K. by me, Tom," replied Astro.
"Good. You get the cutting torches rigged, Astro. Roger, you give him a
hand and keep your eye on the counter. Then feed the torches to me when
I get inside the tube. I'm going outside to get rid of a bad rocket and
save a five-million-credit spaceship!"
Before Astro or Roger could protest, Tom opened the hatch and began to
climb out on the steel hull toward the rocket tubes, main exhaust.
His magnetic-soled shoes gripping the smooth steel hull, the cadet made
his way aft to the stern of the ship and began the climb down around the
huge firing tubes and into the tubes themselves.
"Hey, Astro," he yelled into the spacephone, "I'm inside the tubes. How
about those torches?" The cadets had adjusted the wave length so that
all could hear what was said.
"Take it easy, spaceboy," said Roger, "I'm leaving the hatch now. You
and your fatheaded friend from Venus are so hopped up for getting a
Solar Medal--"
"Knock it off, Manning!" said Astro from inside the ship. "And for your
information, I don't want a medal. I don't want anything except for you
to stop griping!"
Roger reached the end of the ship and began to climb down inside the
tube where Tom was waiting for him.
"O.K., spaceboy," said Roger, "here're your cutting torches." He started
moving back. "I'll see you around. I don't mind being a little hero for
saving people and all that stuff.
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