“We can,” the scientist said, crossing the room and pressing a button on a wall panel. “I thought it might upset us more to listen in, but I guess it would be better to know what they’re doing.”
They heard first the voice of Lieutenant Starky coming over the compartment’s loud-speaker. “The Moonstone has just answered, sir!”
“What do they say?” the commander asked urgently.
After a few moments’ pause, the Kentons heard the pilot speak again: “They say that they had some electronic trouble and that it’s just now been repaired. Their radio and radar were off because of it.”
Ted listened tensely as orders flew back and forth. Both space ships set their rocket jets to carry each away from the other, but at the speeds they were traveling, only time would tell if they could avoid a crash.
The Kentons heard the final miles being slowly called off by Commander Grissom as the two ships hurtled toward one another:
“Four hundred—three hundred—two—a hundred and fifty....”
Ted’s eyes were on the side port. He knew that at the last moment either he would see a large silver shape hurtle past the window or he would feel the might of tons crashing head on. In the final seconds, Dr. Kenton had an arm around his wife and daughter, and Ted’s heart was thumping wildly.
The light of thousands of stars out there seemed to burn into the boy’s brain. Would the decisive moment never come?
Presently Ted saw the blackness of space blurred for only the briefest instant as the Moonstone drove past, its rockets streaming tongues of flame! The side jets spurted against the hull of the Shooting Star, causing it to rock. Ted felt the floor tilting beneath him, and he had to grab a wall rail for support. A glimpse he caught of his parents and Jill showed that they were having the same trouble.