Rip Foster in Ride the Gray Planet Part 32

"Doctor, I can appreciate how the lad feels. He started something, and he wants to finish it. If y'can let him, safely, I think ye should."

The doctor shrugged. "I can let him. There's a nine to one chance it will do him no harm. But the one chance is what I don't like."

"I'll know it if the suppressives start to wear off, won't I?" Rip asked.

"You certainly will. You'll get weaker rapidly."

"How rapidly?"

"Perhaps six hours. Perhaps more."

Rip nodded. "That's what I thought. Doctor, we're less than six hours from Terra by s.h.i.+p. If the stuff wears off, we can be in the hospital within a couple of hours. Once we go into a braking ellipse, we can reach a hospital in less than an hour by snapper-boat."

"Let him go," MacFife said.

The doctor wasn't happy about it, but he had run out of arguments. "All right, Commander--if you'll a.s.sume responsibility for getting him off the asteroid and into a Terra or s.p.a.ce platform hospital in time."

"I'll do that," MacFife a.s.sured him. "Now get your hyposprays and fill him full of that stuff you use. The corporal, too."

"Sergeant," Rip corrected. His first action on getting back to the asteroid would be to recommend Santos' promotion to Terra base. He intended to recommend Kemp for corporal, too. He was sure the Planeteers at Terra would make the promotions.

The two Federation cruisers were still holding course along with the asteroid, the Connie cruiser between them.

Within an hour, Rip and Santos, both in false good health, thanks to medical magic, were on their way back to the asteroid in a ball-bat boat.

The remaining time pa.s.sed quickly. The sun receded. The Planeteers corrected course. Rip sent in his recommendations for promotions and looked over the last nuclear crater to see why the blast had started the asteroid spinning.

The reason could only be guessed. The blast probably had opened a fault in the crystal, allowing the explosion to escape partially in the wrong direction.

Once the course was corrected, Rip calculated the position for the final nuclear charge. When the asteroid reached the correct position relative to Earth, the charge would not change its course but only slow its speed somewhat. The asteroid would go around Earth in a series of ever tightening ellipses, using Terra's gravity, plus rocket fuel, to slow it down to orbital speed.

When it reached the proper position, tubes of rocket fuel would change the course again, putting it into an orbit around Earth, close to the s.p.a.ce platform. It wasn't practical to take the thorium rock in for a landing. They would lose control, and the asteroid would flame to Earth like the greatest meteor ever to hit the planet.

Putting the asteroid into orbit around Earth was actually the most delicate part of the whole trip, but Rip wasn't worried. He had the facilities of Terra base within easy reach by communicator. He dictated his data and let them do the mathematics on the giant electronic computers.

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 s.p.a.ce platform.

Landing craft and snapper-boats swarmed to meet them, and within an hour after their arrival the Planeteers were surrounded by s.p.a.cemen, cadets from the platform, and officers and men wearing Planeteer black.

A cadet approached Rip and looked at him with awe. "Sir, I don't know how you ever did it!"

And Rip, his eyes on the great curve of Earth, answered casually, "There's one thing every s.p.a.ce chick has to learn if he's going to be a Planeteer. There's always a way to do anything. To be a Planeteer, you have to be able to figure out the way."

A new voice said, "Now, that's real wisdom!"

Rip turned quickly and looked through a helmet at the grinning face of Maj. Joe Barris.

Barris spoke as though to himself, but Rip turned red as his hair. "Funny how fast a man ages in s.p.a.ce," the Planeteer major remarked. "Take Foster. A few weeks ago he was just a cadet, a raw recruit who had never met high vack. Now he's talking like the grandfather of all s.p.a.ce. I don't know how the Special Order Squadrons ever got along before he became an officer."

Rip had been feeling a little too proud of himself.

"It's good to get back," Rip said.

CHAPTER TWENTY

On the Platform

There were two things Rip could see from his hospital bed on the s.p.a.ce platform. One was the great curve of Earth. He was anxious to get out of the hospital and back to Terra.

The second thing was the asteroid. s.p.a.cemen were at work on it, slowly cutting it to pieces. The pieces were small enough to be carried back to Earth in supply rockets. It would be a long time before the asteroid was completely cut up and transported to Terra base.

Sergeant Major Koa came into the hospital ward and sat on Rip's bed. The plastifoam mattress compressed under his weight. "How are you feeling, sir?"

"Pretty good," Rip replied. The worst of the radiation sickness was over, and he was mending fast. Here and there were little bloodstains, just below the surface of his skin, and he had no more hair than a plastic ball. Otherwise he looked normal. The stains would go away, and his hair would grow back in a few weeks.

Santos, now officially a sergeant, was in the same condition. The rest of Rip's Planeteers had resumed duties on the s.p.a.ce platform. He saw them frequently, because they made a point of dropping in whenever they were near the hospital area.

Koa looked out at the asteroid. "I sort of hate to see that rock cut up.

There isn't much about a chunk of thorium to get sentimental over, but after fighting for it the way we did, it doesn't seem right to cut it into blocks."

"I know how you feel," Rip admitted, "but, after all, that's what we brought it back for."

He studied Koa's dark face. The sergeant major had something on his mind.

"Got vack worms chewing at you?" he asked. Vack worms were a s.p.a.ceman's equivalent of "the blues."

"Not exactly, sir. I happened to overhear the doctor talking today.

You're due for a leave in a week."

"That's good news!" Rip exclaimed. "You're not unhappy about it, are you?"

Koa shrugged. "We were all hoping we'd be together on our next a.s.signment. The gang liked serving under you. But we're overdue for s.h.i.+pment to somewhere, and if you take eight weeks' leave, we'll be gone by the time you come back to the platform."

"I liked serving with all of you, too," Rip replied. "I watched the way you all behaved when the s.p.a.ce flap was getting tough, and it made me proud to be a Planeteer."

Maj. Joe Barris came in. He was carrying an envelope in his hand.

"h.e.l.lo, Rip. How are you, Koa? Am I interrupting a private talk?"

"No, Major," Koa replied. "We're just pa.s.sing the time. Want me to leave?"

"Stay here," Barris said. "This concerns you, too. I've been rea.s.signed.

My eight years on the platform are up, and that's all an instructor gets.

Now I'm off for s.p.a.ce on another job."

Rip knew that instructors were a.s.signed for eight-year periods. 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.