Read Earthbound (Winston Science Fiction Book 1) Online

Authors: Milton Lesser

Tags: #Winston Juveniles, #Science Fiction

Earthbound (Winston Science Fiction Book 1) (7 page)

BOOK: Earthbound (Winston Science Fiction Book 1)
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“Really?”

“Really. As a matter of fact, if I can sneak off and go to bed, I’d like that.”

“Say, don’t you feel well?”

“I — I’ve got a headache. Nothing serious, but — listen, Garr! Make excuses for me, will you?”

Without waiting for an answer, Pete ducked through the crowd in his folks’ living room, climbed the stairs to the second floor two at a time. He went into his own unfamiliar bedroom — he’d hardly slept there, except for vacations, in almost four years — closed the door behind him and crossed to the window.

It was as he had remembered it. Several feet below the sill was the sloping porch roof. Cautiously, Pete clambered up over the sill. He had to be quiet, but he was also in a hurry, and he thought that the noise of the party downstairs would muffle any sounds he made.

He crept across the slanting roof, came to its edge. Without pausing, he swung his feet over and hung for a moment by his hands. That was the dangerous time; briefly, he’d be silhouetted against the moon,- and if anyone happened to be looking —

No one was, and Pete fell to all fours when he hit the ground. Good! As far as anyone knew, he was still within the house. Now all he had to do was find Ganymede Gus and Sam Smith, out of a city of several hundred thousand people.

He did not know what would come next, if he found them. But it was a straw to grasp at.

He checked every bar and grill, every shady joint in the Carnival area. He haunted the sideshows and the legitimate exhibits until closing time. He stalked grimly up and down the length of the Midway — all to no avail.

Wearily, he turned around and headed for home. He was thoroughly exhausted. He hadn’t slept at all the night before, and now it was half-past two in the morning. And that left a scant three hours of sleep before he’d have to report to the tower and send the
Crape Ring
out to probable disaster.

He opened the door with his key, closed it behind him, padded softly across the darkened hall. He smelled the pipe tobacco before he saw Big Pete.

His father was there, sitting in a big overstuffed chair, and when Pete came close he snapped on the fluorescents and tamped his pipe out in a big ash tray.

“What is it, son?”

“Nothing. Nothing’s the matter, Pop.”

“Pete! You can’t fool me, so don’t try. I’m an old hand at intrigue. Now, what’s bothering you?”

“I said it was nothing!”

“Shh! You’ll wake your mother. You don’t leave a party and stay out till three o’clock if it’s nothing.”

“All right,” Pete admitted. “It’s something. But I can’t tell you what. Maybe someday, after I can fix it —”

“Bad?”

Pete nodded glumly. “Pretty bad. But trust me, Pop — no matter what happens, no matter what things may look like —”

Big Pete cleared his throat loudly. “Go on to bed now! Of course I’ll trust you! Only you’ll have to be at that tower of yours before sunrise, so you’d better get some sleep.”

Pete called thanks over his shoulder and took the stairs to his bedroom two at a time.

 

Captain Saunders said, “As you know, your father wanted to watch how we do things here at the tower. I hope it won’t make you nervous.”

Big Pete smiled reassuringly, and Pete answered, “No, sir. It won’t make me nervous.”

No, it won’t
, he thought,
but other things might. Like the orbit of the
Crape Ring.

His eyes were heavy with lack of sleep; a headache throbbed insistently at his temples. Dimly, he was aware of opening radio contact with the astrogator of the
Ring
. “Are you all set out there?” Pete heard himself demanding.

“You bet! We have a couple of Cadets with us — and are
they
raring to go!”

“Five-forty seven-twenty one will be blast off,” Pete muttered into the radio. “‘I have five-forty four-sixteen, Will you calibrate, please?”

“Calibrated!”

Pete turned around halfway to face Captain Saunders. “I’d still like to change that orbit, sir.”

“That’s ridiculous, Hodges. It’s a good orbit you’ve plotted; it’s the orbit they’ll use. I’m not an orbiteer, but I know a fast orbit when I see one. You’ve given them the best, and they want speed this trip.”

“Five-forty five on the nose!” sang the radio voice.

“Check,” Pete said. Then, “I can’t tell you why, Captain, but it’s important.”

Captain Saunders shook his head. “I don’t understand you, Hodges. You’re still an apprentice, however, and you may consider this an order. The orbit is to be maintained as originally plotted.”

Pete shrugged, called into the radio, “Check remote control.”

“Okay, tower. You’ve got us perfectly. When you press that little button of yours, we’ll be off — in, um-m-m-m, one minute and fifteen seconds.”

“I never realized this before,” Big Pete said, sitting in a chair at the far end of the room, “but the situation in the tower is just as tense as that which you find in the ship itself. Maybe more, because at blast-off they don’t really do any work. It’s completely up to the tower, and you have about one minute to settle this little argument.”

“It’s already settled,” Captain Saunders told him. “I don’t know why your son wants to be ornery. Well, whatever his reason is, it doesn’t matter; we’re keeping this orbit.”

“Forty seconds!” the radio voice barked. “Lord, it will be good to clear orbits again.”

Sure
, Pete thought
, it will he good — right into a pirate trap. . . . A spaceship orbit, an ellipse with one focal point in the sun. Draw that other focal point wherever you like — except that one particular point will lead to piracy. And I have no choice!

“Ten seconds, tower!”

Pete flipped over the standby switch, heard a loud beep from the ship outside, signifying that the tower had control.

“Four seconds! Three! Two — one —”

Mechanically, Pete pressed the firing stud. A short wave radio beam on precisely the right frequency pulled the safeties out of the
Crape Ring
’s controlled atomic pile. There was a deep-throated roar and the light of a dozen suns burned in through the tower’s glare-proof windows.

Slowly, majestically, the
Crape Ring
soared skyward, balancing with perfect grace atop a pillar of flame. Accelerating, the shaft of fire streaked higher and higher. The
Crape Ring
became a tiny dot reflecting the crimson of the newly risen sun.

It disappeared.

For several moments after that, Pete could see the streak of flame high up in the sky. Then it, too, was gone, leaving only a black line in the crisp early-morning blue.

“Whew!” Big Pete mopped his brow, “When I was a kid out there I used to think the tower boys had it easy.”

“They don’t,” Captain Saunders explained with a smile. “You can’t plot any orbit any old way. A slight miscalculation will send a ship streaking out of the solar system altogether, and while it could correct the mistake with its own power, so much fuel probably would be exhausted that it wouldn’t have enough left to brake for a landing.”

Pete stood up. “I think I’ll go home and take a nice long nap.”

His father chuckled softly. “I’d say you need one, son!

 

Two days later, Garr rushed into the tower excitedly. “Pete! Hey, Pete —”

“What’s up?”

“I just got my orders, that’s what. They don’t give you much time!”

“What do you mean?”

“You’re sending a ship off at sundown tonight, aren’t you? Out to the asteroids, the long way, past the sun?”

Pete nodded.

“Well,” Garr said, “I’ll be on it. Me, I’ll be on it! I’m going to space at last,” He shook Pete’s hand wildly, then, as if he had forgotten all about it, shook hands again. “I’m going to space.”

Then he danced a crazy jig, balancing his tall, lanky frame first on one foot, then the other. He cavorted madly about the tower, singing the
Spaceman’s Chant
in a high falsetto. After a time, Pete entered into the spirit of things, joining him in the song —

“Ho-ho
Ho
! for the void and far away-aay!”

“A couple of lunatics!” Captain Saunders laughed, entering the room.

“I — I’m sorry, sir,” Pete stammered. “We —”

“Forget it. Don’t you think I know what it’s like to go to space for the first time? Have your fun, boys, and listen. Pete, you can take the evening off if you’d like. I’ll have one of the other orbiteers take the ship up. You can watch your friend leave. Okay?”

“Yes, sir!” they both shouted together, and ran from the room.

The ship reared its pointed prow high up out of the blasting pit. “She’s a beauty, isn’t she?” said Garr.

“The best,” Pete agreed.

Garr frowned, but almost at once he was smiling again. “You know, I really wanted to go to Mars, and they’re shipping me out to the asteroids instead. Well, I’ll get to Mars some day, and meanwhile, there’ll be a lot of work to do in the asteroids. We’ll be landing on Ceres, and after that all the Cadets will be going out in two-man ships, checking on the miners. I’ll like that, Pete.”

The asteroid Ceres, Pete knew, was round, a man-sized chunk of miniature planet, over four hundred and twenty miles in diameter. When an astronomical body reached a certain size, physical law dictated its shape: it had to be round. But many of the thousands of asteroids that spun around the sun in their eternal orbits between Mars and Jupiter were too small for that — jagged lumps of rock careening chaotically through the void. The asteroid belt was a swarm of cosmic debris — and dangerous, unless you calculated your orbit in advance. Even the smallest speck of an asteroid could pulverize a spaceship.

“I guess I don’t have to say ‘good luck,’” Pete told his friend. “You know how I feel, Garr.”

“Sure,” Garr nodded. “And don’t worry about me, I can take care of myself. There’s only one thing that bothers me.”

“What’s that?”

“Out in the swarm, my shipmate will be Roger Gorham. It isn’t fair, Pete. It should be you. We planned it that way for a long time, but now I’m going, and leaving you behind on Earth.”


You’re
not leaving me!” Pete cried. “Don’t let it bother you, Garr — it wasn’t your idea. If they say I’m unfit, I guess I’m unfit. And anyway, this is a heck of a time to talk about that. You’re going to space, man — you’re going to space!”

“Yeah,” Garr said. “Yeah.”

And then a group of Cadets had come onto the field marching slowly toward their waiting ship.

 

“We’ll thunder off to Io

Out in the Jovian Moons!

We’ll seek the skies and feast our eyes

And plunder Martian ruins!”

 

They all seemed deliriously happy, all but one. Even Garr joined in, singing louder than the rest. But behind the little group came a stocky figure, walking indifferently, not singing.

Roger Gorham.

Pete couldn’t help overhearing them. “Must you sing that silly song?” Roger demanded.

And Garr stormed, “What’s the matter with you? Of course we want to sing it; it’s a beautiful song!”

“Well, I think it’s childish.”

“Childish?” Garr was incredulous. “Why’d you join the Cadets?”

“It wasn’t my idea,” Roger sneered. “My father thought I’d get some good experience this way, before I become an executive in his space-lines.” He laughed dryly. “I don’t intend to stay in the Cadets until I’m twenty-five. I’d go crazy out there with nothing to do.”

Garr snorted his disgust. “I guess you would,” he said, and stalked back toward Pete. “Nice guy, huh, Petey-boy?”

Pete smiled. “Just what the Solar Cadets need!”

Garr looked behind him, saw the last of the Cadets filing into the ship. A steward stood on the runway, staring at Garr meaningfully.

“That’s for me, Pete. They’re all set now; so, so I guess this is good-by.”

“Yes,” Pete said. “It’s good-by.”

“But heck, Petey-boy! Not forever. I’ll be back before we know it — and I’ll bring you a chunk of asteroid, too. Along with some mighty interesting tales about what lies out there . . .”

“So long!” Pete called, watching Garr run for the ship.

His friend waved once from the runway, then turned and strode in through the port. A moment later, the space-lock clanged shut. The steward got off the runway and two men in overalls began to wheel it away.

A port policeman motioned Pete back away from the blasting pit, continued motioning with his hands until Pete stood in the safety zone, two hundred yards from the ship. A crowd stood there, eager, expectant.

“Remember that one third from last, that was my son!”

“They’re going to the asteroids. It should be wonderful . . .”

“Any kid who doesn’t join the Cadets just doesn’t know what he’s missing . . .”

“Listen! Hear that noise? Means they’re ready!”

It was the familiar beep of the ship-to-tower signal, and a moment later the ship roared away.

Garr had gone to space! But when Pete closed his eyes, he saw the sneering face of Roger Gorham.

 

Chapter 8 — Pirates!

 

Pete wandered aimlessly away from the observation deck, only half-aware of the crowd dispersing slowly. Someone tapped his shoulder, and startled, he whirled around.

“Gus!”

“Yeah, it’s me. Hello, sonny.”

“I thought you said we wouldn’t have to meet any longer.”

“Yeah, I said that. But I just wanted to thank you for the message you sent the other day.”

“Don’t thank me! I had no choice, but I wouldn’t have done it, not unless . . .”

“Relax, sonny. Look — I like you. I mean that, I really do. But your trouble is you don’t understand me.”

“What’s there to understand? You’re a cheap, no-good crook!”

“Sonny!” Ganymede Gus admonished. “Sonny! Let me tell you a story. Wait, don’t run away! It will only take a minute. Years ago, I was washed out of space. Why? Because they suddenly decided you had to be a Cadet graduate to pilot a ship or to be a crewman.

“How would you have liked that? Not so good, eh? Okay — I looked for a job. I didn’t just look for a few days. I looked for years. But all I’d known was spaceflight, and because I wasn’t a graduate, they wanted no part of me. I had to make a living . . .”

BOOK: Earthbound (Winston Science Fiction Book 1)
12.81Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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