Part 2

“Now where do we go from here?” Patch asked, as the two removed their harness straps and got to their feet. “Garry, I’m scared, plenty scared! Wow, I’m a little wobbly too!”

“Let’s stay put until we hear further announcements over the speaker,” Garry suggested. “It’ll give us time to think this through a little longer.”

“We’re just stalling, that’s what we’re doing, aren’t we, Garry? We don’t want to turn ourselves in because we’re afraid of what will happen to us,” Patch said.

Garry hung his head. “I guess that’s what it does amount to, Patch. I keep thinking what this will do to our hopes of being spacemen. I’m afraid we’ll never make it now.”

They stayed in hiding for another half hour. Then Garry said: “We’ve got to have something to live on until we make up our minds what we’re going to do, Patch. I think space ships have emergency-ration compartments located along the corridors. I’m in favor of looking for one.”

“That’s better than just waiting here and doing nothing,” Patch agreed.

“I’ll look out and see if the coast is clear,” Garry said.

He looked around outside and then motioned to Patch. They started off quietly down the corridor, but after a moment they heard footsteps approaching from around the corner behind them.

“Garry, we’ve got to hide!” Patch whispered urgently. “Somebody’s coming!”

Garry saw a door up ahead. “That leads into an air lock, Patch. We may be safe in there.”

Garry turned a wheel on the door, and it swung open. They found themselves in a short tunnel, at the other end of which was another door. The air lock was used for entering and leaving the ship while it was in space. The spaceman would enter the chamber and wait for the air pressure to equalize before he left the air lock.

Garry quickly turned another wheel on the inside of the door, closing it.

“We can’t stay in here very long without air,” Garry said. “The other end of this air lock probably leads directly into the space station. Shall we try it?”

“This running and hiding has got to end somewhere,” Patch replied with discouragement. “Lead on.”

Garry checked the pressure gauge on the far door and saw that there was normal pressure on the other side. He turned the wheel on the door, and it swung open. The boys went through, and Garry wheeled the door shut behind them.

They were in a huge enclosed dock of the space station. Lined up ahead were several space taxis, or fliers, which were used for trips outside the station and also doubled as lifeboats in time of emergency.

“Gee, it’s cold in here!” Patch said.

“The main thing, though, is that there’s no one around,” Garry said. “It’ll give us time to collect our thoughts.”

“That’s what you think,” Patch whispered, tugging at Garry’s arm. “There come a couple of men down that corridor across the way!”

Garry moved quickly and quietly, pulling Patch along. As the men entered the dock, the boys ducked out of sight behind one of the space fliers.

The men approached the flier next to the outer door of the dock and pressed a button on the taxi’s surface. Its door sprang open, and the men entered the flier.

They were in there for fully five minutes. During that time, Garry began to shiver, but it was not from fright so much as it was the coldness of the dock. Garry felt Patch shaking beside him and knew his friend was just as uncomfortable as he. But they had to stay put. There was no other place they could go at this moment.

Finally, the men came out of the space taxi, closed the door, and, to the relief of Garry and Patch, disappeared up the corridor.

Garry stood up and hugged himself.

“Garry, I—I’m freezing to death,” Patch chattered.

“So am I. We sure can’t stay here like this,” Garry replied.

“Why don’t we try getting into one of these ships?” Patch suggested. “Maybe they’ve got heaters inside.”

Garry pressed the button of the ship which they had been hiding behind, but the door did not open.

“The power is off or something,” Garry groaned.

“Maybe the first one will open,” Patch said. “It worked for those men.”

Garry went over to the first craft and pressed the door button. Instantly, the door sprang open. A tiny air-lock chamber faced them.

“Thank goodness,” Patch murmured. “Let’s go in.”

“What if the men come back?” Garry cautioned. “They may be preparing for a trip.”

“There are windows facing the corridor,” Patch said. “We can keep an eye out for them and duck for cover again if they return. Gee, let’s try it anyhow, Garry! I feel like a penguin that’s lost all its feathers!”

Garry agreed and entered the flier, Patch climbing in behind. A second door led from the air lock chamber into the flier proper. Besides the pilot’s seat, there were six other seats, three on a side. It was warmer in here than outside, and Garry felt heat gently blowing. This made him suspect that the men had just turned it on and that they were going to return for a trip in the craft.

“I’m afraid we won’t have long to stay in here,” Garry told his friend and mentioned his suspicion to him.

“I guess you’re right,” Patch agreed. “Where will we go from here? Garry, I’m tired of running. And I’m getting more scared by the minute because of what we’re doing. Why don’t we just turn ourselves in and face the music, whatever it is?”

Through a window of the taxi, Garry was watching the corridor for signs of the returning men. “I guess you’re right, Patch,” he said. “We’ll give ourselves up when those men return.”

“I don’t think we should wait until then,” Patch objected. “It will go a lot easier for us if we give ourselves up voluntarily instead of looking as if we had been caught.”

Once again Garry agreed, but, as he was reaching for the button to open the door, he heard a click.

“What was that?” Patch asked in alarm. “What did you do?”

“Nothing,” Garry said. “Something was operating all by itself.”

A soft purring sound began to be heard inside the craft, and Garry felt the little ship vibrating ever so softly.

“Patch,” Garry said tensely, “I don’t like this.” He tried the door button, but it would not work.

“What’s happening?” Patch asked, and there was fright in his voice.

A movement outside in the dock caught the boys’ eyes. Through the wide front port of the ship, they watched a big door slide open, revealing a dark air-lock tunnel—a tunnel large enough to hold the craft which they were occupying!

“Garry,” Patch repeated, “what’s happening!”

Garry slumped into one of the seats, fear numbing his heart.

“Now I know what kind of ship this is, Patch,” he murmured. “It’s remote controlled, guided by an operator inside the space station. We’re heading straight out into space, Patch!”

4. ADRIFT IN THE DEEPS

Trapped within the space taxi, Garry and Patch watched the darkness of space enlarge before their eyes as the ship emerged from the air-lock tunnel of the space station. The stars about them were countless lights, some packed so closely together that they trailed across the sky like distant streaming veils. But the boys had no eye for their beauty at this time.

“Garry,” Patch asked in a dismal voice, “what’s going to happen to us?”

“As long as they have control of the ship, I guess we’ll be all right,” Garry replied. “Maybe they are just sending the ship out on a practice run or possibly to pick someone up.”

“Pick someone up?” Patch asked, puzzled.

“I was thinking of satellite workers or repairmen. The skies out here are flooded with satellites, you know. They must have men working on them all the time,” Garry explained.

Garry heard a hissing sound. He found a slit in the wall from which it was coming. Near the opening was a gauge.

“That’s an oxygen mixture coming in,” Garry said. “It’s probably automatic. It turns on whenever the air pressure drops or becomes fouled.”

“That’s something in our favor,” Patch said grudgingly.

Garry found his feet beginning to lift weightlessly off the floor. His body sagged off balance, and he had to hold onto a handle on one of the seats.

“Garry, what’ll we do?” Patch exclaimed frantically. “We’re going weightless!”

“Let’s look for a wardrobe compartment,” Garry suggested. “Since these fliers are used as lifeboats sometimes, there must be space suits and things. Maybe we’ll find magnetic shoes, too.”

“How’ll we ever get around in here to look for anything?” Patch sputtered. By now he was floating, his legs and arms flailing helplessly like a bug on its back.

Using the handles on the backs of the seats, Garry worked his way across to a cabinet set in the wall. Then he moved from the last seat handle to the wall rail and worked himself down it to the plastic case. Through the clear window Garry could see space suits and accessories. He pressed a button, and the door popped open.

“We’re in luck, Patch,” Garry reported. “There are magnetic shoes in here. I hope the gravity plates in the floor are working.”

Garry managed to pick up two pairs of the shoes, tucking one pair under one arm. That left one hand holding the second pair and the other hand free.

Even then, it took quite some doing for him to work his way across to Patch, who looked like a pennant floating in the breeze as he hung crossways in the air, one hand tightly clutching a seat handle.

“Garry, I don’t feel so good,” Patch complained. “Everything in me feels like its pushing upward. Even my brain seems to be floating.”

“It’s lack of gravity doing that,” Garry said. “You are used to gravity always pulling down on you. When that pull is gone, it makes you feel as if your body is moving up. At least that’s what all the books say. And I believe them, because I feel that way myself. Here are your shoes. They’re pretty big, but they’ll be better than nothing.”

“Garry, how’ll I ever get them on?” Patch protested.

“I’ll hold onto you while you put them on,” Garry offered. “That’ll make it easier—I guess.”

Garry got behind Patch and held him by the collar. Then began Patch’s struggles with the shoes. It was comical for Garry to see his friend having such a hard time, but he knew Patch would have the laugh on him later.

It took them both a good while to get the shoes on. When the floor current of the gravity plates finally held them down, the boys laughed at each other in their oversized equipment.

“I guess we look like snowshoe rabbits with our big feet!” Patch said with a laugh. “Good thing those straps pulled up tight, or we’d never be able to keep them on.”

The craft had been moving along smoothly, but before long it began to shudder irregularly.

“The jets have cut out, Patch,” Garry said. “We’re coasting. Without any air friction out here in space, we _could_ coast along forever.”

“Garry, don’t say that!” Patch gasped.

But Garry found out that his guess was wrong, and he was glad that it had been. Presently, twin jets of flame were seen pouring from the front of the craft.

“Garry, we’re on fire!” Patch shouted.

“No, they’re the braking jets,” Garry corrected. “We’re being slowed down, Patch! I think we’ll find out very soon now what our destination is.”

“Thank goodness for that,” Patch replied. “You know, you got me plenty worried when you said that we might coast forever out here. Although after about a hundred years I probably wouldn’t mind any longer!”

“Look, Patch,” Garry cried. “Up ahead—a satellite! That must be where we’re headed!”

As they approached, the craft still being slowed by the braking jets, Garry and Patch took in the scene before them. The satellite itself somewhat resembled a giant radio speaker. Its largest area was a huge reflecting surface, and this surface was made up of adjustable panels that could be banked in any direction. The boys could see around the side of the satellite, and backing up the front broad surface was a block-shaped structure with windows.

As the tiny space craft drew closer, the boys saw a hatch open in the rear structure, and two men in space suits emerged, holding onto hand rails on the outside of the satellite.

“That’s one of the radio and TV relay satellites, Patch,” Garry said. “There are three of them, spaced equally around the earth, for relaying TV and radio all over the world. Our ship has probably been sent out to pick up these men and bring them back to the station.”

“Won’t they be surprised when they see us aboard?” Patch remarked.

Garry noticed that the space taxi seemed to be moving a little off course, and this disturbed him, especially since one of the forward jets had cut off but the other hadn’t.

The craft was veering steadily away from the satellite and slowing rapidly. Finally, it came to a dead stop several hundred yards from the satellite, but then it began backing up. As the craft gained speed in reverse, Garry and Patch were nearly knocked off their feet from the acceleration.

“The front jet is propelling us backward!” Garry cried. “There’s something wrong with the remote control!”

The craft began going into a dizzy spin. The boys had to hold on tightly to some anchored support to keep from being flung against the wall.

Garry watched the satellite become lost against the sprawling background of stars. He knew they were hurtling farther out into space, out of control, headed for a destination now that even the space-station operators might not know.

The boys were so disheartened by the latest bad break that, for the time being, they did not care what happened to them. This lowering of their spirits seemed to remind them that they were a long time past their slumber time, and they suddenly became very sleepy. By earth time, it would be the dark hours before dawn.

They went to sleep on their feet, because in the zero gravity there was no need for them to lie down. Their magnetic soles held them in place to keep them from drifting about as they slept.

Garry was the first to wake up, hours later. There was no way for him to know how much time had passed. He woke his friend, who stretched and yawned.

“I never thought I’d be able to sleep standing up,” Patch said. “I feel like a horse.”

“We got a good rest,” Garry said. “I guess that’s because of the zero gravity.”

Patch looked gloomily out of the front port of the flier. “We’re still no better off than we were before, though, Garry, but, I think we have stopped moving.”

Garry shook his head. “It just seems like we’re not moving because the stars and everything else around us are so still. We’re moving all right—and fast. This ship may still be moving after we’re dead, even if we could live for a hundred years, because there’s nothing ever to slow us down out here; that is, unless we happened to move into the gravity field of some planet, which would pull us down.”

“I knew we should have turned ourselves in when we had the chance,” Patch said mournfully. “If we had, we wouldn’t be in this fix now.”

Garry agreed. “It’s all my fault for trying to hold out so long.”

“Well, too late now to do anything,” Patch said.

“I don’t think we should give up hope,” Garry said. “They might still send out a ship to try to pick up this one. They know it’s lost, but of course they don’t know there’s anybody in it, and they may not know where to look for it.”

He investigated the sloping wall between him and the front window. The middle of it was shaped something like an old-fashioned roll-top desk, closed up.

“Hmm,” Garry thought to himself. “This ship has been run by remote control until now, but why shouldn’t it have controls of its own? If it does have them, they should be right here in front of me.”

Garry’s hopes soared again as he ran his hands over the light-green plastic slope in front of him.

“A button,” he whispered. “There must be a button or something that opens this thing up.”

“Hey, what’re you mumbling about?” Patch asked.

Garry was too concerned with what he was doing to answer his friend. Suddenly, he found something on the left side of the instrument. It was a button. He pressed it.

Two covers began swinging open in front of him, as stage curtains would do, revealing a bank of dials and levers.

“Patch!” Garry shouted. “Look what!”

Patch came clicking over in his magnetic shoes. “Hey, they’re instruments for running this crate! Why didn’t we think of looking for them before?” he cried.

“Probably because we don’t know how to operate them,” Garry replied.

There was a half-circle steering wheel that pulled out, and the boys were sure what this was for.

“Garry,” Patch said happily, “the steering wheel—that may be all that we’ll need! Since the ship is moving under its own power, all we have to do is turn her around and head back for the space station. We can keep circling it until one of the ships from the station intercepts us!”

Garry tried the wheel. It was locked tight.

“It’s not that easy, Patch,” he said. “First we’ve got to find how to unlock the wheel.”

“That ought not to be hard,” Patch replied. “A button or switch....”

They both began carefully examining the steering column and wheel, but did not find anything that would release the wheel. Then they went over the console panel very closely. They found switches and levers that could not be identified, but they decided to try them anyhow and see what they controlled.

They got no result at first, but, when the fourth switch was thrown, the console lighted up and the ship began to throb with a new life.

“That must have been one of the power levers,” Garry said. “Look—the steering wheel is free! The power had to be on before it would unlock the wheel.”

“Garry!” Patch exclaimed, “we’re on our way! We’re on our way.”

“I hope my sense of direction is correct,” Garry said, “because I can’t read those directional meters. I think we’ll be headed in the general direction of the station if we make a half turn. I remember the position of that brilliant nebula over there and also the planet Venus.”

Garry was beginning to turn the wheel slowly for their gradual turnabout in the sky when the smell of something burning issued from the console.

“Hey, something seems to be shorting out,” Patch said in alarm. “Look! There’s smoke coming from the panel!”

No sooner had he spoken than there was a small explosion inside the console, a strong odor of ozone filled the boys’ nostrils, and all the lights went out. But what was worse, the steering wheel froze in Garry’s hands and locked again.

“Patch, we’re ruined!” Garry groaned loudly. “I must have done something wrong!”

Garry put his hands over his face in despair. “Patch, we were so close, so very close....”

“It looks like something just doesn’t want us to get out of this alive,” Patch said bitterly. “We’re jinxed, Garry!”

“It’ll do no good to start feeling sorry for ourselves again,” Garry said. “Remember, we thought we were goners before. Something may turn up to save us—something maybe like a Good Samaritan flying around in a space ship just looking for wandering boys. But how many of those do you think you would find in all the millions of miles of space that surround us?”

Suddenly Garry stood upright, staring intently straight out the forward port. “Speaking of Good Samaritans, Patch, that might not be so farfetched after all. Look out there, straight ahead. There’s a light moving against the stars. It just might be a space ship!”

“I see it,” Patch said, with a trace of hope returning, “but it’s most likely a Sputnik or Tiros or some other satellite.”

“I don’t think so. Its movement isn’t perfectly straight. I’m sure I just saw it change direction as if heading this way. Patch, if you’ve ever prayed, do it now. The next few minutes may decide whether we live or die out here in space!”

5. A “FLYING TIN CAN”

The boys watched intently as the object neared them. Although it was still pretty far off, they knew that it was not a true celestial object, because they could determine already that it was shaped like nothing usually found in space. In fact, it looked remarkably like a tin can! It was an odd shape for a space ship, but the boys were sure that was what it was.

“That’s not like anything I’ve ever seen!” Garry said. “And I’ve seen all kinds of pictures of space ships in magazines and books.”

“It must be a special kind of ship,” Patch suggested. “But just so it really is a space ship with living people in it, it can be shaped like a barbecue pit for all I care!”

“Patch!” Garry said in a stricken voice. “What if it’s from another planet and carries strange people? Maybe even _unfriendly_ passengers!”

Patch’s eyes shone like bright marbles. “Gee, you don’t really think so, do you? I—I mean, how could it be possible? We’ve already explored Mars and Venus, and those planets aren’t inhabited. How could anything possibly live on those big cold planets farther out?”

“Maybe they are from another star,” Garry said in a solemn tone.

They would know pretty soon where the flying object was from, because it was still heading in their direction, and its passengers could not possibly miss seeing them.

Garry and Patch were silent as the object drew steadily closer, each of them engrossed in his own thoughts.

“It really does look like a tin can,” Patch said. “A tin can with a big eye in front! But what a big tin can! It’s big as one of those ancient dirigibles.”

“Patch, I can begin to make out some writing over the eye. See it?”

“Yes. Just a moment. It’s coming into focus. It says ‘CAREFREE!’ I don’t know what it means, but it _sounds_ friendly.”

“That must be the name of it,” Garry suggested. “No ship with a name like that could be carrying unfriendly passengers.”

“It also means that there must be earthmen aboard, because it’s an earth word.”

“I don’t think we have anything to worry about, Patch,” Garry said confidently.

“Now they’re turning around,” Patch said. “They—they’re pulling even with us. I guess they’ll anchor to us with magnetic grapples.”

Carefully, the _Carefree_ edged closer so that it could latch on. The big circular space ship dwarfed the tiny taxi so greatly that it seemed like David and Goliath.

Garry and Patch heard a soft bump as the _Carefree_ coupled onto the side of their craft on which the door was located. Garry knew now that the ships were joined as one.

Garry looked at Patch, and Patch looked at Garry. They knew all they had to do now was open the air locks between the ships. But they hesitated as if there were still some doubt in their minds as to the friendliness of those in the other space ship.

There came a rap on their air-lock door. Once again Garry looked at Patch, and Patch looked at Garry. Then, after another few moments of hesitation, Garry shrugged and clicked over to the door.

“We may as well open up,” he said. “Whether or not they’re friendly, they’ve certainly got the upper hand.”

Garry pressed the button that controlled the outer door of the air lock. Then he pressed another that opened the inner door.

Garry and Patch looked through the double air locks into the face of a man who wore a small, neat white beard. He appeared to be in his early sixties, and he was clinging to a webbing of ropes that completely covered the walls of a giant tube or tunnel.

“Hello,” the man said, with a smile.

“Hello,” Garry and Patch replied together. And they smiled too, because they were very glad that it was an earthman who faced them.

“I must say I didn’t expect to find a couple of boys alone in here,” the man went on. “What’s happened to the adults with you? You didn’t heave them out the waste hatch, did you?” The elderly man laughed.

“Uh, no, Sir,” Garry replied with hesitation. “We’ve been by ourselves ever since this flier left the Von Braun Space Station. It’s a pretty long story, Sir.”

“The name is Captain Eaton, boys.” The man winked at them, showing his white teeth in another smile. “Oh, I’m not really a space captain. I wouldn’t deceive you. The _Carefree_ is a private ship, and the men call me ‘Captain’ because I’m the owner.”

Captain Eaton’s dark, alert eyes flickered over the interior of the flier.