Rip slipped the upper part over his head and stepped out of the bottom. "Thanks, Commander. I'm one grateful Planeteer, believe me!"
"Come on. We'll hurry right across ship to the opposite valve. Lad, I've a son in the Planeteers and he's just about your own age. He's on Ganymede. He and the others will be proud of what ye've done."
MacFife was pulling himself along rapidly by the convenient handholds. Rip followed, his breathing a little rapid in the heavier air of the ship. He followed the Scottish commander through the maze of passages that crossed the ship and stopped at a valve where spacemen were waiting. With them was an officer who carried a big case.
"The instruments," MacFife said, pointing. "We've tinkered with them a bit just to make it look real."
"But why do you want to board the Connie?" Rip asked curiously.
MacFife's eye closed in a wink. "Ye'll see."
There was a slight bump as the cruiser touched the Connie. The waiting group recovered balance and faced the valve. Rip knew that spacemen in the inner lock were making fast to the Connie cruiser, setting up the airtight seal.
It wasn't long before a bell sounded and a spaceman opened the inner valve. Two men in space suits were waiting, and beyond them the outer valve was joined by a tube to the outer valve of the Connie ship. Rip stared at the Connie spacemen in their red tunics and gray trousers. One, a scowling officer with two pistols in his belt, stepped forward.
Rip noted that the other Connies were heavy with weapons, too. None of his group had any.
"I'm the commander," the scowling Connie said. "Bring your instruments in quickly. We will check them, then you get out."