Tom was intrigued by the fact that there appeared to be no machinery of any kind. The
MINIATURE MONSTERS 173
deck, walls, and overhead were stark and bare. Tom mulled over the problem and decided that the ship must be built of sensitive metals which enabled the craft to be remote-controlled- probably from the special satellite on which his space friends carried on their scientific work.
Returning to the spot where he had left his space suit, Tom made contact again with the group outside. He ordered Bud to have one of the ship’s repelatrons beamed at an angle against the sliding panel. Perhaps it could be pushed back by the force of the repulsion wave.
“Wilco,” Bud replied in a few seconds.
Tom donned his space suit and waited. Long minutes went by. At last the panel began to open again, inch by inch. Tom grinned as he heard Bud’s cheer over his suit radio.
When the entrance was finally open to its full width, Tom’s friends greeted him with anxious cries and questions. These turned into startled gasps as the newcomers caught sight of the space zoo.
“I don’t believe it,” Bud gulped. “There just aren’t such animals!”
“I can hardly believe it myself,” Dr. Faber murmured. “Their resemblance to the dinosaur forms that developed on earth is uncanny.”
Smiling, Tom radioed a message back to the ship. He told Hank to turn off the repelatron beamed at the door and allow it to slam shut. “Give us an hour inside the saucer and then force it open again,” Tom ordered.
174 THE RACE TO THE MOON
“Roger!” Hank signaled back.
Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129