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Tom mentioned it to Winters, and Winters immediately ordered the man off the bridge, and replaced him. Such action for the safety of the colonists had made the cadets wonder about Vidac's ability. After inspecting the ship from radar mast to jet exhausts, the three cadets started back for the jet-boat deck.
Roger's face turned a slow red while Tom and Astro grinned. After a few more words, the three cadets again headed for the jet-boat deck. "That Billy will make a fine radarman someday," drawled Astro. "How do you figure that, Astro?" asked Tom. "Did you see the way he spotted Roger's roving eye looking for his pretty sister? Why, in ten years, he'll be picking up asteroids the same way."
Tom went to the gun locker and took out three paralo-ray guns and rifles. He made sure each of them was fully loaded and then handed them to Alfie. "Put these on the jet boat, Alfie. I'll be along in a minute." Alfie took the guns and walked toward the jet-boat catapult deck. Tom returned to the radar bridge and stood before Connel.
One by one the boys flipped on the switch of the portable spacephones in their fish-bowl helmets and spoke to each other. Strong indicated that he was satisfied and turned toward the jet-boat catapult deck, the three boys following him in single file. "Astro, you and Roger take number-one boat," said Strong. "Tom and I will take number two."
He wasted five precious minutes, scouting an area of several miles, but he could find nothing to protect them on the flat plain. "Better put in the ultraviolet glass shields in our helmets, boys," he called into the jet-boat communicator. "It's going to be mighty hot, and dangerous." "Aye, aye, sir," came the replies from the other two jet boats soaring close by.
Tom swooped over the treetops recklessly, and fearing the blast had damaged the jet-boat air lock, brought the small craft to rest in the blinding dust a few yards away from the Polaris. Three minutes later the four spacemen had separated and were standing by their respective posts. Hasty but thorough checks were made to determine the damage, and finding none, they prepared to raise ship.
If she was mistaken in thinking it the spirit of her lamp, it was of the same spirit as her lamp and had wings. The gold-green jet-boat, driven by light, went throbbing before her through a long narrow passage. Suddenly it rose higher, and the same moment Nycteris fell upon an ascending stair. She had never seen a stair before, and found going-up a curious sensation.
The few seconds spent in talk could mean the difference between life and death in space where you seldom got a second chance. Tom and Connel arrived on the jet-boat deck to find Astro already preparing the small space craft for launching. As they struggled into space suits, Roger appeared.
"From the rocket fields of the Academy To the far-flung stars of outer space, We're Space Cadets training to be...." On the lower deck of the passenger ship, Tom smiled as he faintly heard his unit-mate's voice. He made his way to the jet-boat deck of the Lady Venus and opened the hatch. "Hey, Astro," he called. There wasn't any answer. He stepped inside and looked around the empty deck.
He walked across the jet-boat deck to the nearest window port. What should have been a clear view of the desert was a mass of solidly packed sand. "Oh, no!" cried Roger. "Don't tell me we have to go through that again?" "I don't think it'll be so bad this time," said Astro. "Why not?" asked Tom. "The sand is banked the heaviest on the port side of the ship.
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