Chapter 19

“Major!” shouted Astro. “Look! The Polaris! The Polaris is blasting off!”

The five Earthmen stared up at the silvery spaceship that was rapidly disappearing into the clear blue void of space. Without hesitation, Connel raced for the nearest jet boat and roared into the communicator.

“Corbett! Corbett! Come in, Tom!”

He waited, the silence of the loud-speaker more menacing than anything the spaceman had ever encountered before. Again and again, the Solar Guard officer tried to raise the cadet on the Polaris. Finally he turned back to the four crewmen who hovered around the jet boat, hoping against hope.

“Whatever it is,” he said, “I’m sure Tom is doing the right thing. We came down here to do a job and we’re going to do it! Get moving! We still have to set up the rest of these reactor units.”

Without a word, the five men returned to their small ships and followed their commanding officer.

The sun grew larger and the heat more intense with each minute, since each minute brought them almost thirteen hundred miles closer to the sun’s blazing surface. With the humidity-control and air-cooling mechanisms in the space suits working at top capacity but affording little relief, Alfie, Roger, Shinny, and Astro buried the fourth reactor unit and headed for the fifth and last emplacement. Occasionally one of them would turn and cast a swift glance at the clear blue space overhead, secretly hoping to find the rocket cruiser had returned. Or, they would strain their ears for Tom’s voice counting off the minutes so carefully for them. But they saw nothing and they heard nothing. They concentrated on their jobs, working like demons to complete the installations as planned. They could not stop now and wonder what had happened to the Polaris, or even hope for its speedy return. They had a job to do, and they went about it silently, efficiently, and surely.

Astro stood up, the small spade in his hand hanging loosely at his side. He watched Roger and Alfie bring the last of the reactor units from Major Connel’s jet boat. They gently lowered it into the hole and stepped back while Shinny, under the watchful eyes of Major Connel, set the fuse. Shinny stepped back, and Astro began covering up the lead box.

“That’s it,” said Connel. “We’re finished!”

What Connel meant was that they were finished with the placement of the reactor units, but he knew immediately that his words had been taken to mean something each felt but had not dared to put into words.

Connel started to correct this misunderstanding but caught himself in time. It would not do, he thought, for him to make excuses for what they knew to be the truth.

“All right, everyone in my jet boat,” he snapped. “Astro, you and Roger take all the fuel out of the other boats and pour it into mine. It’ll be a tight squeeze, but we can all fit into one craft. No use expending fuel wastefully.”

Astro and Roger bent to the task of draining the fuel from their jet boats and loading it into Connel’s.

Alfie came over to join them, while Shinny and Connel scanned the sky overhead for some sign of the Polaris.

“This is really a desperate situation to be in, isn’t it, Roger?” asked Alfie.

“Offhand, I’d say yes,” drawled Roger, “but since we’ve got two big huskies like Astro and Major Connel along, I don’t think we’ll have much trouble.”

“Why not?” asked Alfie.

“We’ll just let them get out and help push!”

“And if that doesn’t work,” snorted Astro, “we’ll stick Manning outside and let him talk about himself. That oughta give us enough gas to get us away from this hunk of copper.”

“I believe,” said Alfie emphatically, “that you’re joshing me, Manning.”

“Now, whatever gave you that idea?” asked Roger in a hurt tone.

“This is a serious situation, isn’t it?” asked Alfie, looking at Astro.

“It sure is, Alfie,” said Astro soberly, “and I’m the first one to say I’m a little scared!”

Alfie smiled. “I’m very glad you said that, Astro,” he said, “because I feel exactly the same way!” He turned and walked back to Major Connel.

“What was the idea of telling him that?” hissed Roger at Astro. “What are you trying to do? Get the little guy space happy, or something?”

“Look at him!” said Astro. “I’m twice his size. He figures if a big guy like me is scared, then he’s got a right to be scared too!”

Roger grunted in appreciation of the way Astro had treated Alfie’s fears and turned back to the loading of the fuel.

Major Connel walked over and watched them transfer the last of the fuel into the tanks.

“How much have you got there, Astro?” he asked.

“I’d say enough to sustain flight for about three hours, sir. Considering we’ll have such a big load.”

“Ummmmh,” mused Connel. “You know we’re up against big odds, don’t you?”

Roger and Astro nodded.

“If Tom doesn’t come back soon, we’ll be so far into the pull of the sun, even a ship the size of the Polaris wouldn’t be able to break out.”

“How much time have we got, sir?” asked Roger.

“Not too much, Manning,” said Connel. “Of course we can blast off in the jet boat and get up a few hundred miles, in case Tom does come back. Then he won’t have to bring the Polaris down here. But if time runs out on us up there, we’ll have to come back and take our chance on Junior being blasted out of the sun’s grip.”

There was a pause while Astro and Roger considered this.

“That would mean,” asked Roger, “that we’d be here when the reactor units go off, wouldn’t it, sir?”

“That’s right, Manning,” said Connel, admitting to the danger. “Even if Junior were blasted out of the pull of the sun, we couldn’t survive the explosions.”

“Couldn’t we blast off in the jet boat and then land after the explosions, sir?” asked Astro.

“Yes,” admitted Connel, “we could do that. But the radioactivity would be so powerful we couldn’t last more than a few days. We have no antiradiation gear. Not even food or water.” He paused and scanned the sky. “No,” he said in a surprisingly casual voice, “the only way we can get out of this is for Tom to come back and get us.”

Shinny and Alfie came over and joined the group around the jet boat. No one said anything. There wasn’t anything to say. Each of them felt the heat burning through his space suit. Each felt the same fear tugging at his throat. There was nothing to say. The Polaris was not to be seen; the sky was empty of everything except Alpha Centauri, the great burning mass of gases that once they had all seen only as a quiet twinkling star in the heavens, never dreaming that someday it would be pulling them relentlessly into its molten self.

Tom Corbett had a plan.