CHAPTER IX
COSMIC STORM
“GREAT snakes! Tom’s caught!” Chow’s leathery face had gone deathly pale. “Do somethin’, Bud! Quick!” he pleaded.
The copilot was horrified. He tried frantically to back off the rocket ship, but the coupling device was evidently jammed.
“I can’t move ‘er!” Bud gasped. He had already switched off the coupling’s electromagnetic power supply. In desperation, he gunned the steering motors again, trying to break loose by sheer force.
“Hold it!” Ken Horton’s voice came coolly over the radio. “You’ll drag the whole station out of position. I’ll have to free Tom manually.”
Bud cut the motors, then watched in gnawing fear with the other astronauts as Horton went to work with his tools. If Tom’s gauntlet were torn open enough to let air leak from the suit, the pressure would drop and his body might literally explode in the vacuum!
80
COSMIC STORM 81
The next few moments seemed endless. Suddenly they saw Tom pull his arm free. His right gauntlet had been severed by the coupling, and he was clutching the sleeve of his space suit with his left hand!
Bud blanched in horror and backed the ship off instantly. To everyone’s amazement, they saw Tom-apparently uninjured-dash into the space station’s entry port with Ken Horton.
Chow was whimpering, “Oh, I hope and pray Tom’s all right.”
Bud moored the ship again in frantic haste. This time the magnetic grapples locked perfectly. Then all aboard rushed out through the air lock and into the space wheel, Chow puffing in the rear.
A moment later they were gulping with relief as Tom greeted them with a grin. His right hand was sticking from the cuff of his space-suit sleeve, sound and unharmed.