The teleceiver
screen brought a sharp picture of the surrounding base of the spaceship,
and he saw that it was all clear. The second hand reached the ten-second
mark.
"Stand by to raise ship!" bawled Tom into the intercom. The red hand
moved steadily, surely, to the zero at the top of the clock face. Tom
reached for the master switch.
"Blast off minus five--four--three--two--one--_zero!_"
Tom threw the switch.
Slowly the giant ship raised itself from the ground. Then faster and
faster, pushing the four spacemen deep into their acceleration cushions,
it hurtled spaceward.
In a few seconds the _Polaris_ was gravity-free. Once again, Earthmen
had started another journey to the stars.
CHAPTER 4
"Stand by to reduce speed three-quarters!" roared Major Connel.
"Aye, aye, sir," replied Tom, and began the necessary adjustments on the
control panel. He spoke into the intercom. "Control deck to power deck.
Stand by to reduce thrust on main drive rockets by three-quarters. We're
coming onto the space station, Astro."
"Power deck, aye," acknowledged Astro.
Drifting in a steady orbit around its mother planet, the Venus space
station loomed ahead of the _Polaris_ like a huge metal ball set against
a backdrop of cold, black space.
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