At least the Connie cruiser couldn't harm them now, Rip thought grimly. He looked for the cruiser and failed to find it for several seconds. It had moved. He finally saw its exhausts some distance away.
He forgot his own predicament in a grin. The Connie cruiser had moved, but not because its commander had wanted to. It had been right in the path of the nuclear blast, although some distance from it. The Connie had been literally shoved away.
Then Rip forgot the cruiser. His suit ventilator was whining under the terrific heat and his whole body was bathed in perspiration. The sun was getting them. It was only a short time until the ventilator overloaded and burned out. They had to reach the asteroid before then. The trouble was, there was nothing further he could do about it. He had only air bottles left, and their blast was so weak that the effect wouldn't speed him up much. Nevertheless, he called to Santos and directed him to use his bottles. Then he did the same.
Santos spoke up. "Sir, we're going to make it."
In the same instant, Rip saw that they would land on the dark side. The asteroid was turning over and over, and for a second he had the impression he was looking at a turning globe of the earth, the kind used in elementary school back home. But this gray planet was scarcely bigger than the giant globe at the entrance of the Space Council building on Terra.
The gray metal world suddenly leaped into sharp focus and seemed to rush toward him. It was an optical illusion. The ability of the eyes to perceive depth sharply—the faculty known as depth perception—didn't appear to operate normally until the eyes were within a certain distance of an object.
He knew he was going to hit hard. The way to keep from being hurt was to turn the vertical energy of his arrival into motion in another direction. As he swept down to the metal surface he started running, his legs pumping wildly in space. He hit with a bone-jarring thud, lost his footing and fell sideways, both hands cradling his helmet. He got to his feet instantly and looked for Santos. A good thing his equipment was shock-mounted, he thought. Otherwise the communicator would be knocked for a line of galaxies.
"You all right, sir?" Santos called anxiously.
"Yes. Are you?"
"I'm fine. I think the others are over there." He pointed.