Treachery in Outer Space | Page 2

always--" Spears faltered, his face
flushing with embarrassment.

"Always what?" hounded Roger.
"I--I don't know," stammered the fledgling helplessly.
"You don't know?" yelled Roger. He looked at Tom and Astro, shaking
his head. "He doesn't know." The two cadets frowned at the quivering
boy and Roger faced him again. "For your information, Mr. Spears," he
said at his sarcastic best, "there are five words remaining in that
sentence. And for each word, you will spend one hour cleaning this
room. Is that clear?"
Spears could only nod his head.
"And for your further information," continued Roger, "the remaining
words are 'constantly alert to constant dangers'! Does that help you,
Mister?"
"Yes, Cadet Manning," gulped Spears. "You are very kind to give me
this information. And it will be a great honor to clean your room."
Astro stepped forward to take his turn. He towered over the remaining
cadet candidate and glowered at the thoroughly frightened boy. "So,"
he roared, "I guess this means you're going to handle the power deck in
one of our space buckets, eh?"
"Yes, very well," came the quavering, high-pitched reply.
"Give me the correction of thrust when you are underway in a forward
motion and you receive orders from the control deck for immediate
reversal."
Coglin closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and the words poured from
his lips. "To go forward is to overtake space, and to go sternward is to
retake space already overtaken. To correct thrust, I would figure in the
beginning of my flight how much space I intended to take and how
much I would retake, and since overtake and retake are both additional
quotients that have not been divided, I will add them together and
arrive at a correction." The cadet candidate stopped abruptly, gasping

for breath.
Secretly disappointed at the accuracy of the reply, Astro grunted and
turned to Tom and Roger. "Any questions before they blast off on their
solo hop?" he growled.
The two cadets shook their heads and Roger quickly lined three chairs
in a row. Tom addressed the frightened boys solemnly. "This is your
spaceship. The first chair is the command deck; second, radar deck;
third, power deck. Take your stations and stand by to blast off."
Spears, Coglin, and Duke jumped into the chairs and Tom walked
around them eying them coldly. "Now, Misters," he said, "you are to
blast off, make a complete circle of the Earth, and return to the
Academy spaceport for a touchdown. Is that clearly understood?"
"All clear," chorused the boys.
"Stand by to raise ship!" bawled Tom.
"Power deck, check in!" snapped Duke from the first chair. "Radar
deck, check in!"
"Just one moment, Mister," interrupted Roger. "When you issue an
order over the intercom, I want to see you pick up that mike. I want to
see all the motions. It's up to you, Misters, to make us believe that you
are blasting off!"
"Very well," replied Duke with a nervous glance back at his unit mates.
"Carry on!" roared Tom.
Then, as Tom, Roger, and Astro sprawled on their bunks, grinning
openly, the three Earthworm cadets began their simulated flight
through space. Going through the movements of operating the
complicated equipment of a spaceship, they pushed, pulled, jerked,
snapped on imaginary switches, read unseen meters and gauges, and
slammed around in their chairs to simulate acceleration reaction. The

three cadets of the Polaris unit could no longer restrain themselves and
broke into loud laughter at the antics of the aspirants. Finally, when
they had landed their imaginary ship again, the Earthworms were
pounded on the back heartily.
"Welcome to Space Academy!" said Tom with a grin. "That was as
smooth a ride as I've ever had."
"Yeah," agreed Astro, pumping Coglin's hand. "You handled those
reactors and atomic motors like a regular old space buster!"
"And that was real fine astrogation, Spears," Roger chimed in. "Why,
you laid out such a smooth course, you never left the ground!"
The three Earthworms relaxed, and while Astro brewed hot cups of tea
with synthetic pellets and water from the shower, Tom and Roger told
them about the traditions and customs of the Academy.
Tom began by telling them how important it was for each crew member
to be able to depend on his unit mate. "You see," he said, "in space
there isn't much time for individual heroics. Too many things can
happen too fast for it to be a one-man operation."
"I'll say," piped up Roger. "A couple of times I've been on the radar
deck and seen a hunk of space junk coming down on us fast. So instead
of following book procedure, relaying the dope to Tom on the control
deck to pass it on to Astro, I'd just sing out to Astro direct on the