“Any sign yet, Bud?” Tom asked.
“Sure! The radarman’s already picked it up on his scope,” Bud reported.
“Your dad says it should be visible to the naked eye soon.”
Moments later, a gleaming speck appeared in the far distance.
“Yahoo! Here she comes!” Chow whooped.
Instant by instant, the speck grew in size, and they could see it was rocket-shaped. The missile was evidently traveling at almost incredible speed. As it neared the station, the rocket appeared to be slowing down.
“But not enough,” Tom thought with a sudden pang of alarm. “Not even our brilliant space friends can decelerate a missile that fast!”
A quick glance at his father showed that Mr. Swift shared his son’s worry. A moment later their fears were confirmed. The missile plowed into the space wheel with a sickening jolt!
CHAPTER XV
THE ROCKET’S SECRET
“TH-thunder an’ lightnin’! Are we still in one piece?” Chow sputtered as he grabbed a cluster of pipes to regain his balance.
“Let’s hope so!” Tom said. “But that smack probably knocked us out of orbit!”
A quick instrument check showed that the space wheel was not damaged, but had indeed picked up a new velocity component from the impact.
“We’re now traveling,” said Mr. Swift, “on a slightly canted path from our true orbit.”
“Look!” cried Bud. “The souvenir is drifting away from the station!”
Ken Horton rushed to the master-control room and fired carefully calculated jet bursts to bring the outpost back to orbit. Meanwhile, Mr. Swift, Tom, Bud, and two crewmen donned space suits and hurried out through the air lock, taking midget “rocket scooters” with them.