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Updated: September 18, 2025
"Stand by to reduce thrust to one-quarter space speed, Astro. Stand by forward nose braking rockets." "Right," replied Astro. "Hey, Roger!" yelled Tom. "How far are we from the surface?" "Estimated distance to touchdown is two hundred thousand feet," answered Roger crisply. "Reduce thrust to minimum, Astro," barked Tom, his eyes watching every dial and meter on the control board.
Tom barked another command. "Braking rockets full! Stand by main drive rockets!" The sleek ship began to settle tailfirst toward its destination Space Academy, U.S.A. In the heart of a great expanse of cleared land in the western part of the North American continent, the cluster of buildings that marked Space Academy gleamed brightly in the noon sun.
Once we go into a braking ellipse, we can reach a hospital in less than an hour by snapper-boat." "Let him go," MacFife said. The doctor wasn't happy about it, but he had run out of arguments. "All right, Commander if you'll assume responsibility for getting him off the asteroid and into a Terra or space platform hospital in time." "I'll do that," MacFife assured him.
As Tom adjusted the many controls on the complicated operations panel of the ship, Roger and Astro followed his orders quickly and exactly. "Cut main drive rockets and give me one-half thrust on forward braking rockets!" ordered Tom, his eyes glued to the altimeter. The Polaris shuddered under the sudden reverse in power, then began an upward curve, nose pointing back toward space.
"They used energy beams ... didn't land until it was all over." "I knew there was something wrong when the camp didn't answer our enter-atmosphere signal," Thorvald said absently. "Then one of those platters jumped us on braking orbit, and my pilot was killed. When we set down on the automatics here I had just time to rig a surprise for any trackers before I took to the hills "
It was given three cars to pull, one an open awning-car with two park benches placed back to back; one a flat freight-car, and one box-car dubbed the "Pullman," with which Edison illustrated a system of electric braking.
Watching the teleceiver screen that gave him a view of the spaceport astern of the ship, Tom called into the intercom, "One thousand feet to touchdown. Cut braking rockets. Main drive full!" The thunderous blast of the rockets was his answer, building up into roaring violence.
More than anything else it looked like a ragged mountain top, broken off at the peak and hurled into space by an all-powerful hand. Slowly the scout-ship moved closer, braking with its forward jets. The pilot was expert. Carefully and surely he aligned the ship with the rock in speed and direction. In the accelleration cot Tom could feel only an occasional gentle tug as the power cut on and off.
They would have fought with him, not against him! The ship drove down toward the planet, braking fiercely now. From it, two bulky objects fell. While the planet bombs dropped, the behemoth began to rise again. It came through the shattered ranks of Kloomiria's fleet, blasting again, and headed toward the tiny ships that had screened it, new hatches opening to receive them.
And as it gracefully swooped down into the fair-grounds a little later, coming to a stop in a surprisingly short run over the ground owing to her braking feature, this elation was increased. After getting out of the airplane, Mr. Giddings was thoughtful for some minutes. Nor did he speak until the boys had pushed the machine into the hangar.
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