Part 3

“I thought whoever was in this ship must be in some sort of trouble,” he said, “because of your erratic flight. That’s why we latched onto you, to see if we could be of some help.”

“We _do_ need help, Captain,” Patch said earnestly. “We don’t know the first thing about running this thing. We had just about given ourselves up for lost.”

“How in the world did you get into such a spot as this?” Captain Eaton asked.

“Well, Sir,” Garry explained, lowering his eyes, “you see, we’re stowaways, although we’ve been able to escape being caught all this time. We didn’t _mean_ to be stowaways, Captain. We were helping an officer aboard the _Orion_ with his gear, and the rocket blasted off before we could get out.”

“Say, I’ll bet your parents are worried to death about you,” Captain Eaton said.

“No, Sir,” Patch answered. “You see, we’re orphans, and we lived in an orphanage back in the United States.”

“I see,” the elderly man replied, stroking his short, snowy beard. Then suddenly he grinned broadly. “Well, fellows, how would you like to be rescued?”

“We’re all for it!” Garry answered, and Patch nodded his head vigorously.

“Come aboard then. The _Carefree_ welcomes you!”

“What about the flier?” Garry asked. “We don’t want to be charged with stealing a space craft.”

“I’ll have Ben Dawes come aboard and set her adrift toward the satellite so that she can be picked up easily,” the captain said.

“I think we blew something out when we tried to start her,” Patch said.

“Ben’s a genius,” Captain Eaton replied. “He’ll get her to running, no matter what’s wrong with her.”

With this taken care of, the boys were anxious to board the _Carefree_ and see if her interior were as strange and unusual looking as her outer hull. They removed their bulky magnetic shoes and entered the air lock of the _Carefree_.

Captain Eaton first explained the purpose of the webbing that lined the walls of the tube.

“As you boys saw us move in, you probably know that this is the rear of the ship, and this tunnel is in the center. It goes the full length of our ‘tin can’ and comes out front into the flight deck. We have to leave and enter the ship through the rear end of this tube. Understand?”

“Yes, Sir,” the boys answered together.

“The outer round surface of our ‘tin can’ revolves around this center tube as though it were a wheel around an axis,” the captain went on. “By so doing, an artificial gravity is induced along the inside rim of the ‘can.’” Captain Eaton frowned. “Am I getting too deep for you?”

“I don’t think so, Sir,” Garry replied. “The gravity you are talking about is the result of centrifugal action—the same action that makes a ball swing out on the end of a string when a person swings it around his head. It’s the same kind of artificial gravity they use on the manned space stations.”

“You’re pretty sharp, son. I like a boy who doesn’t think that facts belong only in a schoolroom.”

“I’ve always been very interested in space, Sir,” Garry said. “I’ll bet I’d surprise you with all I know about it.”

“I’m sure you would,” Captain Eaton admitted. “Say, I don’t even know your names. I’ve told you mine. Now let’s have yours.”

“I’m Garry Coleman,” Garry answered, “and this is my best friend, Patch Foster.”

Since the center tube of the _Carefree_ was not affected by the centrifugal force of the rotating “tin can,” its gravity was zero. For that reason the webbing was used to pull oneself along with and not really for the purposes of climbing and descending.

Captain Eaton turned around on the webbing so that he could lead the way along the tunnel into the living quarters of the _Carefree_. His slim, agile legs swung free in the zero gravity as he made the turn. Glossy black space boots covered his feet.

The captain showed Garry where to pull a lever which closed a series of air-lock doors between the _Carefree_ and the taxi.

The ship’s master and the boys pulled themselves along the tunnel. Then Captain Eaton stopped and said, “Hold on tightly, fellows. We’re going round and round for a few turns.”

He pushed a lever beneath the webbing, and Garry felt the tube begin to revolve slowly.

“Hey, what’s happening?” Patch called out.

“I had to set the tunnel in rotation so that it could catch up with the rest of the ship, which is always turning. As soon as you’ve become used to the spinning, we’ll go into the ship.”

When the boys said they thought they could navigate, the captain pointed to an open hatch that had appeared in the wall near them.

“We’ll turn around and back down these stairs,” the skipper said. “As we descend, the gravity will become stronger, so that by the time we’re at the bottom we’ll be nearly at our earth weights.”

Garry and Patch followed their new friend down the stairs, moving carefully and holding onto the railing, for they still felt giddy from the rotation of the central tube. By the time they were at the bottom, their heads had begun to clear.

That is, they _thought_ their heads had begun to clear. But no sooner had they gotten this impression than they became giddy all over again at the sight that met their eyes. For it was just as if they had entered a tropical paradise! There were real flowers in bloom all about, and aquariums full of live fishes were set into the surrounding walls.

The boys were too surprised to say anything. All they could do was just stare and stare in disbelief.

6. A _CAREFREE_ WORLD

“How do you like my garden, fellows?” Captain Eaton asked. “It helps keep me from getting homesick. I used to have a most luxuriant garden back on earth.”

“I can’t believe it!” Garry burst out. “It’s just as if we were outdoors on a summer day, it’s so real.”

“There’s a goldfish pond, Garry,” Patch said, “with lily pads floating on top and a bench beside it.”

“I never saw so many kinds of flowers,” Garry said, “and shrubs too.”

“The flowers and shrubs serve a double purpose,” Captain Eaton explained. “They not only provide homelike pleasure to me and my friends, but they also help keep the air in the _Carefree_ supplied with oxygen.”

“I remember,” Garry replied. “Plants in light breathe exactly opposite from the way we do. They breathe in carbon dioxide and breathe out oxygen.”

Patch stooped down, examining the roots of a shrub. “Hey, the roots aren’t growing in soil! How can they live?”

“The plants grow in richly fertilized liquid,” the captain answered. “In that way, they can be placed much closer together. Besides, some of the water making up the fertilized liquid comes from waste products within the ship. There are other reasons too.”

Captain Eaton led the way along the aisle that ran beside the colorfully lighted aquariums. He stopped in front of a twenty-gallon tank which was in the process of being cleaned by two men.

One of them was very tall, over six and a half feet. He was very thin and appeared to be in his late fifties. But the oddest thing about him, which made Garry and Patch stare at him in surprise, was the fact that he was in the full dress of a butler, complete with newly starched white shirt and neatly pressed coat and trousers! Although he was holding a bucket that was catching water from a draining aquarium, his clothing wasn’t in the least mussed.

Captain Eaton saw the boys staring at the tall gentleman and said, “Boys, I want you to meet Mr. Klecker, the Eaton family butler for many years. When I decided to set out into space on my permanent cruise, he would not think of being left behind. Klecker, this is Garry and this is Patch. They will be our guests for awhile.”

Mr. Klecker looked at them with heavy-lidded eyes. Then, bowing, he said in a deep stately voice, “Pleased, young gentlemen.”

“Glad to know you, Mr. Klecker,” Garry said.

“Me too,” Patch added.

The other person attending to the fish tank was a young man. He rose from a squatting position and smiled at the boys. He had crew-cut black hair and the kind of happy features which indicate a friendly nature. He wiped his damp hands on his trousers and offered a palm to Garry first, then to Patch.

“Hi, boys. I’m Ben Dawes. Glad to have you aboard,” he said. “It sure is a surprise meeting fellows as young as yourselves out here in space.”

“It’ll probably be more of a surprise, Ben, to know that they are alone,” the captain said.

“Not really!” Ben said. “Say, I’ll bet you two have a long story explaining that!”

“We do,” Garry answered, “and we’ll tell you when we have lots of time.”

“Ben is my right-hand man, whom I wouldn’t part with for all the millions I own,” Captain Eaton said proudly. “He could build a space ship out of a safety pin if he had to. He had a big hand in designing the _Carefree_, and he knows every bolt and rivet in her.”

It was interesting to Garry to hear that the captain was a millionaire. That probably explained how he could afford to take such a leisurely cruise through space in something akin to a flying palace.

“While Klecker and Ben are changing the water in this aquarium,” Captain Eaton said, “how would you like to meet the rest of my friends?”

“We would, Sir,” Garry replied, “but are you sure you don’t have things to do?” It was hard for Garry to believe that as important a person as a millionaire would be willing to devote so much time to a couple of orphans who were lost in space.

“Here my time is my own,” Captain Eaton said. “Back home there were hundreds of little details that always had to be attended to, and as I grew older the grind began to keep me in a state of tension and boredom. That’s when I made up my mind that I would spend the rest of my life the way that I wanted to—without constant interruption and without ever hurrying. I sold everything I owned and came into space. That was four years ago.”

“Why are you so interested in space, Captain?” Garry asked.

“In my early days I had a very keen interest in space travel. I became a space cadet, but after only four months’ service I was hurt, and my injury was such that I had to give up any thoughts of a future in the Space Service. But my keen interest in space stayed with me through the years, and I never gave up hope of returning to the spaceways. So, you see, my hope was realized, and here I am as carefree as the name of my ship.”

“Then you never plan to return to earth, Captain Eaton, ever?” Garry asked.

“No, I don’t think so. In the first place, the _Carefree_ was built in space and could not stand the atmospheric friction of an earth return. Of course, I could get back if I really wanted to. But I don’t believe I want to. My simple life out here is very satisfying. I never had any children, and my wife is now dead. No, no close relatives. It takes a little money to survive out here and pay my friends aboard ship, but it does not take too much. Yes, this is the good life, and it is enough for me.”

As Captain Eaton paced the boys by a couple of steps, Garry had to marvel at the youthful stride of their host. His body was as lean and spare as a man half his age, and Garry was sure he must have kept himself in good condition all his life.

As the trio left the garden and moved into the next section, Garry and Patch heard a fine tenor voice singing a lusty aria from an opera. A quick study of their surroundings told Garry that they were in the galley.

As the fragrance of good food reached the boys’ noses, they suddenly remembered how hungry they were. They hadn’t eaten since they left the orphanage!

“That’s Gino you hear,” Captain Eaton explained.

The boys presently saw a short, fat little Italian throwing a huge, flat wad of dough into the air. He stopped when he saw the boys and grinned so widely that his eyes disappeared and his mouth seemed as broad as that of a jack-o’-lantern.

Captain Eaton exchanged names so that everyone quickly knew everyone else. Gino was the ship’s cook, and his full name was Gino Spondini.

Gino kept tossing the dough into the air, and each time he tossed it up it became thinner and bigger.

“You _bambini_ chose a good day to come to the _Carefree_,” Gino said. “This is a special day for good food, only once every two weeks, eh, Captain?”

Captain Eaton nodded. “Unfortunately, there isn’t a grocery store just around the corner, and so we fill our food room and deep freeze only a few times a year from the commissary satellite which supplies food to all the manned satellites around earth. But when we do have an exceptionally good meal, we enjoy it even more.”

“I don’t know what you’re making, Gino,” Garry said, “but I’m hungry enough to eat it raw.”

Gino looked shocked. “You don’t know pizza when you see it? Where have you been all your life, _bambino_?”

“Gino makes the best pizza pie in the world—or should I say the best in the solar system?” the captain said. “Now, boys, shall we move on and meet the others?”

They left the galley and proceeded on to the next section within the _Carefree_, leaving Gino singing another operatic air. The boys wondered if they could hold out until lunch time.

“Up ahead of us,” Captain Eaton said presently, after passing through a short hallway, “is the dormitory. Since the dorm is used solely for sleeping, we made it small so that we could give more area over to the other parts of the ship where we spend more of our time.”

Garry found the dormitory indeed small and quite simple. There were three-tiered bunks along the walls, with ladders leading up to the second and third levels.

The captain smiled. “Patch, you seem to be looking over those bunks carefully to see if you find any that aren’t made up.” Patch blushed. “Yes, Sir. I was wondering if....”

“If we have room for you two? Well, breathe easily, for we do have extras. The ship will sleep twelve, and special cots can be set up to accommodate more when necessary.”

“They look cozy,” Garry said, “but how do you know when to sleep out here in space, without any real night or day?”

“We observe a twenty-four-hour day just as they do on earth. Scientists have found out that space travelers get along much better if they keep the same hourly habits to which they are accustomed. We even simulate the appearance of night, turning down the lights and observing quiet. You’ll find out that you get sleepy at just the right time and that you wake the ‘next morning’ feeling just as refreshed as you did on earth.”

Suddenly, they heard a stirring in one of the top bunks. A deeply tanned man with a thick shock of auburn hair raised up sleepily.

“Oh, it’s you, Captain,” the man said with a yawn. Then he perked up. “Who is it with you, Sir?” The man’s accent was a thick Scottish brogue.

“We have guests, Mac,” the captain replied. “These are Garry and Patch. Fellows, meet Mr. McIntosh, pilot, navigator, engineer, and what have you. He likes to be called Mac.”

“Hi, fellows, glad to have you aboard,” Mac said cordially, then yawned again.

“Sorry we woke you, Mac,” the captain said.

“I’m just about due to relieve Isaac upstairs, Sir. That’s all right.”

“I was just showing the boys the ship. We’ll move on so you can get dressed.”

As they left the dormitory to pass into another hallway, Captain Eaton asked, “You’ve heard of Isaac Newton, haven’t you, boys?”

“Oh yes, Sir,” Garry responded eagerly. “He was one of the very greatest scientists. He died a long time ago.”

The captain winked at them. “Well, we’re going to meet him,” he said.

7. A SHOCK IN THE NIGHT

Captain Eaton’s announcement that Garry and Patch were about to meet Isaac Newton, the great scientist, filled the boys with astonishment.

“We’re going back to the central tube,” the skipper said, “and from there to the navigation room.”

They climbed a steep staircase, as they had done earlier. Garry felt the comfortable feel of artificial gravity leaving him as they went higher. The light-headed, floating sensation of zero gravity was returning.

The captain shoved a lever so that the central tunnel would start revolving. When a doorway appeared in the tube, the three climbed through. Then the rotation of the tunnel was stopped. The captain then led the boys along the stationary axle of the _Carefree_, in the direction opposite from where they had first entered the ship. The three pulled themselves along the webbing as their legs swung free, weightlessly. They reached a platform outside a door at the nose of the ship. Holding onto the platform rail, Captain Eaton fished into a cabinet built into the platform and came out with two pairs of slippers.

“You can attach these magnetic-soled slippers to your shoes, fellows,” their host said. “Because of the zero gravity in the navigation room, we have to use gravity plates. The rest of us wear these attached to our boots all the time because we are always going back and forth up here, and they are light and comfortable.”

After the boys had donned the slippers, Captain Eaton pressed a button, the door slid open, and the three of them walked through.

Garry and Patch found themselves in a domed room, which had a wide front port that looked out into space. Below the port extended a long instrument panel, or console, with two seats in front of it, one of which was occupied.

“This is the flight deck!” Garry said. “It’s the part that looked like a big eye on the front of the ship.”

The pilot turned around in his swivel seat. He was a huge, muscular man with rugged features that suggested he might once have been a vigorous athlete.

“Boys, meet Isaac Newton,” Captain Eaton said.

Garry could not help but laugh, because this Isaac Newton looked nothing whatsoever like pictures of the great scientist. But then Garry remembered that he was being impolite, and he apologized.

“That’s all right,” Isaac Newton said good naturedly. “Everybody who ever heard of that scientist laughs. I’ve been defending my name ever since I was a kid. That’s how I got to be a professional fighter, which I was until I got tired of bashing people and the good captain took me on as his chauffeur. I stayed on with him, and he said I could come into space with him if I wanted to. I’ve picked up navigation since I’ve been out here.”

“How did you get a name like Isaac Newton?” Patch asked.

“Well, naturally my father was named Newton,” Isaac explained, “and he was also a science teacher. He wanted me to be a scientist too, and thought he was helping me by giving me the name of one of the greatest scientists of all time. But, as I said, I got into so many fights because of being teased about my name that I had more practice as a fighter.”

He laughed, showing a two-tooth vacancy in the front of his mouth. “Funny thing is that I might’ve been a scientist if I hadn’t been given the name of one!”

With that, Isaac Newton turned back to check on how the ship was running. The captain went over to converse with him, and this gave the boys an opportunity to look around the navigation room.

Of particular interest was a huge chart on the back wall near the entrance. On the map were countless globes of various sizes, and running through the globes were long curving lines.

“What’s that, do you suppose?” Patch asked his friend.

Garry looked closely at the printed names beside the round symbols.

“Hermes—Vanguard II—Adonis—Derelict Space Ship _Oberon_,” he read. “These seem to be objects floating about in space,” he said, “and the lines through them must be their orbits.”

“You’re very observant, Garry.”

Garry looked back and saw that Captain Eaton had come over.

“That’s exactly what they are, and we have to know exactly where each one of them is at all times,” the captain said. “If we missed keeping up with one, we might run into a collision orbit with it, and then it would be quickly over for all of us. Some of the objects are asteroids, some man-made satellites, some large meteor fragments whose orbits we have already plotted. And a few are derelicts, or empty shells of what were once proud space liners. Any one of them could destroy the _Carefree_ if it should hit us. In fact, a meteor as large as an orange could wreck us because of the terrific velocity at which it would strike.”

“Gee,” Patch said, “you must be anxious all the time about being hit by something.”

“No. It’s a risk, of course, but space is so very, very huge that actually there is little chance of being hit by anything any larger than a grain of sand. But of course there is always the chance that someday the big, unexpected one will come. Still, we don’t worry about it because it would keep us from enjoying our life in space.”

Captain Eaton showed the boys some of the other things in the room. He explained the purpose of the various dials and switches on the console—facts that the boys would have given anything to know when they were so desperately trying to steer the space taxi. The skipper of the _Carefree_ told them that usually there was only one pilot on duty but that, in case of tricky navigation or on other special occasions, both Mac and Isaac or Ben would be on together. The captain added that he was quite a pilot himself and liked to take over the controls now and then.

Suddenly chimes were heard over a loud-speaker.

“That’s the signal for us to get ready for lunch,” Captain Eaton said. “Let’s go, fellows, and wash up.”

“Tell Mac to shake a leg and get up here to relieve me, will you, Captain?” Isaac asked. “I’m starved. It’s been a long shift.”

“I will, Isaac,” the captain promised, and pushed the button which opened the door.

A few minutes later, Garry and Patch sat down to the best meal they had had in a long time. Not even Thanksgiving at the orphanage could beat this, Garry told his friend. The boys had their first taste of pizza pie, and they were hoping it would not be their last, especially if Gino was the one who prepared it. They were sure he was the best chef in all the solar system.

After lunch the patient Captain Eaton spent most of the afternoon showing the boys more of the ship. They saw the gym and swimming pool and the library filled with many recording tapes and films. There were also books for those who preferred reading instead of reclining in a soft contour chair and listening to tapes over earphones.

As they passed from one section to another, Garry noticed that the indirect daylight effect, that filled every part of the _Carefree_, was fading steadily but slowly. He asked the captain about this.

“It’s an automatic control that helps put us in the mood for night,” the skipper said. “Remember my telling you about how much better man works in a properly spaced twenty-four-hour day? Soon now, the main lights will be very low, with only an occasional lamp making things bright. It is just like the coming of night back at home. You will see.”

The space travelers had only a light snack for dinner because of the big meal earlier in the day. Soon afterward, the boys began to yawn and get sleepy as they watched the artificial daylight continue to fade. They were looking forward to sleeping lying down for a change.

“Your minds are telling you it’s time for bed, eh?” Captain Eaton said with a laugh. “Well, so is mine. I still haven’t shown you the observatory, which is my favorite spot aboard ship. But that can wait until tomorrow. Let’s go to the dorm and get you two settled before the fellows in there are ready to turn out the lights.”

The boys found all the people they had met today getting ready for bed. That is, all but two of them.

“Mac is on pilot duty, isn’t he, Captain?” Garry asked. “But where is Ben?”

Captain Eaton was pulling off his shiny boots. He may have been the boss of the _Carefree_, with all the say-so, but he was not too proud to share the same sleeping quarters with those whom he called his “friends.”

“There are always two on duty at night, Garry,” Captain Eaton replied to Garry’s question. “One acts as pilot, while the other makes the rounds several times a night to be sure that the automatic controls are functioning properly. We all take turns sharing these duties.”