d his
detachment! Without slowing, he called, "Follow me!"

The cruiser's safety officer had been keeping an eye on the clock, his
forehead creased in a frown as he saw that only a few seconds remained to
departure time. He walked to the valve opening and looked out. If his
passengers were not in sight, he would have to reset the clock.

Rip went through the valve opening at top speed. He crashed head-on into
the safety officer.

The safety officer was driven across the deck, his arms pumping for
balance. He grabbed at the nearest thing, which happened to be the deputy
cruiser commander.

The pre-set control clock reached firing time. The valve slid shut and the
take-off bell reverberated through the ship.

And so it happened that the spacemen of the SCN _Scorpius_ turned their
valves, threw their controls and disengaged their boron control rods, and
the great cruiser flashed into space, while the deputy commander and the
safety officer were completely tangled with a very flustered and unhappy
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 posts 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 liquid methane 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
against a vertical brace, his brown face wreathed in a grin as he waited
for his new officer.

Rip looked him over carefully. There was a saying among the Planeteers
that an officer was only as good as his senior sergeant. Koa's looks were
reassuring. His face was good-humored, but he had a solid jaw and a