Great Cosmos! It Was An Atomic Bomb!
Commander O'Brine leaned over his shoulder and peered at the lettering on the cylinder. "Equivalent ten KT."
In other words, the explosion the harmless-looking cylinder could produce was equivalent to 10,000 tons of TNT, a chemical explosive no longer in actual use but still used for comparison.
Rip asked huskily, "Any more of those things?" The importance of the job was becoming increasingly clear to him. Nuclear explosives were not used without good reason. The fissionable material was too valuable for other purposes.
The sides came off the remaining cases. Some of them held fat tubes of conventional rocket fuel in solid form, the detonators carefully packed separately.
There were three other atomic bombs, making four in all. There were two bombs each of five KT and ten KT.
Commander O'Brine looked at the amazing assortment of stuff. "Does that check, clerk?"
The spaceman nodded. "Yes, sir. I found another notation that says food supplies and personal equipment to be supplied by the Scorpius."
"Well, vack me for a Venusian rabbit!" O'Brine muttered. He tugged at his ear. "You could dump me on that asteroid with this assortment of junk and[pg 059] I'd spend the rest of my life there. I don't see how you can use this stuff to move an asteroid!"
"Maybe that's why the Federation sent Planeteers," Rip said, and was sorry the moment the words were out.