"We"ll use one hole for all three charges. They don"t have to be fired all at once."
"How do we fire them?" Koa asked.
"Electrically. Who has the igniters and the hand dynamo?"
"Dowst has the igniters. One of the Connies is carrying the dynamo."
Speaking of the Connies--Rip hadn"t seen the Consops cruiser recently. He looked up, searching for its exhaust, and finally found it, some distance away.
The Connie commander was stalemated for the time being. He couldn"t land his cruiser on a spinning asteroid, and he had no more boats. Rip thought he probably was just waiting around for any opportunity that might present itself.
The Federation cruisers should be arriving. He studied his chronometer.
No, the nearest one, the _Sagittarius_ from Mercury, wasn"t due for another ten minutes or so. He turned up his helmet communicator and ordered all hands to watch for the exhaust of a nuclear drive cruiser, then turned it down again and gave Koa instructions.
"Have Trudeau turn his load over to a Connie and collect the igniters and the dynamo. We"ll need wire, too. Who has that?"
"Another Connie."
"Get a reel. Cut off a few hundred feet and connect the dynamo to one end and an igniter to the other."
The crystal came around again, and Kemp got to work. Rip stood by, again reviewing all steps. They couldn"t afford to make a mistake. He had no margin for error.
Kemp finished the hole a few seconds before the crystal turned into the sunlight again. Rip told him to keep the torch going. There might be some last minute cutting to do. Then the lieutenant hurried off at an angle to where Dominico was plodding along with the fuel tubes.
Koa had turned the tube he carried over to a Connie. Rip got it and told Dominico to follow him. Then he angled back across the asteroid to where Kemp was holding position.
The asteroid turned twice before Koa arrived. He had a coil of wire slung over his arm, and he carried the dynamo in one hand and an igniter in the other, the two connected by the wire.
Rip took the igniter. "Uncoil the wire," he directed. "Go to its full length at right angles to the hole. We have to time this exactly right.
When the crystal comes around again, I"ll shove the tube into the hole, then scurry for cover. When I"m clear I"ll yell, and you pump the dynamo.
Dominico and Kemp stay with Koa. Make sure no one is in the way of the blast."
Koa unreeled the wire, moving away from Rip. The lieutenant pushed the igniter into one end of the fuel tube and crimped it tightly with his gloved hand.
Koa and the others were as far away as they could get now, the wire stretching between them and Rip. Kemp had made sure no one was running near the line of blast.
Rip watched for the crystal. It would be coming around any second now. He held the tube with the igniter projecting behind him, ready for the hole to appear.
Koa"s voice echoed in his helmet. "All set, Lieutenant."
The crystal appeared across the sun line and moved toward him. He met it, slowed his speed, put the end of the tube into the hole, and shoved. Kemp had allowed enough clearance. The tube slid into place. Rip turned and angled off as fast as he could glide. When he was far enough away from the blast line he called, "Fire!"
Koa squeezed the dynamo handle. The machine whined, and current shot through the wire. A column of orange fire spurted from the crystal.
Rip watched the stars instead of the exhaust. He kept running as it burned soundlessly. In air, the noise would have deafened him. In airless s.p.a.ce, there was nothing to carry the sound.
The apparent motion of the stars was definitely slowing. The spinning wouldn"t cease entirely, but it would slow down enough to give them more time to work.
The tube reached _Brennschluss_, and Rip called orders. "Same process.
Get ready to repeat."
While Koa was connecting another igniter to the wire, Rip took a tube from Dominico. "Take your s.p.a.ce knife and saw through the tube you have left. We"ll need about three-fifths of it. Keep both pieces."
Dominico pulled his knife, pressed the release, and the gas capsule shot the blade out. He got to work.
Koa called that he was ready. Rip took the wired igniter from him and thrust it into the tube Dominico had given him.
As the crystal came around again, the process was repeated. The hole was undamaged.
There was more time to get clear because of the asteroid"s slower speed.
The second tube slowed the rock even more, so that they had to wait long minutes while the crystal came around again.
Rip did some estimating. He wanted to be sure the next charge would do nothing more than slow the asteroid to a stop. If the charge were too heavy, it would reverse the spin. He didn"t want to make a career of running on the asteroid. He was tired, and he knew his men were getting weary, too. He could see it in their strides.
He decided it would be best to use a little less fuel rather than a little more. If the asteroid failed to stop its spin completely, they could always set off a small charge or two.
"Hold it," he ordered. "We"ll use the small end of Dominico"s tube and save the big one."
The fuel was a solid ma.s.s, so cutting the tube in two sections caused no difficulty. Rip pushed the igniter into the small section, seated it in the hole, and hurried to cover. As he watched the fuel burn, he wondered why the last nuclear charge had started the spin. He had made a mistake somewhere. The earlier blasts had been set so they wouldn"t cause a spin.
He made a mental note to look at the place where the charge had exploded.
The rocket fuel slowed the asteroid down to a point where it was barely turning, and Rip was glad he had been cautious. The heavier charge would have reversed it a little. He directed the placing of a very small charge and was moving away from it so Koa could set it off when Santos suddenly yelled, "Sir! The Connie is coming!"
Rip called, "Fire the charge, Koa," then looked up. The Consops cruiser was moving slowly toward them. The canny Connie had been waiting for something to happen on the asteroid, Rip guessed. When the spinning slowed and then stopped, the Connie probably had decided that now was the time for a final try.
"Where is the communicator?" Rip asked the sergeant major.
"One of the Connies has it."
"Get it. I"ll notify Terra base of what happened."
Koa found the Connie with the communicator, tested it to be sure the prisoner hadn"t sabotaged it, and brought it to Rip.
"This is Foster to Terra base. Over."
"Come in, Foster."
Rip explained briefly what had happened and asked, "How is our orbit?
I haven"t had time to take sightings."
"You"re free of the sun," Terra base answered. "Your orbit will have to be corrected sometime within the next few hours. The last blast pushed you off course."
"That"s a small matter," Rip stated. "Unless we can think of something fast, this will be a Connie asteroid by then. The Consops cruiser is moving in on us. He"s careful, because he isn"t sure of the situation.
But even at his present speed he"ll be here in ten minutes."
"Stand by." Terra base was silent for a few moments, then the voice replied, "I think we have an answer for you, Foster. Terra base off.
Go ahead, MacFife."
A Scottish burr thick enough to saw boards came out of the communicator.