Richard M. Elam

“ Glen picked up some of the rocket flares and “drifted” out of the bubble tent. He set up a flare on its tripod legs, pointed it at Mars’ ruddy face and pulled on the release catch. But it wouldn’t move.
“It’s jammed!” Glen tried another rocket and got the same result. Then another, and another. They were all useless, all the catches warped, possibly from having been kept too near a heat source in the ship.
“How are we going to signal Mars now?” Skip asked.
“Anything we toss out will be drawn to the planet by its gravitation,” Glen was thinking out loud. ”

“ Only underhand throwing was allowed in baseball on the Moon, for the ball was exceedingly fast in the light gravity and airlessness. Bill, in snug-fitting space gear, was standing farther than the regulation ninety feet from the plate. This was because of the pitcher’s advantage over the batter in Lunar ball.
Bill wound up and threw. The ball shot like a bullet into Ollie’s double-padded mitt.
“Thatta boy, Bill!” Ollie’s voice came over Bill’s space suit radio. “If you’re this sharp when we meet the Comets this afternoon, we’re bound to win our first championship!” ”

“ In this sled Biff and his young helpers had brought supplies to the colony several hours before.
Steve, Sue and Biff climbed into the front seat. Then Biff shut the door. He pushed buttons in front of them. Steve and Sue felt the sled’s engines throbbing. The next moment the sled shot off over the smooth sheet of ice, Biff holding tightly to the steering wheel.
“Wheeeeee!” Sue screamed in delight. “Offffffffff weeeeeeee goooooooooo!”
“Like a rooooller cooooster!” Steve shouted.
They sped along at a hundred miles an hour. This was as much fun as they had had on their last space journey. ”

“ Sue and Steve Shannon watched the magic world of stardust through a port of the rocket freighter. The ship was moving under power of its atomic engines, headed toward the sun.
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They had one more cargo stop to make before returning to their beloved soil on the Earth.
The twins heard the clack of magnetic soles behind them. Without such shoes holding them to the floor, space travelers would float about helplessly like wingless birds.
“Hi, kids,” greeted their father. “Growing tired of the view?”
“I guess I am, Dad,” Steve admitted. His blue eyes were tired. ”

“ Mr. Shannon looked at his son and daughter anxiously. “Keep your chins up, kids,” he said. “Nothing was ever gained by people losing their heads. I’m sure they’ll figure out some way to save us.”
“I—I’m not afraid, Dad,” Steve said bravely.
There were tears of fright in Sue’s brown eyes but her small chin was courageously set and she would not permit herself to give in to the terror she really felt. ”

“ Compared to the tiny ship they were in, which was shaped like a medicine capsule, the Wheel in the Sky was a gigantic thing. It looked like an automobile wheel and by its moving spokes the children saw that it was turning just like one.
“Why does the Wheel spin, Dad?” Steve asked.
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“That’s in order to give the people inside of it a feeling of weight,” Mr. Shannon explained. “As I told you before, things in space have no weight because there is no gravity out here to speak of. What happens when you ride on the merry-go-round on the school playground?” ”

“ The children had been enjoying themselves so thoroughly that they knew nothing of the peril that was heading their way.
The first warning came when one of the skyport men standing nearby shouted over his space suit radio. Steve whirled in alarm. His heart seemed to stop beating completely for a terrible moment.
A tardy plane had come in for a landing on the sky platform. But the howling wind had kept everyone from hearing the warning siren. ”

“ They too were overjoyed at receiving messages from home. The jeep rolled on from there to a huge plain which was being prepared for a future spaceport. Capt. Welsh and his helper dropped off another mail sack and then were on their way again. Some hours later, all but two deliveries had been made.
“Next stop is the astronomy observatory,” Capt. Welsh told Jerry.
They crawled over sandy hills that taxed the gripping power of their spiked wheels, wound in and out of towering buttresses of black basalt, and bored through natural tunnels like a pair of human moles. ”

“ It resembled one of the thrill rides at a carnival, the one that whirls you round and round like a ball on the end of a string. Gib entered a tiny cabin at the end of the large swinging arm and sat down in a thick foam-rubber reclining chair.
As he was strapped down, the tester said to him, “This is called the ‘Centrifuge,’ son, and it simulates the blast-off from Earth in a rocket ship. You appear to be a little young to be taking it, so if you’ve had enough just yank that lever in front of you and we’ll stop the machine.” ”

“ Jerry screamed in fear as he felt himself being thrown out of the car. He struck the ground hard and began rolling head over heels down the precipice.
When the numbing shock of his fall had worn off, Jerry climbed dazedly to his feet and looked up the slope down which he had been thrown.
“Dad!” he cried. He slipped and scrambled up the incline in reckless haste. He found Capt. Welsh sprawled unconscious just below the upper brink of the precipice. Jerry knelt and looked into his face through the clear plastic helmet. ”

“ Mr. Quinlan said. “We’re out of the earth’s atmosphere and that’s why the sky is dark and the stars so brilliant. Our rear jets are thrusting just barely enough to keep us from being pulled back down to earth.”
The guide next said that they would go outside the ship in space suits. Sue and Steve whooped in joy for they had not expected this. Mr. Quinlan distributed space gear from a cabinet. Then he explained how they were put on. After the flexible suits and plastic helmets were donned, everyone turned on his oxygen, which came from shoulder tanks. ”

“ It was just like his unselfish dad to say that, Steve thought. He felt the same way about it. And he didn’t doubt that tender-hearted Sue was of the same mind.
Mr. Shannon started out of the room again. “I’m going to see what they are going to do.”
Steve and Sue went back to their game. But somehow it wasn’t as much fun now. People were in trouble and trouble in space was often a frightening thing. ”

“ Captain Furman has received an S. O. S. from a passenger rocket that’s down on the asteroid, Sierra.” The twins knew an asteroid to be one of the thousands of tiny planets in the Solar System.
“Are we going to her aid?” Steve asked.
“It depends on whether we have enough fuel or not,” his father replied. “Even atomic fuel runs out sometime, you know. Captain Furman is talking with his officers now. It’ll be a shame if we can’t help the Pole Star—as much as I want to see Mom.” ”

“ Steve said.
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“It’s certainly summertime on Sierra!” Sue added.
They watched crewmen in space suits come out of the freighter and begin uncoiling a spool of rope that would stretch between the two ships. Safety lines led from all the men back to the cargo ship.
“There’s almost no gravity at all here,” Mr. Shannon told his son and daughter, “because the asteroid is so small. If the people from the Pole Star—providing there are any alive—didn’t have the rope to hang on to, they might float right off Sierra.” ”

“ After they had put on their space clothes, Steve popped Bud into his warm, air-tight cage.
As they all went outside, they saw the crewmen unloading the cargo.
“There’s the colony over there,” Mr. Shannon said, pointing to a high framework that looked something like an oil derrick.
“They mine here for a mineral called magna. It’s very valuable, because without it we couldn’t have atomic engines. Magna is what keeps our rocket tubes from melting under the terrific heat that goes through them.”
“May we go down into the mines, Dad?” Steve asked. ”

“ Ballinger was the president of the American Space Supply Company and was Mr. Shannon’s boss. Mr. Ballinger explained that the Pole Star was heading for Mars when there was an explosion in the rocket tubes. By landing on Sierra the captain thought there was a better chance of their being found than if they had just kept drifting in space, because all ships knew the path of “The Flying Mountain.” No one had been hurt in the landing and the Pole Star had enough fuel to get the freighter back to Earth. ”

“ Jerry asked with surprise.
“Fear was given to man, so he could save himself from danger, Jerry,” Capt. Welsh said. “Don’t be ashamed of it. Fear is nothing to be ashamed of unless you let it get the best of you. Never forget that.”
They arrived at their first delivery point, an engineering project on a plateau surrounded by mountains. There were the foundations of great buildings to come, constructed of hard Lunar granite.
The space-suited figures came running when they recognized Capt. Welsh and his mail car. ”

“ Hugh reminded him. “Lots of it.”
“Young man,” Mr. Benasco grunted, “you do not need to tell me of the value of postage stamps. I’m well acquainted with Scott’s catalogue. I have every intention of paying for my merchandise.” He pulled out such a wad of bills that Link gasped. “You see, I can pay.”
“What about that rocket pistol you’re carrying in your pocket, Mr. Benasco?” Link asked suspiciously. “Do you always go around armed?”
“Oh, this?” the old man asked, taking out the rusted miniature model. “This is nothing but an old relic of mine when I was a space hand myself on a freighter. ”

“ I had to take my brother’s place on this trip when he became sick. You see, everyone on Tata Moori learns science when they are very young.”
“I’ve been wondering how it is that you speak English, Linnia.”
“We keep tuned in on your radio and television,” Linnia answered. “That’s how we learned your language and so many other things about you.”
“You people seem to be ahead of us in progress,” Beth said. “I believe there is much we can learn from you.”
“We can learn much from you too,” Linnia spoke. “I hope the people of our planets are permitted to meet very soon.” ”

“ SPACE RIDES DAILY.
ENJOY THE THRILL OF A LIFETIME A THOUSAND MILES ABOVE EARTH.
Mr. Shannon got their tickets. Then after a heart check-up they waited in line with the other eager sight-seers. Finally the space port officer took down the chain that held back the crowd and permitted them to approach the rocket. They had to cross a bridge to get from the pit edge into the ship. As they crossed, Steve looked down into the hot pit and saw clouds of flame and smoke pouring from the great jet tubes. ”

“ Conversation was carried on by means of space suit radios with those aboard the freighter, who stood on their own outside platform.
“Why can’t we get closer to Apollo’s Chariot?” Steve asked Biff Warren, who was the twins’ favorite among the crewmen. Biff was piling boxes and crates at the edge of the platform.
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“Space regulations,” answered Biff. “If a meteor should hit one of us, the other ship would explode too if we were close. Also, rocket tubes are so tricky that you never know when one is going to misfire and send your ship scooting off suddenly in the wrong direction.” ”

“ As he waited impatiently for the engine to cool, a warning voice in his mind was saying: “Your oxygen is getting lower by the second. If the jeep doesn’t get out of here within the next fifteen minutes, you and your dad will never make it.”
Jerry shook off the terrible thoughts. He stamped his feet to warm them. The electric circuit in his suit seemed to be breaking down. If it collapsed completely, he would be frozen instantly by the Lunar cold.
Jerry massaged his dad’s hands and legs in case his suit, too, was getting colder. He worked steadily until his hands ached. ”

“ Bill told him over his suit radio. “You’re thinking too much about going to Earth, Pete. You’re trying too hard!”
“I’ll try to do better,” Pete promised.
The next batter drove a high fly to center, sending the runner in from third and making the score 4-0. Bill walked the player following, but then he was lucky enough to strike out the hard-hitting Jack Brenna.
The next Comet drove a hard liner to Pete. Pete scrambled for the ball, but once again he muffed it and it went on into the outfield. ”

“ At game time the grandstand was filled and some people were standing. It was the largest crowd ever to see a ball game on the Moon. Much of the crowd was made up of hopeful parents from the Plato colony who had come seven hundred miles by rocket plane to see their boys play.
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The champion Copernicus Comets ran out onto the field in big bouncing strides. For on the Moon a person was capable of jumping and running in great leaps because of the low gravity, only one-sixth of Earth’s. ”

“ Quinlan, led the sight-seers to a huge window. The young Shannons gasped in wonder at what they saw. The sky was nearly pitch black and filled with more burning lights than they even guessed could exist. ”

“ Then it came to him what his father had said about fear: a person need never be ashamed of fear so long as it was not permitted to get the upper hand.
Jerry pulled his father up onto the roadway and tried to bring him around, but without result. Jerry examined the jeep. One side was badly smashed, but the engine still appeared sound. The car was tipped over against the rock column. Jerry was thankful that the jeep was only one-sixth of its Earth-weight on the moon. It was a tremendous effort but he finally righted the car and got it back on the road. ”

“ They saw the room where giant machines made oxygen out of chemicals and blew it through the building so that there was fresh air to breathe all the time. And they saw the astronomy hall far up on top of the dome where scientists could see the heavens through the thin atmosphere much clearer than they could from Earth.
“Isn’t it about time for the fuel rocket to be shot off, Biff?” Steve asked. ”

“ The Weather Control Bureau here has a way of dealing with them, though. They do many skillful things in Weather Control. They can make it rain in dry parts of the world and even melt snow drifts in blizzard areas.”
“What can they do about a tornado?” Steve asked.
“When one threatens a city they fire a guided missile—a bomb—that breaks up the twister before it can do any harm. We’ll visit the Weather Control Bureau as soon as we’ve been to the hub of the Wheel.”
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Mr. Shannon led them out of the Military Lookout Room. Steve and Sue then found a job of climbing facing them. ”