The great pumps began to wheeze under the strain of Astro's sudden switch to full load without the usual slow build-up. Tom watched the pressure needle rise slowly in front of him and finally reached out and gripped the master switch.
"Stand by to raise ship!" he yelled. "Blast off minus five—four—three—two—one—zeroooooo!"
He threw the switch. The great ship shivered, vibrated, and then suddenly shot away from the precious satellite. Tom quickly adjusted for free fall by switching on the synthetic-gravity gyro generators and then announced over the intercom,
"Major Connel! Cadet Corbett reporting. Ship space-borne at exactly thirty-one, sir!"
"Very well, Corbett," replied Connel. "Space Academy sends the crew a 'well done!' Everything's set back home to take over the beam as soon as Junior starts on his way back. How much time until zero blast-off on the satellite?"
Tom glanced at the clock. "Less than two minutes, sir!"
"All right," said Connel over the intercom, "everybody to the control deck if you want to see Junior do his stuff!"
In a moment the six spacemen were gathered around the magnascope waiting for the final act of their great effort. Breathlessly, their eyes flicking back and forth from the solar clock to the magnascope, they waited for the red hand to sweep around.
"Here it comes," said Tom excitedly. "One second—two seconds—three—four—five!"
On the surface of the planetoid, giant mushrooming clouds appeared climbing into the airless void. One by one the reactor units exploded. Connel counted them as they blew up.