The Space Pioneers | Page 8

read exactly 1350 hours.
Fifteen minutes later Captain Strong and Governor Hardy climbed
aboard and Tom received the order to raise ship.
The young curly-haired cadet turned to the control board and flipped on
the teleceiver. "Rocket cruiser Polaris to spaceport control tower," he

called. "Request blast-off orbit and clearance!"
The traffic-control officer in the spaceport tower answered immediately.
"Control tower to Polaris. You are cleared for blast-off at 1405 hours,
orbital tangent 867."
Tom repeated the instructions and turned to the intercom and began
snapping out orders. "Power deck, energize the cooling pumps!"
"Power deck, aye!" replied Astro. The slow whine of the powerful
pumps began to scream through the ship. Tom watched the pressure
indicator and when it reached the blast-off mark called to Roger for
clearance.
"All clear, forward and up!" declared Roger.
"Feed reactant at D-9 rate!" ordered Tom. And far below on the power
deck, Astro began to feed the reactant energy into the firing chambers.
Hardy looked at Strong and nodded in appreciation of the cadets'
smooth efficient work. They strapped themselves into acceleration
cushions and watched the red second hand of the astral chronometer
sweep around, and then heard Tom counting off the seconds.
"Blast off--" bawled Tom, "minus
five--four--three--two--one--zeroooo!"
The giant ship lurched off the blast-off platform a few feet, the exhaust
of the powerful rockets deflected against the concrete surface. Then,
poised delicately on the roaring rockets, the mighty ship picked up
speed and began to accelerate through the atmosphere.
Pushed deep in his acceleration chair in front of the control board,
unable to move because of the tremendous pressure against his body,
Tom Corbett thought about his new adventure. And as the ship hurtled
into the black velvet depths of space, he wondered what the future held
for him as he and his unit mates began a new adventure among the
stars.

CHAPTER 3
"Control deck to power deck, check in!" Tom's voice crackled over the
power-deck loud-speaker and Astro snapped to quick attention.
"Power deck, aye!" replied the giant Venusian into the intercom
microphone. "What's up?"
"Stand by for course change," said Tom. "Roger's picked up a meteor
on the radar scanner and--"
"Here's the course change," Roger's voice broke in over the intercom.
"Three degrees up on the plane of the ecliptic and five degrees
starboard!"
"Get that, Astro?" snapped Tom. "Stand by for one-quarter burst on
steering rockets!"
"One-quarter--right!" acknowledged the power-deck cadet and turned
to the massive panel that controlled the rockets.
On the control deck Tom Corbett continued talking to Roger. "Relay
the pickup to the control-deck scanner, Roger," he ordered. "Let me
take a look at that thing."
In a moment the thin sweeping white line on the control-deck scanner
swept around the green surface of the screen, picking out the blip that
marked the meteor. Tom watched it for a moment and then barked into
the intercom, "Stand by to execute change course!"
He watched the meteor a few more seconds, making sure the course
change would take them out of its path, and then gave the command.
"Fire!"
Before he could draw another breath, Tom felt himself pressed into his
seat as the Polaris quickly accelerated and curved up and away from
the onrushing meteor in a long, smooth arc.

Captain Strong suddenly stepped through the hatch into the control
deck. Glancing quickly at the scanner screen, he saw the white blip that
was the meteor flashing away from the Polaris and he smiled.
"That was nice work, Corbett!" said Strong. "Get us back on course as
soon as you can. Governor Hardy wants to get to Venusport as quickly
as possible."
"Shall I tell Astro to pour on extra thrust, sir?" asked Tom.
"No, just maintain standard full space speed. No need to use emergency
power unless it's really an emergency."
"Yes, sir," said Tom.
Strong walked around on the control deck, making a casual check of
the ship's operation. But he knew he wouldn't find anything to
complain about. Past experience had taught him that the three cadets
kept a tight ship. At the sound of the hatch opening, he turned to see
Governor Hardy standing just inside the hatch.
"I have to compliment you, Captain," Hardy said as he watched Tom
operate the great control panel. "Your cadets really know their business.
You've trained them well."
"Thank you, sir," replied Strong, "but they did it themselves. One thing
I've learned since I've become an instructor at the Academy and that is
you can't make a spaceman. He's born with the feeling and the instinct,
or he isn't a spaceman."
Hardy nodded. "I've got some important messages to send out, Captain.
I'd like to use the teleceiver for a while."
"Of course, sir," said Strong. "Right up that ladder there." The Solar
Guard