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Updated: June 5, 2025
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.
"Then we’ll get up and rush them from behind. They can’t hear us coming. Dowst, you take the near one. I’ll take the far one. Dominico, you help as needed, but concentrate on cutting off their equipment. The first thing we must do is cut their communicators. Otherwise they’ll warn the rest. Then turn off their air supplies and collapse their suits." One thing was in their favor.
"Then we'll get up and rush them from behind. They can't hear us coming. Dowst, you take the near one. I'll take the far one. Dominico, you help as needed, but concentrate on cutting off their equipment. The first thing we must do is cut their communicators; otherwise they'll warn the rest. Then turn off their air supplies and collapse their suits." One thing was in their favor.
Presently they were approaching the crater. The Connies were just about twenty-five yards from the crater's opposite rim. Rip said, "I hate to do this, Dowst, but I can't see any way out. We have to go into the crater." Dowst merely said, "Yes, sir." The extra radiation might put both of them well over the safety limits long before Earth was reached, and they both knew it.
Or if they had noticed it, the astronomers probably decided it was just a very tiny sunspot. The Planeteers worked with increased speed. Kemp welded the final plug into place, then hurried to the crater from which they would set off the charge. Dominico and Dowst connected the wires from the rocket head to a reel of wire and rolled it toward the crater.
The Connie was right on the horizon! "Ram it!" Rip called. "Around the asteroid. Quick!" Acceleration jammed him back against his men as Dowst blasted. No sooner had he recovered than acceleration in a different direction shoved him up to the ceiling so hard that his bubble rang. He clawed his way to the window as the Connie cruiser flashed by, bathing the asteroid in glowing flame.
The four certainly knew by this time that there were Federal men on the asteroid. Unless something were done quickly the four Connies would be shooting at them from the darkness. He ordered, "All Planeteers, kill your belt lights." The lights on the Connies they had just taken still glowed. Dowst was putting a patch on the Connie Rip had stabbed.
Rip exclaimed. "Call if you need help." Koa was already out of the craft and leading the way. Rip went out through a window and saw the cause of the trouble. Dowst had been a hair too close to the asteroid. A particularly high crystal of thorium had snagged the landing craft. Rip looked for the Connie and saw it make another turn. They had only a moment or two before the next run.
"How is the Connie I got?" "Unconscious, sir," Santos replied. "He must be bleeding badly, but we can’t tell. The one you landed on is all right now, but he may have a broken rib or two." Because his voice was weak, Rip had to turn up the volume on his communicator to tell the Planeteers about the Scorpius. They were silent when he finished, then Dowst spoke up. "Looks like they have us, sir.
He directed swiftly, "Dowst, take my boots. Dominico, take Dowst’s boots." He lay face down on the metal ground until he felt hands grip his boots, then he asked, "All set?" Two voices answered. "Ready." Rip put his gloves on the ground and pulled himself forward and slightly upward. Since there was very little gravity, the action both lifted and pulled him.
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