Roger looked down at the face of the radioactive measuring device and
answered, "She's been dropping for the last five minutes, Tom. Looks
like the mass in number three is cooling off. Fourteen hundred and ten
now."
"That's not fast enough," said Astro, straightening up from tightening a
nut on the lead baffle. "She's still plenty hot. That mass should have
been dumped out of the rocket exhaust right away. Now the whole tube
control box is so hot with radiation, it'd burn you to a crisp if you
opened the hatch."
"Good thing you brought along those tools from the _Polaris_," said Tom.
"Yeah, greaseball," said Roger, "you used your head for once. Now let's
see you use it again and pile out of this hunk of junk!"
"Fifteen hundred on the counter is the danger mark, Roger, and as long
as we keep it under that, I'm going to try and save this wagon!" replied
Astro.
"Why? To get yourself a Solar Medal?" asked Roger sarcastically.
"What do you think made this tub act up like this, Astro?" asked Tom,
ignoring Roger's remark.
"Using special reactant feed, Tom," replied Astro. "This is a converted
chemical burner--with an old-type cooling pump. It's touchy stuff."
"Well, couldn't we drive boron rods into the mass and slow down the
reaction?" asked Tom.
"No, Tom," answered Astro, "the control for the rods are inside the tube
control box.
Pages:
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172