“Just what are you proposing?”
“To head for Nestria as fast as I can get there,” Tom said. “The Challenger’s ready for immediate takeoff.”
There was a moment of taut silence. Tom knew his father was weighing the terrible risks.
“All right, son,” he said huskily. “Go ahead, and I’ll radio word as soon as I receive instructions from Washington. Good luck!”
The young inventor signed off and plunged into action. He and his three companions sped to the
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launch area. The Challenger, oddly shaped but imposing, loomed in the glare of floodlights like an enormous gyroscope. Chow and several other crewmen, all volunteers, were aboard.
Before proceeding, Tom mustered his crew on the hangar deck. “I guess you all realize we’re taking off on a dangerous mission,” he told them. “If my magnetic deflector doesn’t work, you know what can happen when we hit the antimatter barrier around Nestria. If we get through safely, there’s still the Black Cobra and his spaceship to contend with. Would anyone like to back out?”
The men stood facing him calmly. None spoke or stepped forward.
“Quit wasting our time, skipper,” Bud wisecracked. “Let’s get this crate in the air!”
Tom grinned. “Okay. Man your stations.”
Minutes later, the Challenger was soaring aloft into the night sky. The earth dwindled rapidly under the surging thrust of the repelatrons. Soon the astronauts were entering the fringes of space. The blue-black darkness deepened, rendering even more brilliant the myriad stars dotting the void.