On the Trail of the Space Pirates_ A Tom Corbett Space Cadet Adventure - Carey Rockwell [251]
Startled, Tom called into the intercom. "What do you mean, Roger?"
"The ship's communicator," snorted Roger. "I figured once we got aboard the scout we'd be able to use this set to contact the Academy instead of having to monkey around with the homemade job back on the Polaris. But it's no soap."
"Why not?" boomed Astro over the intercom.
"The only open circuit here is beamed to the Polaris. And the radar is too complicated to change over to audio communications. We haven't got enough time."
Tom clenched his teeth. He had had the same idea about using the communications set on the scout to contact the Academy. Now there was nothing to do but hope Vidac wouldn't find the one they were building. He called into the intercom again. "Is the radar working well enough for us to search the asteroid cluster without plowing into any space junk?"
"Yeah," growled Roger. "He left it in working condition all right, but if we burn out a tube, we're blacked out until we get back. There isn't a spare nut or bolt in the locker for repairs."
"But what happens if something happens to the radar when we're in the cluster," called Astro. "We'll be sitting ducks for every asteroid!"
"That's the chance we have to take, Astro," said Tom. "If we complained, you know what he'd do."
"I sure do," growled Astro. "He'd call us yellow again, because we'd refused to make the trip!"
"That's the way it adds up," said Tom. "So I guess we'd better get started. Stand by to blast!"
"All clear fore and aft," reported Roger.
"Full thrust, Astro," ordered Tom, "but stand by for emergency maneuvers. This is going to be a tough trip, fellows. Perhaps the toughest trip we've ever made. So keep your eyes and ears open and spaceman's luck!"
"Spaceman's luck!" echoed his unit mates.
Under full thrust the speedy little ship shot ahead of the fleet toward the gigantic mass of asteroids, planetoids, and millions of lesser space bodies, whirling and churning among themselves at an incredible rate of speed. Hardly had they left the fleet when Roger's voice crackled over the intercom again.
"Say, you space monkeys!" he yelled. "I got an idea! How about taking this wagon and heading back for the Academy?"
"Can't," replied Astro, "we've only got forty-eight hours of fuel, water, and oxygen—and no reserves. We couldn't get one-tenth of the way back before we ran out of everything, even if we wanted to go back."
"What do you mean—if?" snapped Roger. "Wouldn't you go back? How about you, Tom?"
"I'd think a long time before I would," said Tom. "Remember, Vidac hasn't done anything we can actually pin on him."
"What about making the colonists pay for their food," sneered Roger.
"Vidac could say it was a precautionary measure," said Tom.
"What kind of precaution?" asked Astro.
The speedy little ship shot ahead of the fleet toward the gigantic mass of asteroids
"Well, Vidac could say that the colonists were using too much of the supplies simply because it was free. And instead of imposing rationing, he's making them pay, but that he wouldn't actually take their profit."
"Yeah," growled Astro. "And there's just enough hokum in that to make everyone back at the Academy happy."
"I'm afraid we'll have to go on with it," said Tom. "Not only this exploration of the asteroid belt, but we'll have to wait for Vidac to really tip his hand."
"From the way he operates," said Roger disgustedly, "that might be never."
Blasting farther ahead through the unexplored region of outer space, the cadets, who had seen a great many space phenomena, were awed by the thickening groups of stars around them. It was Tom who finally realized that they were getting closer to the inner ring of their galaxy and that the stars and suns they were unable to see from Earth, or other Solar Alliance planets, were some fifty to sixty billion miles closer.
Gulping a cup of tea and a few sandwiches, the three cadets continued their advance