White-faced, Tom flipped to manual control and gunned the main steering repelatron. The force of the repulsion beam should have slowed the ship-but there was no response!
“Something’s wrong with our repelatron generator!” Tom gasped. “We’re out of control!”
Speed unchecked, the Challenger hurtled toward a crash landing on the Green Orb I
CHAPTER XX
THE SECRET OF THE ORB
HANK Sterling dashed below to the repelatron room. Soon he reported over the intercom, “Plenty of reserve power, skipper, and the repelatron generator output appears normal. The trouble must be outside the shipl”
Bud threw a frightened glance at the young pilot. “Is the Orb neutralizing our beam?”
Tom nodded grimly. “They’re probably blotting it with out-of-phase radiation.
Or they may have us hemmed in with some kind of focused field.” The latter, he added, might explain the failure of their radiation monitors and solar-conversion units.
Tom queried the radioman again over the intercom. “Can you raise Fearing yet?”
“No luck so far, skipper,” came the reply.
“Then try the Private Ear radio!”
This special two-way set made use of the same anti-inverse-square-wave effect Tom had devel-169
170 3-D TELEJECTOR
oped for his space prober. Sender and receiver “locked on” at the slightest contact. Thereafter, transmission took place in a narrow beam which it was almost impossible to intercept.
The astronauts in the flight compartment waited tensely for the radioman’s report. A weird greenish glow filled the cabin as the Challenger raced closer to the Orb. Chow and Uzcudun stared in awe at the strange object.