“I wonder when we’ll be landing,” Jill said.
The commander, who had heard her, answered, “In fifty hours, young lady.”
“I guess we’d better get back to our suite so that some of the other passengers can come in,” Dr. Kenton said.
They thanked the commander and left the pilots’ roost. When they had returned to their compartment, Ted asked Randy, “Have you ever been to Earth?”
Randy shook his head. “It sounds like a terrific place, though. I’ve studied a lot about it in our Earth Geography course in school, and Pops has told me a lot about it. Imagine playing baseball outdoors without a space suit on!”
Ted realized he had always taken the wonders of Earth for granted. It was hard to understand that a boy such as Randy existed—a boy who had never experienced such a free life. He tried to imagine how it would be if he had lived all of his life on a world where all the breaths you took were from tanks of artificial air, and where you could never feel the cooling breezes of summer or the spicy winter winds in your lungs. Thinking about these things made Ted thankful that he was not in Randy’s shoes.
Suddenly an urgent voice came over the speaker in the Kentons’ suite: “Attention, everyone. Act quickly but do not be frightened. A leak has developed in our antiradiation shield. Everyone retire immediately to the rear store compartment at the extreme end of the ship.”
“My goodness!” exclaimed Mrs. Kenton. “What does that mean?”
“There’ll be time for explanations later,” replied Dr. Kenton. “The first thing is to do as he says.”
They hurried out of the compartment and down the corridor aft. There were crewmen stationed along the aisle at intervals to calm the people’s fears and keep them orderly. A warning bell signifying trouble was pealing throughout the ship.