I was
bucking rockets on the old chemical burners. I was on a freighter called
the _Happy Spaceman_. A tube blew on us. Luckily we were close enough to
Phobos to make a touchdown, or the leak would have reached the main fuel
tanks and blown us clean out to another galaxy."
"What happened?" asked Roger.
"I had to go outside," said Astro. "I was junior rocketman in the crew,
so naturally I had to do all the dirty work."
Tom's warning call from the _Polaris_ control deck, tuned to the open
communicators of all the jet boats, broke through the loud-speaker.
"Attention! Attention! Corbett to Connel. One hour and twenty minutes to
blast-off time. One hour and twenty minutes to blast-off time."
The two cadets looked at each other as they heard Tom's voice, but
neither spoke. Finally Roger asked, "What happened on Phobos?"
"No one bothered to tell me," continued Astro, "that I had to protect
myself from the ultraviolet rays of the sun, since Phobos didn't have an
atmosphere. It was one of my first hops into space and I didn't know too
much. I went outside and began working on the tube. I did the job all
right, but for three weeks after, my face was swollen and I couldn't
open my eyes.
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