The foreman and his wife were shaking their heads, still in acceleration shock, and Tom helped them out of their cushions.
"Oh, my! Do you boys have to go through this all the time?" Mrs. Hill asked. "It"s a wonder to me how a human body can take it."
"I feel pretty much the same way," muttered George.
"A cup of hot tea will fix you up fine," Tom rea.s.sured them, and leaving the ship on automatic control, he went into the small galley off the control deck and brewed three cups of tea. In a few moments the elderly couple felt better, and Tom told them of the Nationalists" base and Connel"s plan to wreck the radar station at noon the next day. Both Mr.
and Mrs. Hill were shocked at the scope of the Nationalists" plan.
"Well, they bit off more than they could chew when they decided to buck the Solar Guard," a.s.serted Tom. "When Commander Walters gets finished with them, Sinclair and the rest won"t have anything left but memories!"
"Tell me something, Tom," said George, looking at the control panel thoughtfully. "Have you figured out how you"re going to land this ship alone and with no radar?"
"I"ll have to use the seat of my pants." Tom smiled, and turned back to his seat. George and his wife looked at each other and quickly strapped themselves into their acceleration cushions.
A few moments later Tom began braking the ship with the nose rockets. It made a slow-climbing arc over the s.p.a.ceport and then settled slowly, tailfirst. The stern teleceiver was out of order, and the young cadet had to rely entirely on "feel," to get the _Polaris_ in safely. He had calculated his rate of fall, the gravity of Venus, and the power of the rockets, and was dropping at a predetermined rate. At the critical point he increased power on the drive rockets, continuing to fall slowly until he felt the jarring b.u.mp of the directional fins touching the ground.
"Touchdown!" he roared triumphantly.
He closed the master switch and turned to look at the smiling faces of Mr. and Mrs. Hill.
"That was fine, Tom," said George, "but I don"t want to do it again."
"Don"t be a scaredy cat, George Hill!" taunted Mrs. Hill. "Tom handles this ship as if he were born on it."
Tom grinned. "We"d better hurry up. There must be something going on.
There aren"t any lights on here at the s.p.a.ceport and all the administration buildings are dark."
He hurried to the air lock and swung it open, jumping lightly to the ground.
"Halt!" growled a rough voice. "Get your hands in the air and stay right where you are!"
Puzzled, Tom did as he was told, announcing, "I"m s.p.a.ce Cadet Tom Corbett, _Polaris_ unit. I request immediate transportation to Commander Walters. I have important information for him."
He was momentarily blinded by the glare of a ring of lights around him, and when he finally could see, he found himself in the middle of a squad of Solar Guardsmen in battle dress.
"What"s the pa.s.sword?" asked a tough sergeant whose shock rifle was aimed right at Tom"s midsection.
"Juggernaut!" replied Tom quietly.
The word sent the sergeant into a frenzy of action. "Peters, Smith, get the jet car around here!"
"What"s up, Sergeant?" asked Tom. "Why is everything so dark?"
"Martial law!" replied the guardsman. "Curfew from ten until six."
"Whew!" gasped Tom. "It looks as if I just made it!"
As George and Mrs. Hill climbed out of the air lock, a jet car raced up and skidded to a stop in front of them. A moment later Tom and the couple, accompanied by two of the guardsmen, were speeding through the dark and empty streets of Venusport. The car was stopped once at a mid-town check point, and Tom had to repeat the pa.s.sword. They picked up another jet car, full of guardsmen as escorts, and with the echo of the exhausts roaring in the empty avenues, they sped to central Solar Guard headquarters.
Tom had never seen so many enlisted guardsmen in one spot before except on a parade ground. And he noted with a tinge of excitement that each man was in battle dress. Arriving at headquarters, they were whisked to the top floor of the building and ushered into Commander Walters"
office. The commander smiled broadly as the young cadet stepped to the front of his desk and saluted smartly.
"Cadet Corbett reporting, sir," he said.
In a moment the office was filled with men; E. Philips James, the Solar Delegate, Captain Strong, fleet commanders, and officers of the line.
"Make your report, Cadet Corbett," said Walters.
Tom spoke quickly and precisely, giving full details on the location of the base, the approximate number of fighting ships, the armament of each, the location of supply dumps, and finally of Major Connel"s plan to sabotage the radar at noon the following day. Then, one by one, each official asked him questions pertinent to their tasks. Fleet commanders asked about the ships" speed, size, armor; Strong inquired about the stores and supporting lines of supply; Walters asked for the names of all people connected with the movement. All of these questions Tom answered as well as he could.
"Well, gentlemen," said Walters, "thanks to Corbett and the others on this mission, we have all the information we need to counter the Nationalists. I propose to follow Major Connel"s plan and attack the base at noon tomorrow. Squadrons A and B will approach from the south and east at exactly noon. Squadrons C, D, and E will come in from the north and west as a second wave at 1202. The rest of the fleet will go in from above at 1205. Supporting squadrons are now on their way from Earth and Mars. Blast off at six hundred hours. s.p.a.ceman"s luck!"
"Good work, Tom," said Strong, when the conference broke up.
"Yes, sir," said Tom. "But I can"t help worrying about Roger and Astro and Major Connel. What"s going to happen to them, sir?"
Strong hesitated. "I don"t know, Tom. I really don"t know."
CHAPTER 17
"What time is it, Astro?"
"Exactly eleven o"clock, sir."
"All set?"
"Yes, sir."
"You know what to do. Move out!"
Astro and Major Connel were crouched behind a pile of fuel drums piled near the communications and radar building in the heart of the Nationalists" base. Above them, the gigantic tree used as the radar tower rose straight into the Venusian morning sky.
After helping Tom to escape, Astro had returned to the prison building for Connel and was surprised to find the place surrounded by green-clad Nationalist guards. Rather than attempt to release Connel then, Astro hid and waited for the time set to wreck the radar communications of the enemy. During the second day, he had successfully eluded the many patrols looking for him. Once from a hiding place he overheard one of the men mention Connel. He took a daring chance and approached the patrol openly. Speaking the Venusian dialect, he learned that Connel had escaped. That news sent the cadet on a different game of hide-and-seek as he prowled around the base searching for the Solar Guard officer. He had found him hiding near the radar tower, and they spent the night close to the communications building waiting for the time to strike.
Their plan was simple. Astro would enter the building from the front, while Connel would enter from the rear. Astro would draw attention to himself, and while the guards inside the building were busy dealing with him, Connel would come upon them from behind, knock them out of action, and then destroy the radar equipment.
The two s.p.a.cemen gave no thought to their own safety. They were concerned only with accomplishing their objective. Having no way of knowing whether Tom had made it back to Venusport or whether their destruction of the communications center would be of any value, they nevertheless had to proceed on the a.s.sumption that Tom had gotten through.
Astro crawled behind the drums and stopped twenty feet from the door to wait for several Nationalist officers to leave. They finally got into a jet car and roared away. Astro nodded to the major waiting to edge around to the rear and then headed for the main entrance.
Connel saw Astro making his way to the front door and hurried around to complete his part of the mission. He waited exactly three minutes, gripped his shock rifle firmly, and then crossed over to the rear of the building and stepped inside.
Once inside, the major found it difficult to keep from bursting into laughter. The large ground-floor room was a frenzy of brawling, yelling, shouting Nationalist guards trying to capture the giant cadet. Astro was standing in the middle of the floor, swinging his great hamlike fists methodically, mowing down the guards like tenpins. Two of them were on his back, trying to choke him, while others crowded in from all sides.
But they could not bring the cadet down. Astro saw Connel, shook himself, and stood free.