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Updated: June 27, 2025
The snapper-boats blew their front tubes, decelerating, and squashed down to the asteroid in a roar of exhaust flames, sending the Planeteers running out of the way. Rip thrust harder with his space knife and yelled, "Tell them!" The Connie officer nodded. "Turn up my communicator." Rip turned it on full, and the Connie barked quick instructions.
A thousand miles above Earth's surface the great space platform sped from daylight into darkness. Once every two hours it circled the earth completely, spinning along through space like a mighty wheel of steel and plastic. Through a telescope on Earth the platform looked to be a lifeless, lonely disk, but within it, hundreds of spacemen and Planeteers went about their work.
Rip hurried to the squad room and climbed into an acceleration chair. The other Planeteers were already in the room, most of them in their bunks. Koa slid into the chair beside him. "Find out anything, sir?" "Nothing useful. A bunch of equipment came aboard, but it was in plain crates. I couldn't tell what it was." Acceleration pressed them against the chairs.
He talked as he worked, telling the Planeteers exactly what they were up against. "I’m figuring out where to put the charge so it will do the most good, but my data isn’t complete. If our homemade bomb goes off, I don’t know exactly how much power it will give. If it gives too much, we’ll be driven so close to the sun well never get free of its gravity."
And he knew that the major's specialty was the Planeteer science of exploration, a specialty which required him to be an expert in biology, zoology, anthropology, navigation and astrogation, and land fighting not to mention a half dozen lesser things. Only ten Planeteers rated expert in exploration, and all were captains or majors. "Where are you going?" Rip asked. "Off to explore something?"
He had a mathematically square jaw, a lopsided nose, green eyes, and sandy hair. He spoke with a pronounced Irish brogue. Rip started to announce his name, rank, and the fact that he was reporting as ordered. Commander O'Brine brushed his words aside and stated flatly, "You're a Planeteer. I don't like Planeteers." Rip didn't know what to say, so he kept still.
Bradshaw, the English Planeteer, said mildly, "Don’t worry, Lieutenant. We’re caught either way. If it isn’t the solar frying pan, it’s Connie fire." A chorus of agreement came from the other Planeteers. What a crew! Rip thought. What a great gang of space pirates! He finished his calculations and found the exact spot where Kemp would cut.
Then, when they’re pretty well satisfied that all is quiet, we’ll show up." Rip grinned at his Planeteers. "We can have a real, old-fashioned surprise party." Koa slid the safety catch from his pistol. "With fireworks," he added. The snapper-boats came out of the darkness of space, leaving a glowing trail of fire. They were not graceful.
In addition, each became a full-fledged specialist in one field of science. Rip's specialty was astrophysics. Sergeant Major Koa continued, "That business on the Icarus started the war, but both sides have been feeding it ever since. I have to admit that we Planeteers lord it over the spacemen like we were old man Cosmos himself.
The long hours passed, and only Rip’s chronometer told him when the end of a day was reached. The Planeteers alternately worked on the surface and rested in the air of the landing boat compartment while the asteroid sped steadily on its way.
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