  His heart pounding in anxiety at Jill’s plight, Ted opened a door and dashed into the next room of the suite. “Jill!” he cried. “She’s hurt!” Dr. Kenton looked up, startled, from the desk where he had been studying. “Let’s go, Son!” the scientist said, jumping to his feet. “Where’s Mom?” Ted asked. “She’s down in the magazine shop,” his father answered, and added, “It’s probably for the better.” They hurried into the observation room where Ted and Jill had been so happy together only a short time before. The boy pointed overhead at the air vent, where Jill’s limp form hung, lighter than a thistle in her weightlessness. Even Dr. Kenton’s tall, stalwart form could not reach high enough to bring her down. “We’ve got to have something to stand on,” he said. Ted thought of the long window seat. He rushed over and knelt down to examine it. “The window seat is in sections, Dad, and has some clamps holding it down,” he said. “We ought to be able to get it loose.” Dr. Kenton’s strong fingers released the catches that held the seat in place. Then he lifted it out and carried it across to the spot beneath the air vent. He stood on the seat and grasped Jill’s slim body, bringing it down. The girl was stretched out waist high in the air, in which position her father could best see her injury. Ted held her so that a sudden movement would not send her floating off. The scientist found a cut on Jill’s temple where she had struck the air vent. She began stirring. In a few seconds she had recovered consciousness. She was pale and smiled feebly. “What happened to me?” she asked in a weak voice. Only then did Dr. Kenton seem concerned about the cause of the accident. He looked inquiringly at Ted. “Well, Ted,” he said, “what did happen?” “She wanted to go without her shoes to see what it felt like,” Ted replied. “I should have stopped her.” “You both should be tanned for a trick like that,” his father said gravely. “Jill could have been seriously injured.” They helped Jill to the window seat, then put on her magnetic shoes for her. She said she felt all right, but her father insisted that she have the cut treated. A brief visit to the first-aid cabinet, built into the wall of the room, had Jill’s hurt taken care of in a few moments. “What prompted you two to try such a stunt as this?” Dr. Kenton asked as he closed the door of the first-aid cabinet. “I thought you had been well grounded on the facts of weightless bodies in space.” Ted, embarrassed, kicked the seat section they had removed, forgetting that it was not fastened down. It scooted off in the air, but Dr. Kenton alertly grabbed it before it got far. “I guess we were just fidgety for something to do,” Ted said. “I suppose the scenery is getting a little monotonous for you,” their father replied. “Maybe I can arrange for you to stretch your legs a bit.” “You mean we can tour the ship now?” Jill asked excitedly. “I think so,” Dr. Kenton said, “I believe the confusion that always follows the fire-off is pretty well under control now. I’ll ask Commander Grissom about it.” Their father left and was back in a short while. “We can go,” he told them. “We’ll leave a note for Mom to let her know where we’ve gone.” He scribbled it off, after getting a slip of paper from a drawer in the wall desk. Then he asked them, “What would you like to see first?” “Hi, folks,” he greeted. “The pilots’ roost!” Ted said, and Jill nodded in agreement. The three of them clicked along the corridor in their magnetic shoes. Reaching the pilots’ roost in the nose of the space ship, Dr. Kenton knocked on the door and was told to enter. Inside, the children found two men in the light green with gold trim of the Space Transport Command, sitting in big roomy seats in front of a large bank of dials and levers. Above the panel was a broad port looking out into space. One of the pilots appeared to be busy. The unoccupied one spun on his swivel seat and smiled at the Kentons. “Hi, folks,” he greeted. “Come on in!” He introduced himself as Lieutenant Foran and his copilot as Lieutenant Starky, who took a moment from his work to smile a greeting. “On every trip we make we usually let the passengers come in a few at a time,” Lieutenant Foran said, “to look around.” The pilot showed them what each dial on the panel meant. Jill was soon bewildered by it all, but Ted was interested in every gadget and meter. He decided at that moment that he would like nothing better than one day to be a pilot on an interplanetary space liner. Ted had noticed a huge circular screen built into the middle of the panel, with circles radiating out from the center of it. Suddenly it lighted up, and white spots, or “blips,” began popping out on the glass’s phosphor coating. Ted saw that the pilots’ eyes had flashed swiftly toward the screen. Lieutenant Starky leaned forward and twisted a dial. “What’s he doing?” Ted asked. “That’s the radarscope,” Lieutenant Foran said. “The screen automatically lights up when anything comes directly into our path, even if it’s many thousands of miles away. Those blips are echoes we’re receiving from our approaching neighbors out there.” Lieutenant Foran went over to the panel, looking up at the screen. “What is it?” he asked his companion. “Seems to be a ship,” replied Lieutenant Starky. “Probably the mail rocket Moonstone on its way back from Luna. The navigator said we’d pass it.” Lieutenant Foran slid into his seat and pressed a button on the panel. A voice from a speaker said, “Navigation.” The young Kentons heard the two crewmen speak in low tones for several moments. Then Lieutenant Foran switched off and turned to the copilot with an apprehensive look on his face. “He says the Moonstone should have turned off course before now! It’s heading straight toward us!” “We’ll call the Commander!” Lieutenant Starky said, jabbing a button. Jill squeezed her father’s arm. “Are we going to crash?” she whispered. “Don’t be scared, honey,” her father said soothingly. “I’m sure we’ll be all right.” But Ted saw the fear in his dad’s eyes, and his own heart seemed to squirm with terror in his body. Was their very first journey into space going to end tragically scarcely before it had started? |
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