“Hey!” exclaimed Bud, who had been watching
A STRANGE CAPTURE 157
the operation. “Is this hail, or am I getting space-happy?”
Without warning a shower of pellets had begun raining down from the sky!
Intrigued, Tom caught a few of the pellets and examined them. They were crystalline and varied in color from steel gray to purplish black. “Looks like iodine,” he muttered.
The next moment Tom gave a gasp of dismay. “Good grief!” he cried. “I just realized that these will ruin the aluminum foil of the collector tubing!”
“You said it, skipperl” Arv exclaimed. “Take a look!”
Holes had already appeared in the foil at several points, and the tubes were snaking into motion as the helium gas escaped!
“What’ll we do?” asked Bud tersely, turning to Tom for orders.
Tom glanced around. The strange shower was affecting only two of the power gatherers.
“We’ll repair them at once,” he replied. “Men, go back to the ship quick and get some Tomasite plastic to patch the holes! Make it snappy, all of you! The iodine may attack our space suits, too!”
The crewmen needed no second warning. They dashed back to the ship and waited on the hangar deck while the patches were being prepared. Tom and Bud joined them.
“Good thing your dad invented this plastic,” Bud remarked.
158 SPACE SOLARTRON
Tom nodded. “Best insulation there is against radiation or electromagnetic effects. And it’s impervious to most known chemicals.”
As soon as the patches were ready, each man was given a supply of bonding cement. Then they rushed outside and began hastily repairing the damage.
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