48 COSMIC ASTRONAUTS
As the punched flight tape unreeled through the Spacelane Brain, Tom watched the radar screen. It should be picking up the Swifts’ outpost. Tom was puzzled. The radar showed absolutely no sign of the gleaming silver sky wheel!
Bob Jeffers, a young crewman, flashed Tom a perplexed look. “What gives, skipper?”
“I’d like to know too,” Bud blurted out anxiously. “Do you think the space station went off course?”
“Not likely, without help, Bud.”
“Then you mean those unknown enemies of yours, headed by Li Ching, are operating in space, and could have stolen it?” Bud exclaimed.
“They probably are working in space,” Tom replied thoughtfully. “But I doubt that they’ve stolen the outpost. I admit something’s wrong-but I think maybe our navigation system’s in error.”
Bud’s eyes met Tom’s. “Sabotage?” he murmured.
“Maybe. I’d better find out right now.”
Tom pulled a kit from a locker, selected some instruments, then quickly checked the Spacelane Brain. This device combined both the navigational instruments and the automatic pilot into a single navigating-steering mechanism.
“Any sign of a foul-up?” Bud asked as Tom finished his check.
DESTINATION OUTPOST 49
Again Tom shook his head. “Everything seems okay. I can’t understand it, Bud.”
The young inventor was silent for several seconds. Then he ordered those aboard to assist in a fast trouble-shooting trace-through of the servo-system controls by which the Brain’s commands were transmitted to the steering motors.
This check too revealed nothing wrong.