The Golden Age of Science Fiction Novels Vol 05

by Anthology

  Tom threw the master switch.

  There was a split-second pause and then the great ship roared into life. Slowly at first, she lifted her tail full of roaring jets free of the ground. Ten feet--twenty--fifty--a hundred--five hundred--a thousand--picking up speed at an incredible rate.

  Tom felt himself being pushed deeper and deeper into the softness of the acceleration cushions. He had been worried about not being able to keep his eyes open to see the dwindling Earth in the teleceiver over his head, but the tremendous force of the rockets pushing him against gravity to tear the two hundred tons of steel away from the Earth's grip held his eyelids open for him. As the powerful rockets tore deeper into the gap that separated the ship from Earth, he saw the spaceport gradually grow smaller. The rolling hills around the Academy closed in, and then the Academy itself, with the Tower of Galileo shrinking to a white stick, was lost in the brown and green that was Earth. The rockets pushed harder and harder and he saw the needle of the acceleration gauge creep slowly up. Four--five--six--seven--eight--nine--ten miles a second!

  When the awful crushing weight on his body seemed unbearable, when he felt as though he would never be able to draw another breath, suddenly the pressure lifted and Tom felt amazingly and wonderfully buoyant. He seemed to be floating in mid-air, his body rising against the webbed straps of his chair! With a start and a momentary wave of panic, he realized that he was floating! Only the straps kept him from rising to the ceiling of the control room!

  Recovering quickly, he realized that he was in free fall. The ship had cleared the pull of earth's gravity and was out in space where everything was weightless. Reaching toward the control panel, he flipped the switch for the synthetic-gravity generator and, seconds later, felt the familiar and reassuring sensation of the chair under him as the generator supplied an artificial-gravity field to the ship.

  As he loosened the straps in his chair, he noticed Captain Strong rising from his position beside him and he grinned sheepishly in answer to the twinkle in Strong's eye.

  "It's all right, Tom," reassured Strong. "Happens to everyone the first time. Carry on."

  "Aye, aye, sir," replied Tom and he turned to the microphone. "Control deck to all stations! We are in space! Observe standard cruise procedure!"

  "Power deck, aye!" was Astro's blasting answer over the loud-speaker. "Yeeeoooww! Out where we belong at last."

  "Radar bridge here," Roger's voice chimed in softly on the speaker. "Everything under control. And, Astro, you belong in a zoo if you're going to bellow like that!"

  "Ahhh--rocket off, bubblehead!" The big Venusian's reply was good-natured. He was too happy to let Roger get under his skin.

  "All right, you two," interrupted Tom. "Knock it off. We're on a ship now. Let's cut the kindergarten stuff!"

  "Aye, aye, skipper!" Astro was irrepressible.

  "Yes, sir!" Roger's voice was soft but Tom recognized the biting edge to the last word.

  Turning away from the controls, he faced Captain Strong who had been watching quietly.

  "Polaris space-borne at nine hundred thirty-three hours, Captain Strong. All stations operating efficiently."

  "Very competent job, Corbett," nodded Strong in approval. "You handled the ship as if you'd been doing it for years."

  "Thank you, sir."

  "We'll just cruise for a while on this orbit so you boys can get the feel of the ship and of space." The Solar Guard officer took Tom's place in the command pilot's chair. "You knock off for a while. Go up to the radar bridge and have a look around. I'll take over here."

  "Yes, sir." Tom turned and had to restrain himself from racing up the ladder to the radar bridge. When he climbed through the hatch to Roger's station, he found his unit-mate tilted back in his chair, staring through the crystal blister over his head.

  "Hiya, spaceboy," smiled Roger. He indicated the blister. "Take a look at the wide, deep and high."

  Tom looked up and saw the deep blackness that was space.

  "It's like looking into a mirror, Roger," he breathed in awe. "Only there isn't any other side--no reflection. It just doesn't stop, does it?"

  "Nope," commented Roger, "it just goes on and on and on. And no one knows where it stops. And no one can even guess."

  "Ah--you've got a touch of space fever," laughed Astro. "You'd better take it easy, pal."

  Tom suppressed a smile. Now, for the first time, he felt that there was a chance to achieve unity among them. Kill him with kindness, he thought, that's the way to do it.

  "All right, boys!" Captain Strong's voice crackled over the speaker. "Time to pull in your eyeballs and get to work again. We're heading back to the spaceport! Take your stations for landing!"

  Tom and Astro immediately jumped toward the open hatch and started scrambling down the ladder toward their respective stations while Roger strapped himself into his chair in front of the astrogation panel.

  Within sixty seconds the ship was ready for landing procedure and at a nod from Captain Strong, who again strapped himself into the second pilot's chair, Tom began the delicate operation.

  Entering Earth's atmosphere, Tom gave a series of rapid orders for course changes and power adjustments, and then, depressing the master turn control, spun the ship around so that she would settle stern first toward her ramp at the Academy spaceport.

  "Radar deck to control deck," called Roger over the intercom. "One thousand feet to touchdown!"

  "Control deck, aye," answered Tom. "Control deck to power deck. Check in."

  "Power deck, aye," replied Astro.

  "Stand by to adjust thrust to maximum drive at my command," ordered Tom.

  "Power deck, aye."

  The great ship, balanced perfectly on the hot exhaust, slowly slipped toward the ground.

  "Five hundred feet to touchdown," warned Roger.

  "Main rockets full blast," ordered Tom.

  The sudden blast of the powerful jets slowed the descent of the ship, and finally, fifty feet above the ground, Tom snapped out another order.

  "Cut main rockets! Hold auxiliary!"

  A moment later there was a gentle bump and the Polaris rested on the ramp, her nose pointed to the heavens.

  "Touchdown!" yelled Tom. "Cut everything, fellas, and come up and sign the log. We made it--our first hop into space! We're spacemen!"

  CHAPTER 10

  "The next event will be," Warrant Officer McKenny's voice boomed over the loud-speaker and echoed over the Academy stadium, "the last semifinal round of mercuryball. Polaris unit versus Arcturus unit."

  As two thousand space cadets, crowded in the grandstands watching the annual academy tournament, rose to their feet and cheered lustily, Tom Corbett turned to his unit-mates Astro and Roger and called enthusiastically, "O.K., fellas. Let's go out there and show them how to play this game!"

  During the two days of the tournament, Tom, Roger and Astro, competing as a unit against all the other academy units, had piled up a tremendous amount of points in all the events. But so had Unit 77-K, now known as the Capella unit. Now with the Capella unit already in the finals, the Polaris crew had to win their semifinal round against the Arcturus, in order to meet the Capella in the final round for Academy honors.

  "This is going to be a cinch," boasted Astro. "I'm going to burn 'em up!"

  "Save it for the field," said Tom with a smile.

  "Yeah, you big Venusian ape," added Roger. "Make points instead of space gas."

  Stripped to the waist, wearing shorts and soft, three-quarter-length space boots, the three boys walked onto the sun-baked field amid the rousing cheers from the stands. Across the field, the cadets of the Arcturus unit walked out to meet them, stopping beside McKenny at the mid-field line. Mike waited for the six boys to form a circle around him, while he held the mercuryball, a twelve-inch plastic sphere, filled with air and the tricky tube of mercury.

  "You all know the rules," announced McKenny abruptly. "Head, shoulders, feet, knees, or any part of your body except your hands, c
an touch the ball. Polaris unit will defend the north goal," he said, pointing to a white chalk line fifty yards away, "Arcturus the south," and he pointed to a line equally distant in the opposite direction. "Five-minute periods, with one-minute rest between. All clear?"

  As captain of the Polaris unit, Tom nodded, while smiling at the captain of the Arcturus team, a tow-headed boy with short chunky legs named Schohari.

  "All clear, Mike," said Tom.

  "All clear here, Mike," responded Schohari.

  "All right, shake hands and take your places."

  The six boys shook hands and jogged toward respective opposite lines. Mike waited for them to reach their goal lines, and then placed the ball in the middle of a chalk-drawn circle.

  Toeing the line, Tom, Roger and Astro eyed the Arcturus crew and prepared for the dash to the ball.

  "All right, fellas," urged Tom, "let's show them something!"

  "Yeah," breathed Astro, "just let me get my size thirteens on that pumpkin before it starts twisting around!"

  Astro wanted the advantage of the first kick at the ball while the mercury tube inside was still quiet. Once the mercury was agitated, the ball would be as easy to kick as a well-greased eel.

  "We'll block for you, Astro," said Tom, "and you put every ounce of beef you've got into that first kick. If we're lucky, we might be able to get the jump on them!"

  "Cut the chatter," snapped Roger nervously. "Baldy's ready to give us the go ahead!"

  Standing on the side lines, Warrant Officer McKenny slowly raised his hand, and the crowd in the grandstand hushed in eager anticipation. A second passed and then there was a tremendous roar as he brought his hand down and blew heavily on the whistle.

  Running as if their lives depended on it, the six cadets of the two units raced headlong toward the ball. Tom, just a little faster than Roger or Astro, flashed down the field and veered off to block the advancing Schohari. Roger, following him, charged into Swift, the second member of the Arcturus crew. Astro, a few feet in back of them, running with surprising speed for his size, saw that it was going to be a close race between himself and Allen, the third member of the Arcturus unit. He bowed his head and drove himself harder, the roar of the crowd filling his ears.

  " ... Go Astro!... Go Astro!..."

  Pounding down for the kick, Astro gauged his stride perfectly and with one last, mighty leap swung his right foot at the ball.

  There was a loud thud drowned by a roar from the crowd as the ball sailed off the ground with terrific force. And then almost immediately there was another thud as Allen rose in a desperate leap to block the ball with his shoulder. It caromed off at a crazy angle, wobbling in its flight as the mercury within rolled from side to side. Swift, of the Arcturus crew, reached the ball first and sent it sailing at an angle over Tom's head to bounce thirty feet away. Seeing Astro charge the ball, Tom threw a block on Allen to knock him out of the play. The big Venusian, judging his stride to be a little off, shortened his steps to move in for the kick. But just as he brought his foot forward to make contact, the ball spun away to the left. Astro's foot continued in a perfect arc over his head, throwing him in a heap on the ground.

  Two thousand voices from the stands roared in one peal of laughter.

  While Astro lay on the ground with the wind knocked out of him, Schohari and Swift converged on the ball. With Astro down and Tom out of position, the Arcturus unit seemed certain of scoring. But again the ball rolled crazily, this time straight to Roger, the last defender. He nudged it between his opponents toward Tom, who, in turn, kicked it obliquely past Allen back to Roger again. Running with the grace and speed of an antelope, the blond cadet met the ball in mid-field, and when it dropped to the ground in front of him, sent it soaring across the goal with one powerful kick!

  As the cadets in the stands sent up a tumultuous cheer for the perfectly executed play, the whistle blew, ending the period and the Polaris unit led, one to nothing.

  Breathing deeply, Astro and Roger flopped down near Tom and stretched full length on the grass.

  "That was a beautiful shot, Roger," said Tom. "Perfectly timed!"

  "Yeah, hot-shot," agreed Astro, "I'm glad to see that big head of yours is good for something!"

  "Listen, fellas," said Roger eagerly, ignoring Astro, "to go into the finals against Richards and the Capella unit, we've got to beat the Arcturus crew, right?"

  "Yeah," agreed Tom, "and it won't be easy. We just happened to get the breaks."

  "Then why don't we put the game on ice?" said Roger. "Freeze the ball! We got 'em one to nothing, that's enough to beat them. When the whistle blows and it's over, we win!"

  Astro looked at Tom, who frowned and replied, "But we've still got three periods left, Roger. It isn't fair to freeze this early in the game. If it was the last minute or so, sure. But not so early. It just isn't fair."

  "What do you want to do?" snarled Roger. "Win, or play fair?"

  "Win, of course, but I want to win the right way," said Tom.

  "How about you, Astro?" asked Roger.

  "I feel the same way that Tom does," said the big cadet. "We can beat these guys easily--and on the square."

  "You guys make it sound like I was cheating," snapped Roger.

  "Well," said Tom, "it sure isn't giving the Arcturus guys a break."

  The whistle blew for them to return to the goal line.

  "Well," asked Roger, "do we freeze or don't we?"

  "I don't want to. But majority always rules in this unit, Roger." Tom glanced at Astro. "How about it, Astro?"

  "We can beat 'em fair and square. We play all out!" answered Astro.

  Roger didn't say anything. He moved to one side and took his position for the dash down field.

  The whistle blew again and the crowd roared as the two teams charged toward the ball. The cadets were eager to see if the Arcturus crew could tie the score or if the crew of the Polaris would increase its lead. But after a few moments of play, their cries of encouragement subsided into rumbles of discontent. In its eagerness to score, the Arcturus unit kept making errors and lost the ball constantly but the crew of the Polaris failed to capitalize. The second period ended with the score unchanged.

  As he slumped to the ground for the rest period, Astro turned on Roger bitterly. "What's the idea, Manning? You're dogging it!"

  "You play your game, Astro," replied Roger calmly, "I'll play mine."

  "We're playing this game as a team, Roger," chimed in Tom heatedly. "You're kicking the ball all over the lot!"

  "Yeah," added Astro. "In every direction except the goal!"

  "I was never clear," defended Roger. "I didn't want to lose possession of the ball!"

  "You sure didn't," said Tom. "You acted as if it was your best friend and you never wanted to be separated from it!"

  [Illustration]

  "We said we didn't want to freeze this game, Roger, and we meant it!" Astro glowered at his unit-mate. "Next period you show us some action! If you don't want to score, feed it to us and we'll save you the trouble!"

  But the third period was the same. While Tom and Astro dashed up and down the field, blocking out the members of the Arcturus crew to give Roger a clear shot, he simply nudged the ball back and forth between the side lines, ignoring his teammates' pleas to drive forward. As the whistle sounded for the end of the period, boos and catcalls from the grandstand filled the air.

  Tom's face was an angry red as he faced Roger again on the side lines during the rest period.

  "You hear that, Roger?" he growled, nodding his head toward the stands. "That's what they think of your smart playing!"

  "What do I care?" replied the blond cadet arrogantly. "They're not playing this game! I am!"

  "And we are too!" Astro's voice was a low rumble as he came up behind Manning. "If you don't give us a chance, so help me, I'll use your head for a ball!"

  [Illustration]

  "If you're so interested in scoring, why don't you go after the ball yourselves then?"
said Roger.

  "Because we're too busy trying to be a team!" snapped Tom. "We're trying to clear shots for you!"

  "Don't be so generous," sneered Roger.

  "I'm warning you, Roger"--Astro glared at the arrogant cadet--"if you don't straighten out and fly right--"

  McKenny's whistle from the far side lines suddenly sounded, interrupting the big cadet, and the three boys trooped back out on the field again. Again the air was filled with boos and shouts of derision and Tom's face flushed with shame.

  This time, when McKenny's hand flashed downward, Tom streaked for the ball, instead of Schohari, his usual opponent. He measured his stride carefully and reached the ball in perfect kicking position.