ADRIFTI 101
“No, but I’d better do something-pronto!” the young inventor replied.
Even as he spoke, there came another tremendous burst of speed, and now the acceleration continued. Tom strained every muscle against the crushing G
pressure in a frantic effort to manipulate the controls.
“Another cosmic storm, Bud!” Tom gasped. His words were followed by a cry of dismay as he tuned up the gravitex and conned the instrument dials. “The gravitex won’t hold us, Bud! Our acceleration’s still positive!”
Their “kite string” had broken loose from earth’s pull! The tiny craft was drifting out of control into the outer reaches of space!
Bud could only watch in frozen dismay. Not fully understanding the mechanism of the gravitex or cosmic reactor, he was unable to help cope with the terrifying emergency.
Meanwhile, Tom’s sinewy hands were straining at the controls. At length he turned the reactor’s direction converter, thus bypassing any fresh thrust from the buffeting cosmic radiation. Almost instantly the G pressure eased as the kite ceased to accelerate.
But even though it was no longer speeding up, the craft was still hurtling away from earth at terrific velocity. Tom sought to counteract this by operating the gravitex at full strength and re-aiming the directional cone.
ADRIFT! 103
“I’m hoping I can tilt us into stable orbit, Bud,” Tom murmured. “That won’t get us back to earth, though. Raise Fearing on the radio and tell them to send the Challenger up here fast!”
“Roger!”
Glad to be doing something helpful, Bud quickly contacted the rocket base while Tom watched the instrument dials like a hawk. Billing received the call in the island’s communication center and switched immediately to Hank Sterling in the blockhouse.