28
Q 29
push from the other repelatrons is what knocked us off course.”
“Sufferin’ satellites!” Bud muttered. “That green-eyed baby doesn’t like any kind of beams!”
Tom unhooked his seat belt and strode over to the Challenger’s, space prober. He switched it on, tuned the signal amplifier low to avoid any danger from an overload, and trained the prober on the Orb. Again it had a brilliant green glow, and its atmosphere was writhing with turbulence!
Tom went back to his pilot’s seat and contacted Ken Horton, commander of the space outpost. He asked if the sky wheel’s astronomers had been keeping the Orb under steady observation.
“Yes. After last night there was no new outburst until it started to glow again at eleven-ten this morning,” Horton radioed. “That faded, but just now the brilliance and turbulence resumed.”
“Thanks, Ken. That’s all I wanted to know.” Tom and Bud exchanged thoughtful looks.
“What do you make of it?” Bud asked.
“This may wreck my theory about life on the Green Orb,” Tom mused. “I’ve been speculating that some form of life there didn’t want to be spied on by our prober. But as you pointed out, fly-boy, the Orb must react to any electromagnetic beam.”
“Any idea of the cause?”
Tom gave a puzzled shrug. “Maybe some factor in the Orb’s atmosphere, but that’s a guess, too.”
30 3-D TELEJECTOR
The space cruise continued. Presently Tom donned a space suit and went out through the airlock to examine the space-dust collector. The tank was almost filled. The particles inside had coagulated into a metallic mass.