new Planeteer lieutenant.

Sergeant Major Koa and his men had made it before the valve closed. Koa,
a seven-foot Hawaiian, took in the situation and said crisply in a voice
all could hear, "I'll bust the bubble of any son of a space sausage who
laughs!"




CHAPTER TWO

Rake That Radiation!


The deputy commander and the safety officer got untangled and hurried to
their post, with no more than black looks at Rip. He got to his feet, his
face crimson with embarrassment. A fine entrance for a Planeteer officer,
especially one on his first orders!

Around him the spacemen were settling in their acceleration seats or
snapping belts to safety hooks. From the direction of the stern came a
rising roar as methane, heated to a liquid, dropped into the blast tubes,
flaming into pure carbon and hydrogen under the terrible heat of the
atomic drive.

Rip had to lean against the acceleration. Fighting for balance, he picked
up his spack and made his way to the nine enlisted Planeteers. They had
braced against the ship's drive by sitting with backs against bulkheads
or by lying flat on the magnesium deck. Sergeant Major Koa was seated