Tom interrupted him. "You listen, you idiot! Don't you see what's happened? Coxine must have found out about the decoy ship, and when we showed up on his scanner, he figured right away that we might have the Titan pay roll."
"So what?" demanded Roger. "That still doesn't let you off for not belting that crawler with our six-inchers!"
"Use your head!" snapped Tom. "With the Solar Guard squadrons on the other side of the belt and with no gun crews on our ship, how far do you think we'd have gotten?"
"You didn't have to surrender, Tom," said Astro. "I could have outrun Coxine in nothing flat. Why, I haven't got half the speed out of this old girl I think she's got."
"A great idea, bird brain! Run away from the very guy the Solar Guard's going crazy trying to find!"
The intercom was suddenly silent as Astro and Roger began to understand Tom's decision and waited for him to elaborate on his idea.
"Now, listen, Roger," said Tom patiently, "we've got about five minutes before those crawlers will be aboard. How long will it take you to make a signal beacon that'll send out a constant automatic SOS?"
"A what?" asked Roger.
"Beacon. One that will transmit on the Solar Guard special frequency and be small enough to hide here on the Polaris."
"Why hide it on the Polaris?" asked Astro. "Why not try to get it on their ship?" His tone was almost apologetic now that he realized Tom was not planning a cowardly surrender.