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Updated: August 6, 2024
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.
He flashed into space headfirst, at an angle that took him over the crater's rim and fifty feet above the ground. He caught a glimpse of Santos' helmet, glowing like a pink balloon, and of the three Connies facing it. Rip's arms flashed above his head. His thumbs compressed. Air spurted from the two bottles, driving him downward feetfirst, directly at the heads of the Connies! Get the Scorpion!
He had sent the snapper-boats to try to draw fire, in an attempt to find out more surely whether Planeteers or Connies had the thorium rock. "The Scorpius doesn't know what's going on," Rip told his Planeteers. "O'Brine didn't know the cruiser was waiting to ambush him, so the rocket we fired made him think the Connies had taken us over." He put himself in O'Brine's place.
A short distance away a snapper-boat was lashed to the landing boat. O’Brine had insisted on leaving it, with a word of warning. "These Connies are plenty smart. I don’t like leaving you unprotected, even within reach of Mercury and Terra, but orders are orders. Keep the snapper-boat and you’ll at least be able to put up a fight if you bump into trouble."
"These Connies would be useful to us alive, if we could capture them." It was Dowst who caught his meaning first. "You mean as hostages, sir?" "That’s it. If we could capture them, the Connie cruiser would be helpless. We could use the snapper-boat radios to warn the ship that any false move would mean harm to their men." Koa shook his head doubtfully.
"The freighter that found the asteroid landed at Marsport, didn’t it?" Koa asked. Getting a nod from Rip, he went on, "Then I know what probably happened. The two things spacemen can’t do are breathe high vack and keep their mouths shut. Some of the crew blabbed about the asteroid, probably at the Space Club. That’s where they hang out. The Connies hang out there, too.
Nuclear drive cruisers didn’t have exhausts of that color, and there was only one rocket-drive ship around, so far as they knew. Rip said softly, "Let’s get our house in order, gang. Looks like we’re going to get a visit from our friends the Connies!" Sergeant-major Koa’s great frame loomed in front of Rip. "Think they’ve spotted us, sir?" Rip hated to say it. "Probably.
Great Cosmos, do you think I am a fool?" "Of course not," the Frenchman replied. "You are not such a fool as to refuse a simple request to check our instruments." The Sagittarius commander was right. Rip understood the strategy. Equipment sometimes did go out of operation in space, and Connies had no hesitation in asking Federation cruisers for help, or the other way around.
The Connie teams came quickly and willingly, and they seemed almost glad to give up their pistols and knives. This was not unusual. Rip had seen many Planeteer reports that spoke of the same thing. Many Connies, it seemed, were glad to get away from the iron Consops rule even if it meant becoming Federation prisoners. Inside one of the snapper-boats, a light glowed.
The communicator paused, then continued. "One thing more, Foster. The Connies know how badly we want that asteroid, but they also know we don’t want it enough to start a war. Got that?" "Got it," Rip stated wryly. "I got it good. Thanks for the warning, Terra base. Foster off." "Terra base off. Stay out of high vack." Fine advice, if it could be taken.
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