Loring glared at Strong. “I suppose you’re going to send some punk kids out on the next trip to Tara and leave us experienced spacemen to rot on the ground, huh?”
Strong didn’t see the door slide open to admit the three cadets who entered quietly. His whole attention was focused on the ugly glaring faces of Bill Loring and Al Mason.
“Get this, Loring!” snapped Strong hotly. “The assignments of the Polaris unit, whether it be to Tara or the Moon, has nothing to do with your own breech of conduct. In any case, if they were to be assigned, they’d do a better job than you ‘experienced’ spacemen who are disrespectful of your superior officers and break regulations! If either of you makes one more crack about the Solar Guard or Space Cadets, or anything at all, I’ll take you out on the quadrangle and pound some common courtesy into your heads! Now get out!”
“All right, all right—” muttered Loring retreating, but with a sneer on his lips. “We’ll meet again, Mr. Bigshot Spaceman!”
“I hope so, Loring. And if we do, I hope you’ve taken a bath. You even smell bad!”
From the rear of the room came a burst of laughter. Tom, Roger, and Astro, unobserved, had been listening and watching their skipper in action. When Loring and Mason had left the room, they advanced to the desk, came to attention, and saluted.
“Polaris unit reporting for duty, sir!” snapped Tom crisply.
“At ease,” said Strong. “Did you hear all of that?”
“Yes, sir, skipper!” Roger smiled. “And believe me, you really gave it to those two space bums!”
“Yeah,” agreed Astro, “but I don’t think even you could do much for Loring. He’s just born to smell bad!”
“Never mind that,” said Strong. “I suppose you heard the part about the assignments?”
The three cadets assumed looks of pure innocence.
“We didn’t hear a thing, sir,” said Tom.
“You’ll make a fine diplomat, Corbett,” Strong laughed. “All right, sit down and I’ll give it to you straight.”
They hastily took seats and waited for their skipper to begin.
“You’ve been assigned as cadet observers on a mission to test the range of a new long-range audio transmitter.” Strong paused, then added significantly, “The test is to take place in deep space.”
The three cadets only beamed their enthusiastic approval.
“Tara,” continued Strong, “is your destination—a planet like Earth in many respects, in orbit around the sun star Alpha Centauri. You’ll take the Polaris directly to the Venus space station, where the transmitter has been given primary tests, outfit the Polaris for hyperdrive, and blast off!”
“Excuse me, sir,” interrupted Tom, “but you say ‘you’?”
“I mean,” replied Strong, “you, in the sense that I won’t be going along with you. Oh, don’t worry!” said Strong, holding up his hand as a sudden look of anticipation spread over the faces of the three boys. “You’re not going alone! You’ll have a commanding officer, all right. In fact, you’ll have the nearest thing to the perfect commanding officer in the Solar Guard!” He waited just long enough for each boy to search his mind for a suitable candidate and then added, “Your skipper will be Major Connel!”
“Major Connel!” the three cadets cried in unison.
“You mean Major ‘Blast-off’ Connel?” uttered Roger unbelievingly.
“That’s who I mean,” said Strong. “It’s the best thing in the universe that could happen to you!”
Roger stood up and saluted smartly. “I request permission to be dismissed from this mission on the grounds of incompatibility, sir,” he said.
“Incompatible to what?” asked Strong, amused.
“To Major Connel, sir,” replied Roger.
“Permission denied,” said Strong with a smile. “Buck up! It isn’t so bad.” Strong paused and stood up. “Well, that’s it. It’s close to eleven A.M. and you’re to report to the major at eleven on the nose. I hope you’ve got the Polaris in good shape.”
“We were up all night, sir,” said Tom. “She’s ready to go.”
“She’s in better shape than we are,” said Astro.
“Very well, then. Report to Major Connel immediately. Your papers have been transferred, so all you have to do is report.”
Strong rounded the desk and shook hands with each cadet. “This is an important mission, boys,” he said soberly. “See that you give Major Connel all the support I know you’re capable of giving. He’ll need it. I doubt if I’ll see you before you blast off, so this is it. Spaceman’s luck to each of you!”
CHAPTER 3
“Well, looks like we’re big boys now,” said Tom, as the three cadets strolled down the corridor away from Captain Strong’s office. “They don’t hand out secret and important missions to cadet units unless they’re really on the ball!”
“But we’ve got Major ‘Blast-off’ Connel to educate,” grumbled Roger.
“What do you mean ‘educate’?” asked Astro.
“You know he’s the roughest officer in the Academy,” replied the blond-haired cadet. “He eats cadets for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And then has an extra one for dessert. He isn’t just tough—his hide’s made of armor plate. But I’ve got a hunch that if we play dumb at first, then smarten up slowly, we can make him feel that he’s done it for us. So he’ll be easier on us.”
“Say, it’s after eleven!” exclaimed Tom. “We’d better hurry!”
Suddenly, as if a rocket cruiser were blasting off in the corridors, a roar, deafening and powerful, filled their ears. And beneath its ferocity there were four unmistakable words:
“Polaris unit—staaaaaaaannnnnndddddd toooooo!”
Every muscle, every bone in their three bodies snapped to rigid attention simultaneously. Eyes straight, chins in, the cadets waited for whatever calamity had befallen them. From behind came quick, heavy footsteps. They drew closer until they passed alongside and then abruptly stopped. There, in front of them, stood the one and only Major “Blast-off” Connel!
Though a few inches shorter than Astro, he was what Astro might become in thirty years, heavily muscular, with a barrel chest that filled the gold-and-black uniform tightly. He stood balanced on the balls of his small feet like a boxer, hands hanging loosely at his sides. A bulldog chin jutted out of his rough-hewn face as if it were going to snap off the head of the nearest cadet. He towered over Tom and Roger, and though shorter than Astro, he made up for this by sheer force of personality. When he spoke, his voice was like a deep foghorn that had suddenly learned the use of vowels.
“So this is the great Polaris unit, eh?” he bellowed. “You’re two minutes late!”
Tom suddenly felt that he and his unit-mates were all alone in the corridor with the major. He glanced to one side, then the other, cautiously, and saw it was empty. And for good reason! No one wanted to be around when “Blast-off” Connel was blasting. Cadets, enlisted men, and even officers were not safe from his sudden outbursts. He drove himself so hard that he became impatient with others who were not able to match his drive. It was not because of ego but rather to get the job at hand finished. More than once he had dressed down a captain of the Solar Guard in the same tone he used on a green Earthworm. It was legend around the Academy that once, believing he was right, he had broken into the Council Chamber itself to argue his point. He won by a unanimous decision. Nothing, but nothing, had been devised or thought of that could stop “Blast-off” Connel. Every waking moment of his adult life had been spent in the pursuit of more and more knowledge about space, space travel, and life on the other planets.
Now, his wrath at fever pitch at their being tardy, he stood in front of the cadets, turning his anger on Roger first.
“Your name’s Manning, isn’t it?” he growled.
“Yes, sir!” replied Roger.
“Father got a medal—used to be a Solar Guard officer?”
“That’s right, sir. He was killed in space.”
“I
know. He was a good man. You’ll never be the man he was, if you live ten thousand years. But if you don’t try to be a better man than he was, you won’t live five minutes with me! Is that clear, Cadet Manning?”
“Very clear, sir!” gulped Roger.
Connel turned to Astro.
“And you’re the home-grown atomic-rocket genius, Venusian style, eh?”
“Yes, sir,” choked Astro. “I’m from Venus.”
“Bucked rockets on the old chemical burners as a kid before entering the Academy, eh?” asked Connel. There was less than an inch and a half between Astro’s face and Major Connel’s jaw.
“Yes, sir,” answered Astro, “I was an enlisted man before coming to the Academy.”
“Well, get this, you rocket buster,” roared Connel. “I want a power deck that will give me what I want, when I want it, or you’ll be back in the ranks again. Is that clear, Cadet Astro?”
“Yes, sir! Everything she’s got, when you want it, sir.”
“And I like to have a power deck clean enough to eat off the deck plates!”
“Yes, sir,” stuttered Astro, growing more and more confused. “You like to eat off the deck plates, sir!”
“By the craters of Luna, no! I don’t like to eat off the deck plates, but I want them clean enough to eat there if I want to!”
“Yes, sir!” Astro’s voice was hardly above a whisper.
“And you’re the tactical wizard that won the space maneuvers recently, singlehanded, eh?” asked Connel, bending down to face Tom.
“Our side won, sir. If that answers your question,” replied Tom. He was as nervous as Roger and Astro, but he fought for control. He was determined not to be bullied.
“I didn’t ask you who won!” snapped Connel. “But you’re the one just the same. Control-deck cadet, eh? Well, you work with me. On the control deck there’s only room for one brain, one decision, one answer. And when I’m on the control deck, that decision, answer, and brain will be mine!”
“I understand perfectly, sir,” said Tom tonelessly.
Connel stepped back, fists on his hips, eying the three cadets. He had heard about their difficulty in fitting personalities together when they had first arrived at Space Academy (as described in Stand By for Mars!). And he had heard about their triumph over the Martian desert. He was impressed with everything he had learned about them, but he knew that he had a reputation for being tough and that this reputation usually brought out the best in cadets. Early in his long and brilliant career he had learned that his life depended on the courage and ingenuity of his fellow spacemen. When he became an instructor at the Academy, he had determined that no cadet would ever be anything but the best, and that, when they blasted off in later years, they could be depended on.
He looked at the three cadets and felt a tinge of excitement that did not show on his scowling face. “Yes,” he thought, “they’ll make spacemen. It’ll take a little time—but they’re good material.”
“Now listen to this!” he bawled. “We blast off for the Venus space station in exactly thirty minutes. Get your gear aboard the Polaris and stand by to raise ship.” He dropped his voice and pushed out his jaw a little farther. “This will be the toughest journey you’ll ever make. You’ll either come back spacemen, or you’ll come back nothing. I’m going to try my best to make it”—he paused and added coldly—“nothing! Because if you can’t take it from me, then you don’t belong in space! Unit dis-missed!”
He turned on his heel and disappeared up the slidestairs without another look at the three rigid cadets.
“Yeah—we’ll educate him, all right,” said Astro softly, with a wink at Tom. “Make him think he’s done everything for us.”
“Ah, go blast your jets!” snarled Roger after he had found his voice.
“Come on,” said Tom. “Let’s get the Polaris ready. And, fellows, I mean ready!”
* * * *
Bill Loring and Al Mason stood near the entrance to the control tower of the Academy spaceport and watched the three cadets of the Polaris scramble into the giant rocket cruiser.
“Every time I think about that Connel kicking us out of space for twelve months I wanta pound his head in with a wrench!” snarled Loring.
Mason snorted. “Well, what’s the use of hanging around here?” he asked. “That Connel wouldn’t have us aboard the Polaris, even if we were cleared and had our papers. There ain’t a thing we can do!”
“Don’t give up so easy. There’s a fortune setting up there in space—just waiting for me and you to come and take it. And no big-shot Solar Guard officer is going to keep me from getting it!”
“Yeah—yeah,” grumbled Mason, “but what are you going to do about it?”
“I’ll show you what I’m going to do!” said Loring. “We’re heading for Venusport.”
“Venusport? By the moons of Jupiter, what are we going to do there?”
“Get a free ride to Tara!”
“But how? I only got a few hundred credits and you ain’t got much more. There ain’t nobody going to go fifty billion miles on nothing!”
Loring’s eyes followed the massive figure of Major Connel on the slidewalk as it swept across the spaceport field toward the Polaris. “You just buy us a coupla seats on the next rocket to Venusport and stop asking stupid questions. When we see Major ‘Blast-off’ Connel again, we’ll be giving the orders with a paralo-ray!”
The two disgruntled spacemen turned quickly and walked to the nearest slidewalk, disappearing around a building.
Aboard the Polaris, Tom confronted his two unit-mates.
“Now look, fellows. After the hard time Major Connel just gave us, let’s see if we can’t really stay on the ball from now on.”
“All right by me, Tom,” Astro said, nodding his head.
“You’re having space dreams, Corbett!” drawled Roger. “No matter what we do for old ‘Blast-off’ we’ll wind up behind the eight ball.”
“But if we really try,” urged Tom, “if we all do our jobs, there can’t be anything for him to fuss about.”
“We’ll make it tough for him to give us any demerits,” Astro chimed in.
“Right,” said Tom.
“It won’t work,” grumbled Roger. “You saw the way he chewed us up, and for what? I ask you—for what?”
“He was just trying to live up to his reputation, Roger,” replied Tom. “But common sense will tell you that if you’re on the ball you won’t get demerits.”
“What’s the matter, hot-shot?” growled Astro. “Afraid of a little work?”
“Listen, you Venusian clunk,” sneered Roger, “I’ll work the pants off you any day in the week, and that includes Titan days, too!”
“O.K.” Tom smiled. “Save half of that energy for the Polaris, Roger.”
“Yeah, use some of that Manning hot air to shine brass!” suggested Astro.
“Come on. Let’s get this wagon in shape,” said Tom. He turned to the instrument panel and the great control board.
A moment later the three cadets were busy shining the few bits of brass and rechecking the many controls and levers. Suddenly there was the sound of a hatch slamming below and then Astro’s voice came whispering over the intercom, “…watch it, fellows. Here he comes!”
The airtight hatch leading to the control deck slid back, and Major Connel stepped inside. With one sweeping glance he took in the control deck and the evidence of their work.
“Unit—staaaaand to!” he roared.
Astro climbed into the control deck and snapped to attention with his unit-mates as Connel began a quick but thorough check of the many dials and switches and relays on the control panel.
“Ummmmh,” he mused. “Been doing a little work, I see.”
“Oh, nothing special, sir,” said Roger.
“Well, from now on it’s going to be special!” roared Connel.
“Yes, sir,” acknowledged Roger quickly.
“All right, at ease,” ordered Connel. As the three bo
ys relaxed, Connel stepped over to the astrogation board and snapped a switch. Immediately a solar chart filled the huge chart screen. It was a black-and-white view of the planet Venus.
“This is where we’re going first,” he said, placing a finger on a ball-shaped satellite in orbit around the misty planet. “This is the Venus space station. As you know, Venus has no natural satellite of its own, so we built one. We’ll blast off from here and go directly to the space station where the Polaris will be fitted with hyperdrive for deep-space operations. While at the station you will acquaint yourselves with the operation of the new audio communications transmitter. When I’m satisfied that you can handle it under the prevailing conditions of an extended space flight, we’ll blast off for a test of its range and performance.”
Major Connel paused and faced the cadets squarely. Then he continued: “This is an important mission—one which I hope will enable the Solar Guard to establish the first base outside of our solar system. Our destination is Tara, in the star system of Alpha Centauri. Tara is a planet in a stage of development similar to that of Earth several million years ago. Its climate is tropical, and lush vegetation—jungles really—covers the land surface. Two great oceans separate the land masses. One is called Alpha, the other Omega. I was on the first expedition, when Tara was discovered, and have just returned from the second, during which we explored it and ran tests to learn if it could sustain human life. All tests show that Tara can be transformed into a paradise.”
Connel paused, took a deep breath, and continued: “I shall expect more than just hard work from you. I want everything you have to offer. Not just good performance, but excellence! I will not tolerate anything less, and if I’m forced to resort to extreme disciplinary action to get what I demand, then you can expect to receive every demerit in the book!” He stepped closer to the three cadets. “Remember! Spacemen—or nothing! Now, stand by to blast off!”
Without a word, the three cadets hurried to their stations and began routine procedure to raise ship.
“All departments ready to blast off, Major Connel,” reported Tom, saluting sharply.
The Tom Corbett Space Cadet Megapack: 10 Classic Young Adult Sci-Fi Novels Page 21
