the kentons dashed out into the open to the spot where their young friend lay. they bent over him. he was struggling feebly, and his mouth was open and gasping as though he could not get his breath. his suit was almost deflated. the meteorites had stopped falling, and there was no further danger from them.
ted saw that his father seemed to know just what to do. he swiftly zipped open a pocket in the side of randy’s suit and took out a small strip of sticky fabric. there was a tiny slit in the boy’s suit where a stone had grazed it. dr. kenton stuck the strip over the tear and pressed it firmly. then he opened wider the air valve on randy’s helmet, and the suit puffed out again.
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presently randy’s eyes opened, and he pushed himself up into a sitting position.
“what happened?” he asked, almost in a whisper.
“a meteorite grazed your suit, deflating it,” the scientist replied. “for a few seconds you were like a fish out of water. we’ll have the doctor check you over when we get back, but i think we brought you around in time.”
they helped him to his feet. at first, he was wobbly, but he soon regained his full strength and was able to walk alone by the time they reached the car.
they climbed into the moon vehicle and went whirling off in another swift-paced ride back toward the wheel. when they arrived at the moon colony, dr. kenton had a physician examine randy to make sure he was all right, which proved to be the case.
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soon the broadcasting loud-speakers announced that the shooting star had been repaired and would fire off within the next hour. in the waiting room the kentons held what they believed was their last meeting with their new friend randy.
there was still much about the boy which puzzled ted—there were loads of questions he would have liked to ask him. although he did not talk much, randy seemed to like to be with the kentons. and now that the parting was nearly at hand, ted thought he appeared very downcast.
“we’ll sure miss you, randy,” jill was saying.
“yes, we will,” mrs. kenton said kindly. “too bad you can’t go along with us.”
at this last remark, randy looked up wistfully. ted had an idea that randy would like nothing better than to go with them.
“have you ever been to mars, randy?” ted asked.
“of course,” he replied gently. “i was born there.”
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all the kentons straightened in surprise. no wonder randy had said he was not homesick for earth, ted thought. he knew the boy did not mean that he was a native martian, but that his father was an earthman who had been on mars when randy had been born.
ted knew that his father had decided to evade the mystery of randy no longer when he asked the direct question: “randy, do you mind telling us where your parents are?”
randy’s eyes dropped, and his slender fingers began twisting.
“my mother is dead. my father is somewhere on mars with an engineering expedition. that’s why mr. collins is taking care of me. he’s a close friend of father’s.”
“son, do you know which expedition your father is with?” dr. kenton asked.
“yes, sir,” randy answered. “it’s the number five syrtis major expedition.”
ted was watching his father as he asked the question. a cold, unexplainable feeling coursed through him. when randy replied, dr. kenton’s face suddenly paled, and he turned away. ted felt a stab of dread. had something happened to the no. 5 expedition? what a terrible tragedy for randy if this were so.
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“i sure miss pops,” randy said softly, a dreamy look on his face. “i haven’t seen him for two years. we had lots of fun together. he was teaching me to play baseball—helping me develop a curve.”
this was the most randy had ever said at one time, and the kentons listened raptly. ted could see that his father was disturbed over randy’s case. he took out his handkerchief and blew his nose hard.
“randy, how would you like to go to mars with us?” dr. kenton asked presently.
ted saw the sunshine of joy flare up in the boy’s face. “c—could i?” he asked. “really?”
“of course,” the scientist said. “we’d be glad to have you, wouldn’t we, mom?”
mrs. kenton smiled softly at the boy. “we certainly would, randy.”
randy needed no further urging. first he checked with his guardian, mr. collins, who came to see dr. kenton. mr. collins was a husky, friendly person. randy was off packing as the men talked in the presence of the other kentons.
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“i think it would be the best thing in the world for the boy,” mr. collins said thoughtfully. “the fifth expedition was given up for lost about a week ago. i’ve kept it from randy all this time, hoping that the lost explorers would turn up. but they never have.”
“i knew about the expedition,” ted’s father said. “that’s why i want to take him. i thought we’d accept him into our family, so that when the news came to him, he might not take it so hard. i guess i’ve got a soft spot in my heart for the pioneers on mars, being a scientist myself.”
“it’s a grand thing you’re doing,” mr. collins said.
when mr. collins left, mrs. kenton said to her husband, “we’ll have to tell randy about his father ourselves, won’t we?”
“in due time,” dr. kenton replied, “after he comes to know us better. it’ll be easier that way.”
“randy will be able to tell us all about mars, since he’s from there,” jill said excitedly.
ted agreed with his sister and decided then that randy was going to make a very welcome addition to the kenton household.
less than an hour later, the shooting star was in the heavens again, powering toward the distant red beacon of mars and leaving behind the rugged wastelands of the moon.
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he was going to mars.
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randy became a much more chipper person than the silent boy the kentons had first met. new life seemed to have flowed into him. he was going to mars, the land of his birth and the place where he believed his beloved father to be—alive. ted felt sorry for the boy in the days that followed, whenever he talked about the good times he and his father had had together. when the time came to tell him about his father, it was not going to be an easy job for ted’s dad.
in the eternal night of interplanetary space, time seemed to stand still. ted knew that days and days, even weeks, had passed since leaving the moon, but without the rising and setting of a sun to go by, it hardly seemed that any time had passed at all.
by now the moon had lost its roundness and had become just another star in the sky. the red spark of mars, however, was growing day after day, week after week. however, it could not yet be recognized as a disk.
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one day ted noticed what looked like a smudge across the blackness of the sky. it blotted out the stars behind it and appeared to be close. but its movement was scarcely noticeable. ted called his father’s attention to the blur of light.
“it looks like a comet!” dr. kenton said. “i’ll check with the commander.”
the scientist tuned in a two-way speaker system and asked about ted’s find.
“that’s brooking’s comet, discovered back in 1970,” commander grissom replied. “it circles the sun every eight years. you’re in for a treat. we’ll pass through some of its vapor. it’ll be a spectacular sight a few days from now.”
watching the comet took up nearly all of the idle time of ted, jill, and randy in the hours that followed. under dr. kenton’s guidance they drew a chart of that part of the sky in which it was located, and plotted its motion in relation to that of the space ship.
“you don’t suppose it’ll crash into us, do you?” mrs. kenton asked worriedly, as the comet loomed menacingly outside their compartment window some time later.
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dr. kenton soothed her with a smile. “don’t worry,” he said. “if the skipper says we’ll graze it, that’s exactly what will happen. he knows every inch of this comet’s orbit and our own too!”
dr. kenton explained that the comet appeared to move slowly because it was coming practically head on. steadily it blossomed wider, like an opening flower bud. in the center was a brilliant light, which was the head, or nucleus.
“why won’t the gravitation of the comet pull us into it?” ted asked.
“that’s because a comet has very little mass, or what we’d call real body, to it. it’s mostly a big lump of widely scattered gas particles.”
“how big is it?” jill asked.
“the head is almost as big as luna, and it has a tail many thousands of miles long,” her father answered. “it’ll pass us at hundreds of miles a second, but it will take a long time to get by and will hardly seem to be moving.”
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when the day of the arrival of the comet’s nucleus came, every eye on the shooting star was peering intently out the windows of the rocket ship. the commander had ordered all windows covered with filter screens to cut out the blinding glare of the nucleus.
the comet arrived with the shocking brilliance of a gigantic fireball. all ted could see was an over-all blinding whiteness that made the blackness of space like bright noonday. the stars were blotted out completely in the glare. for hours the brilliance continued without letup, and then it began to dim.
“the head is past,” dr. kenton said. “from now on, the light will grow weaker and weaker as the tail goes by.”
ted still could make out no detail of any kind, and this was disappointing. as he and jill and randy kept their eyes glued to the window, all they could see was a slow dimming of the comet’s original brilliance. they grew weary of the sight and turned away from it. when they returned to it many hours later, the heavens had a strange bluish cast, and the stars began to burn through it weakly.
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still later, only the barest evidence of the celestial body remained. the heavens were only slightly grayed, showing that the tip of the tail alone had not passed.
“will we see the comet after it swings around the sun, and heads out into space again?” ted asked.
“yes, from a greater distance,” his father answered. “then it will look more like a comet to you.”
several days later, jill came running into their compartment, looking concerned. “father, i saw some of the passengers going forward into the pilots’ roost. they stayed there a few minutes, then came out, and some more people went in. what do you suppose it’s all about?”
“i have an idea the commander has a treat for us,” her father replied with a knowing grin. “we’ll get our turn. just wait.”
their chance came shortly later. the kentons and randy were summoned forward, and they entered the pilots’ roost.
“want to see something?” the commander asked. “look out the forward window.”
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they spoke first to the pilots they had met before, then peered out the window. ted’s breath came fast. poised regally against the backdrop of stars was a gleaming red-orange globe. it was the planet mars, their new home.
