material. The three Earthmen stared at the suit, each too horrified to speak. Connel's face was set in hard lines as he finally found his voice and growled, "Our search is over. Let's get back to our job."
There was no better place to drop out of sight than on Ganymede, for it was here that the deep spacers, gigantic spaceships that hauled supplies to the colonies of Alpha Centauri, Tara, and Roald made their last stop. If Roger had finally made good his threat to leave the Academy, Ganymede was the logical place to do it. But why? "Yeow!" Astro's bull-like roar echoed through the Good Company.
Astro sat up and looked at Winters. His voice rumbled menacingly. "I'll give you five seconds to get out of here," he said quietly. "And if you don't, I'll ram those ray guns down your throat! One two three " Winters tried to match Astro's withering gaze and finally backed out the doorway. "Vidac wants to see you on the double, and that means, double!" He disappeared from view.
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