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Updated: May 28, 2025
Commander O’Brine stared for a moment, then he took the unconscious Planeteer and swung him upright. His quick eyes took in the patch on the arm, the safety line tied tightly. He roared, "Quick! Get him to the wound ward!" Rip came back to consciousness on the operating table.
He and his men rode the gray planet past the moon, so close they could almost see the Planeteer Lunar base, circled Terra in a series of ellipses, and finally blasted the asteroid into its final orbit within sight of the space platform.
And he knew that the major’s specialty was the Planeteer science of exploration. Barris’s specialty required him to be an expert in biology, zoology, anthropology, navigation and astrogation, and in land fighting. Not to mention a half dozen other lesser things. Only ten Planeteers rated expert in exploration and all were captains or majors. "Where are you going?" Rip asked.
The Planeteers estimated where the enemy would land, and they were there waiting, with aimed handguns. The Connies had their hands over their heads, holding the propulsion tubes. They took one look at the gleaming Planeteer guns, and their hands stayed upright.
His knees flexed to take up the shock. He came out of the crouch facing a black-clad Planeteer sergeant who snapped to rigid attention. "Koa," Rip barked. "Where can I find him?" "He’s not here, sir. He and eight men left fifteen minutes ago. I don’t know where they went, sir." Rip shot a worried glance at his wrist chronometer. He had two minutes left, before the cruiser departed.
Now, suddenly, he was the one responsible. The job was his. He stiffened. Planeteer officers didn’t worry about things like that. He forced his mind to the job in hand. The next step was to establish a base. The base would have to be on the dark side of the asteroid, once it was in its new orbit.
Captain Go Sian-tek, a Chinese Planeteer officer, arrived in one of the cruiser’s landing boats accompanied by three enlisted Planeteers. They were all from the Special Order Squadron on Mercury. Captain Go greeted Rip and his men, then handed over a plastic stylus plate ordering Rip to deliver six cubic meters of thorium for use on Mercury.
He also found that Koa was one of the 17 pure-blooded Hawaiians left. During the three hours that acceleration kept them from moving around the ship, Rip got a new view of space and of service with the SOS—it was the view of a Planeteer who had spent years around the Solar System. "I’m glad they assigned you to me," Rip told Koa frankly.
In a ready-room at the outer edge of the platform, a Planeteer officer faced a dozen slim, blackclad young men who wore the single golden orbits of lieutenants. This was a graduating class, already commissioned, having a final, informal get-together. The officer, who wore the three-orbit insignia of a major, was lean and trim. His hair was cropped short, like a gray fur skull cap.
The high velocity slug would go right through him, to explode in one of the struggling figures behind—and the wrong one might get it. The Connie saw Rip’s action and tossed his pistol aside. He, too, knew he couldn’t fire. He reached into a knee pouch and drew out his space knife. He leaped for the Planeteer. Rip pulled frantically at his pistol.
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