United States or Qatar ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Cut off a few hundred feet and connect the dynamo to one end and an igniter to the other." The crystal came around again, and Kemp got to work. Rip stood by, again reviewing all steps. They couldn't afford to make a mistake. He had no margin for error. Kemp finished the hole a few seconds before the crystal turned into the sunlight again. Rip told him to keep the torch going.
Kemp had made sure no one was running near the line of blast. Rip watched for the crystal. It would be coming around any second now. He held the tube with the igniter projecting behind him, ready for the hole to appear. Koa's voice echoed in his helmet. "All set, Lieutenant." The crystal appeared across the sun line and moved toward him.
He had a coil of wire slung over his arm, and he carried the dynamo in one hand and an igniter in the other, the two connected by the wire. Rip took the igniter. "Uncoil the wire," he directed. "Go to its full length at right angles to the hole. We have to time this exactly right. When the crystal comes around again, I'll shove the tube into the hole, then scurry for cover.
It's too easy these days." Still under fire, they moored at the north shore, and when Davies had tossed overboard the igniter from the ferry engine and commandeered ten gallons of its surplus gasoline, they took the steep, soft road up the bank in a rush. "Look at her climb," Drexel uttered gleefully. "That Aliso hill won't bother us at all. She'll put a crimp in it, that's what she'll do."
If the asteroid failed to stop its spin completely, they could always set off a small charge or two. "Hold it," he ordered. "We'll use the small end of Dominico's tube and save the big one." The fuel was a solid mass, so cutting the tube in two sections caused no difficulty. Rip pushed the igniter into the small section, seated it in the hole, and hurried to cover.
The governor, you know, that was attached to the igniter, got stuck somehow, and of course the current just sizzled up the plug. Then, when I had been running the machine for about a week and doing splendidly with it, Captain Cartwright turned up from Washington.
When I'm clear I'll yell, and you pump the dynamo. Dominico and Kemp stay with Koa. Make sure no one is in the way of the blast." Koa unreeled the wire, moving away from Rip. The lieutenant pushed the igniter into one end of the fuel tube and crimped it tightly with his gloved hand. Koa and the others were as far away as they could get now, the wire stretching between them and Rip.
"Same process. Get ready to repeat." While Koa was connecting another igniter to the wire, Rip took a tube from Dominico. "Take your space knife and saw through the tube you have left. We'll need about three-fifths of it. Keep both pieces." Dominico pulled his knife, pressed the release, and the gas capsule shot the blade out. He got to work. Koa called that he was ready.
Rip took the wired igniter from him and thrust it into the tube Dominico had given him. As the crystal came around again, the process was repeated. The hole was undamaged. There was more time to get clear because of the asteroid's slower speed. The second tube slowed the rock even more, so that they had to wait long minutes while the crystal came around again. Rip did some estimating.
In summary, this is a very elegant little assembly of receiver, data recorder, transmitter, and command circuits." "Fine. McDevitt, what about the rocket?" The man from Wallops Island shrugged. "Nothing very complex about it. It's a simple solid-fuel rocket with star grain, fired by a squib that is commanded from the ground. A squib is simply an igniter to start the fuel burning.
Word Of The Day