“i can’t understand why they don’t turn off course!” lieutenant starky exclaimed. “their radar must have contacted us!”
ted watched the blips from the moonstone slowly nearing the center of the screen. by the time they did reach that center, the moonstone and the shooting star would be occupying the same area in space.
lieutenant foran came over to the kentons. “i think you folks had better get back to your suite. we’re going to be awfully busy in here for the next few minutes,” he said.
26
ted could see that the officer was trying to keep the fear out of his voice. they must really be in a bad spot.
as they left, they met stout, red-faced commander grissom coming in. his face was redder than usual, and he was so concerned with the shooting star’s danger that he barely nodded to dr. kenton.
as the kentons returned to their quarters, golden-haired mrs. kenton faced her family with stricken eyes.
“what’s happening, john?” she asked her husband. “all the crewmen are running around like mad.”
“it’s just a little trouble outside,” the scientist said gently. “i’m sure commander grissom and his men can handle it.”
mrs. kenton began pacing restlessly. “this waiting! i wish we knew what’s going on.”
“we can,” the scientist said, crossing the room and pressing a button on a wall panel. “i thought it might upset us more to listen in, but i guess it would be better to know what they’re doing.”
27
they heard first the voice of lieutenant starky coming over the compartment’s loud-speaker. “the moonstone has just answered, sir!”
“what do they say?” the commander asked urgently.
after a few moments’ pause, the kentons heard the pilot speak again: “they say that they had some electronic trouble and that it’s just now been repaired. their radio and radar were off because of it.”
ted listened tensely as orders flew back and forth. both space ships set their rocket jets to carry each away from the other, but at the speeds they were traveling, only time would tell if they could avoid a crash.
the kentons heard the final miles being slowly called off by commander grissom as the two ships hurtled toward one another:
“four hundred—three hundred—two—a hundred and fifty....”
28
ted’s eyes were on the side port. he knew that at the last moment either he would see a large silver shape hurtle past the window or he would feel the might of tons crashing head on. in the final seconds, dr. kenton had an arm around his wife and daughter, and ted’s heart was thumping wildly.
the light of thousands of stars out there seemed to burn into the boy’s brain. would the decisive moment never come?
presently ted saw the blackness of space blurred for only the briefest instant as the moonstone drove past, its rockets streaming tongues of flame! the side jets spurted against the hull of the shooting star, causing it to rock. ted felt the floor tilting beneath him, and he had to grab a wall rail for support. a glimpse he caught of his parents and jill showed that they were having the same trouble.
(uncaptioned)
29
as the ship steadied itself and drove on an even keel again, ted grinned weakly. “we—we made it,” he managed to say.
the faces of jill and her mother were still chalky with fright, but dr. kenton’s was as calm as if he had known the shooting star would come through the peril all right.
they heard the voice of commander grissom over the speaker informing the passengers that the danger was past. dr. kenton then cut off the speaker.
“i never want to go through an experience like that again!” cried mrs. kenton, taking a seat.
30
“i don’t think we need ever fear this happening again,” dr. kenton said. “it’s quite a rare occurrence.”
“what about meteors?” jill asked.
“they’re rare too, fortunately,” he answered. “i don’t see why we can’t expect an uneventful trip from now until we reach our home on mars.”
hearing this confident remark, the children were interested in the space ship again. “we didn’t finish our tour!” jill burst out.
“would you like to see the garden?” dr. kenton asked.
“the garden?” ted asked, puzzled. “what good is a garden on a space ship?”
“come along and you’ll see,” dr. kenton said and started for the door. mrs. kenton said she preferred to stay in the suite and collect her shattered nerves, but the children, of course, were eager to go.
“haven’t you two wondered how you’re able to breathe in the ship?” their father asked as they walked down the corridor.
31
“i know how,” ted said. “the air is pumped through the ship from compressed-air chambers.”
“what is air?” his father asked.
“mostly oxygen and nitrogen,” ted answered.
“the shooting star uses oxygen, with helium instead of nitrogen to dilute it,” dr. kenton said. “that’s so that, in case a meteor penetrates the ship, the rapid decompression won’t cause us to get bubbles in our blood, which is a dangerous condition called ‘the bends.’”
“but what’s that to do with a garden?” jill asked.
“you’ll see in a minute,” came the reply.
an attendant showed them through the “garden.” there was not much to see. there were merely rows and rows of broad-leaved plants covered with plastic and a network of tubes.
“some garden,” ted murmured, when the attendant had walked off to answer a call. “the plants aren’t pretty and they don’t seem to have fruit or vegetables either.”
“they yield something even more precious, though,” his father said. “oxygen.”
“huh?” ted asked in surprise.
32
dr. kenton smiled at the puzzled looks on their faces. “plants and people are well suited to one another,” he said. “plants breathe out oxygen into our earth’s atmosphere, and in gratitude we give them back carbon dioxide which, as you know, we breathe out.”
“so that’s it!” jill said.
“it’s really quite simple,” the scientist went on. “these plants keep our oxygen tanks filled, and the air exhaled by us is pumped back to them so that they can keep alive.”
“will our home on mars have a garden producing air?” ted asked.
“no, we’ll use air cartridges there because they’re more efficient in small places.”
just then the attendant returned. “the commander has ordered all passengers back to their suites to prepare for emergency landing,” he told them. “jet fire from the moonstone damaged our hull, and we’ve got to lay over on luna for repairs.”
“goody!” jill exclaimed. “we’ll get to land on the moon!”
33
they returned to the main compartment of their suite, and dr. kenton switched on the wall speaker so that he could hear the order from the commander to “strap down.”
as they waited, they stood before the big window looking out on the rugged globe of luna. dr. kenton pressed a button on the sill that slid a darkening filter over the window. in this way, the blinding glare of the full moon was cut down considerably.
“those big craters look just like eyes!” ted exclaimed.
“it’s all so terribly rough-looking down there, i don’t see where we can land!” mrs. kenton said.
the scientist pointed. “see that large gray plain down there?” he said. “it’s the sea of serenity, and the moon colony is located on one edge of it. we’re too far away yet to see it.”
“hey, we’re turning around!” ted exclaimed, as he saw the stars beginning to blur before his eyes.
“that’s so that we can use our rear jets to brake our landing,” the scientist said.
34
the order to pull down couches and “strap down” came over the speaker a few minutes later. each of the kentons opened a door in the wall and pulled down his foam-rubber cot. the couches were fastened securely to the floor with catches. the family stretched out on the soft mattresses. they pulled up the plastic straps from the sides and tightened them across their bodies.
presently a crewman stuck his head in the door to make sure they were ready for the strain of landing.
some time later, when he had the sensation of going down in a suddenly dropping elevator, ted knew the moment of deceleration had begun.
in his mind’s eye he could picture what was going on. he imagined the long sleekness of the shooting star plunging toward the moon’s rough surface. from the ship’s rocket tubes, streams of fire were pouring out to slow the terrific speed of the ship. if those fire streams should fail, or not hold back the craft enough, the rocket would be dashed to bits on luna.
35
as the ship slackened its speed, ted felt steadily worse. it was as if his chest were being crushed. he knew that he and the others could stand any top speed the rocket would go; that it was only a change in speed that was so grueling.
he twisted his head and saw the other members of his family buried deeply in their couches. he knew they were suffering as badly as he. he remembered the danger of the shooting star and moonstone approaching one another in the heavens. then he thought what a frightful crash it would have been had they met.
it made him wonder, now, if the shooting star could check its downward plunge in time, or if it would be dashed to atoms on the hard gray soil of luna.
