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The Connie cruiser decelerated, went into reverse, and came to a full stop about a mile from the asteroid. The Planeteers saw fire in two places along the hull, marking the exhausts of two small craft. "Snapper-boats," Koa said tonelessly. "Five men in each, if those are the regular Connie kind." Rip made a quick decision. With only one launcher they couldn't guard the whole asteroid.
It decelerated smoothly and crossed the upper rim of the great, lacy metal structure with less than a hundred feet to spare. In fractions of an additional minute it was precisely aground some fifty yards from the spaceport office. Steam and smoke rose furiously from where its rocket-flames had played. Lock-doors opened.
Nunez got a hand-driven dynamo from the supplies and tested it for use in setting off the charge. Santos stood by the rocket launcher, with Pederson ready to put another rack of rockets into the device when necessary. Rip and Koa watched the Connie cruiser. It decelerated to a stop for a brief second, then started moving again, with no jets showing. "That's the sun pulling," Rip said exultantly.
He turned his head, and there were rocket-fumes coming over the horizon, not in the direction of Lunar City. Which was more impossible still. He stared. A tiny silver rocket to the westward poured out monstrous masses of vapor. It decelerated swiftly. It curved downward. The rockets checked for an instant, and flamed again more violently, and checked once more. This was not an expert approach.
Corporal Nels Pederson spoke up in a soft Stockholm accent. "Never mind, sor. Ve’ll get back at them. Ve alvays do!" While the Scorpius decelerated and started maneuvering for a landing, Rip did some rapid calculations.
The Connie was squared off for another run. They catapulted to safety as the cruiser flamed past, the exhaust splashing over the metal and sending sparks into the cave. Rip looked out. That, if he had guessed right, was the last run. He watched the Connie's stern jet cut off, saw the nose exhaust as the cruiser decelerated to a fast stop. "Check your weapons," he ordered.
The damaged snapper-boat instantly blasted from its nose tubes, decelerated and went into reverse, flipping through space crabwise as it tried to regain the safety of the cruiser. The two boats that had crashed while trying to dodge were blasting in great spurts of flame, following the example of their damaged companion. "Seven left," Rip called, and another rocket flashed on its way.
The damaged snapper-boat instantly blasted from its nose tubes, decelerated, and went into reverse, flipping through space crabwise as it tried to regain the safety of the cruiser. The two boats that had crashed while trying to dodge were blasting in great spurts of flame, following the example of their damaged companion. "Seven left," Rip called, and another rocket flashed on its way.
But it was actually 06 hours 35 minutes ship time before the two spacecraft sighted each other more than two hours after they plunged toward a rendezvous. The Plumie ship was a bright golden dot, at first. It decelerated swiftly. In minutes it was a rounded, end-on disk. Then it swerved lightly and presented an elliptical broadside to the Niccola. The Niccola was in full deceleration too, by then.
It hadn't been done. Calhoun fumed to himself. The world of Weald Three grew brighter and brighter and became a disk. The disk had icecaps and a reasonable proportion of land and water surface. The ship decelerated, voices notifying observation from the surface, and the little ship came to a stop some five planetary diameters out from solidity.
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