"This is Foster on the asteroid."

"Terra base to Foster. Listen, you will reach optimum position on the time-distance curve at twenty-three-oh-six. Repeat back, twenty-three-oh-six."

"Got it. We will reach optimum position at twenty-three-oh-six." He looked at his chronometer and his pulse stopped. It was 2258! They had just eight minutes before the sun caught them forever, atomic blast or no!

And the Connie cruiser was still overhead, with no friendly cruisers in sight. He looked up, white-faced. Not only was the Connie still there, but its main air lock was sliding open to disclose a new danger.

In the opening, ready to launch, an a.s.sault boat waited. The a.s.sault boats were something only the Connies used. They were about four times the size of a snapper-boat, less maneuverable but more powerful. They carried 20 men and a pair of guided missiles with atomic warheads!

CHAPTER FIFTEEN - THE ROCKETEERS

Rip ran for the snapper-boat, feet moving as rapidly as lack of gravity would permit. He called instructions. "Santos! Turn the launcher over to Pederson and come with me. Koa, take over. Start throwing rockets at that boat and don't stop until you run out of ammunition."

He reached the snapper-boat and squeezed in, Santos close behind him. As he strapped himself into the seat he called, "Koa! Get this, and get it straight. At twenty-three-oh-five, fire the bomb. Fire it whether I'm back or not. Got that?"

Koa replied, "Got it, sir."

That would give the Planeteers a minute's leeway. Not much of a safety margin, especially when he wasn't sure how much power the improvised atomic charge would produce.

He plugged into the snapper-boat's communicator and called, "Ready, Santos?"

"Ready, Lieutenant."

He braced himself against acceleration and flipped the speed control to full power. The fighting rocket rammed out from the asteroid, snapping him back against the seat. He made a quick check. Gunsight on, fuel tanks almost full, propulsion tubes racked handy to his hand, s.p.a.ce patches ready to be grabbed and slapped on in case an enemy shot holed helmet or suit.

They drove toward the enemy cruiser at top speed, swerving in a great arc as the sun pulled at them. The enemy's big boat was out of the ship, its jets firing as it started for the asteroid.

Rip leaned over his illuminated gunsight. The boat showed up clearly, the rings of the sight framing it. He estimated distance and the pull of the sun, then squeezed the trigger on the speed control handle. The cannon in the nose spat flame. He watched tensely and saw the charge explode on the hull of the Connie cruiser. He had underestimated the sun's drag. He compensated and tried again.

He missed. Now that he was closer and the charge had less distance to travel, he had overestimated the sun's effect. He gritted his teeth. The next shot would be at close range.

The fighting rocket closed s.p.a.ce, and the landing boat loomed large in the sight. He fired again and the shot blew metal loose from the top of the boat's hull. A hit, but not good enough. He leaned over the sight to fire again, but before he had sighted an explosion blew the landing boat completely around.

Koa and Pederson had scored a hit from the asteroid!

The big boat fired its side jets and spun around on course again. Flame bloomed from its side as Connie gunners tried to get the range on the snapper-boat.

Rip was within reach now. He fired at point-blank range and flashed over the boat as its front end exploded. Santos, firing from the rear, hit it again as the snapper-boat pa.s.sed.

Rip threw the rocket into a turn that rammed him against the top of his harness. He steadied on a line with the crippled Connie craft. It was hard hit. The bow jets flickered fitfully, and the stern tubes were dead. He sighted, fired. A charge hit the boat aft and blew its stern tubes off completely.

And at the same moment, a Connie gunner got a perfect bead on the snapper-boat.

s.p.a.ce blew up in Rip's face. The snapper-boat slewed wildly as the Connie shot took effect. Rip worked his controls frantically, trying to straighten the rocket out more by instinct than anything else.

His eyes recovered from the blinding flash and he gulped as he saw the raw, twisted metal where the boat's nose had been. He managed to correct the boat's twisting by using the stern tubes, but he was no longer in full control.

For a moment panic gripped him. Without full control he couldn't get back to the asteroid! Then he forced himself to steady down. He sized up the situation. They were still underway, the stern tubes pushing, but their trajectory would take them right under the crippled Connie boat. The sun was blazing into the fighting rocket with such intensity that he had trouble seeing.

There was nothing he could do but pa.s.s close to the Connie. The enemy gunners would fire, but he had to take his chances. He looked down at the asteroid and saw an orange trail as Koa launched another rocket.

The shot from the asteroid ticked the bottom of the Connie boat and exploded. The Connie rolled violently. Tubes flared as the pilot fought to correct the roll. He slowed the spinning as Rip and Santos pa.s.sed, just long enough for a Connie gunner to get in a final shot.

The sh.e.l.l struck directly under Rip. He felt himself pushed violently upward, and at the same moment he reacted, by hunch and not by reason. He rammed the controls full ahead and the dying rocket cut s.p.a.ce, curving slowly as flaming fuel spurted from the ruptured tanks.

Rip yelled, "Santos! You all right?"

"I think so. Lieutenant, we're on fire!"

"I know it. Get ready to abandon ship."

When the main ma.s.s of fuel caught, the rocket would become an inferno. Rip smashed at the escape hatch above his head, grabbed propulsion tubes from the rack and called, "Now!"

He pulled the release on his harness, stood up on the seat, and thrust with all his leg power. He catapulted out of the burning snapper-boat into s.p.a.ce.

Santos followed a second later and the crippled rocket twisted wildly under the two Planeteers.

"Don't use the propulsion tubes," Rip called. "Slow down with your air bottles." He thrust the tubes into his belt, found his air bottles, and pointed two of them in the direction they had been traveling. He wanted to come to a stop, to let the wild snapper-boat get away from them.

The compressed air bottles did the trick. He and Santos slowed down as the little jets overcame the inertia that was taking them along with the burning boat. The boat was spiraling now, and burning freely. It moved away from them, its stern jets firing weakly as fuel burned in the tank.

Rip took a look toward the enemy cruiser. The a.s.sault boat was no longer showing an exhaust. Instead, it was being dragged rapidly away from the Connie cruiser by the pull of the sun. At least they had hit it in time to prevent launching of the atomic guided missiles. Or, he thought, perhaps the enemy had never intended using them. The princ.i.p.al effect, besides killing the Planeteers, would have been to drive the asteroid into the sun at an even faster rate.

The enemy a.s.sault boat was no longer a menace. Its occupants would be lucky if they succeeded in saving their own lives.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Rip and Santos Fell Through s.p.a.ce]

Rip and Santos Fell Through s.p.a.ce

Rip wondered what the Connie cruiser commander would try now. Only one thing remained, and that was to set the cruiser down on the asteroid. If the Connie tried, he would arrive at just about the time set for releasing the nuclear charge. And that would be the end of the cruiser-and probably of the Planeteers as well.

Santos asked coolly, "Lieutenant, wouldn't you say we're in sort of a bad spot?"

Rip had been so busy sizing up the situation that he hadn't thought about his own predicament. Now he looked down and suddenly realized that he was floating free in s.p.a.ce, a considerable distance above the asteroid, and with only small propulsion tubes for power.

He gasped, "Great s.p.a.ce! We're in a mess, Santos."

The Filipino corporal asked, still in a calm voice, "How long before we're dragged into the sun, sir?"

Rip stared. Santos had used the same tone he might have used in asking for a piece of Venusian _chru_. An officer couldn't be less calm, so Rip replied in a voice he hoped was casual, "I wouldn't worry, Santos. We won't know it. The heat will get through our suits long before then."

In fact, the heat should be overloading their ventilating systems right now. In a few minutes the cooling elements would break down and that would be the end. He listened for the accelerated whine as the ventilating system struggled under the increased heat load, and heard nothing.