A mighty column of fire now reached out from the asteroid into space. Rip held his breath until he saw that the little planet was sheering off its course under the great blast. Then he sighed with relief. All was well so far.
Someone muttered, "By Gemini! I'm glad we're out here instead of down there!"
The column of fire lengthened, thinned out, grew fainter until there was only a glow behind the asteroid. Rip took his astrogation instruments and made a number of sights. They looked good. The first blast had worked about as predicted, although he wouldn't[pg 101] be able to tell how much correction was needed until he had taken star sights over a period of five or six days.
"Let's go home," he ordered.
Back on the asteroid, a pit that glowed with radioactivity marked the site of the first blast. Rip ordered it covered as much as possible with the thorium that had been taken from the hole. While the men worked, he plotted the lines for the second blast, found the spot, and put Kemp back to work on a new hole.
Two hours later the second blast threw fire into space. In another three hours, with the asteroid now speeding on its new course, Rip set off the explosion that blasted straight back and gave extra speed.
Three radioactive craters marked the asteroid. Rip checked the radiation level and didn't like it a bit. He decided to set up the landing boat and their supplies as far away from the craters as possible, which was on the sun side. They could move to the dark side as they approached the orbit of earth. By then the radioactivity from the blasts would have died down considerably.
He was selecting the location for a base when Dowst suddenly called. "Lieutenant! Lieutenant Foster!"
There was urgency in the Planeteer's voice. "What is it, Dowst?"
"Sir, take a look, about two degrees south of[pg 102] Rigel!"