At last the hissing stopped, and the hatch to the inner part of
the ship opened. Tom greeted them with a smile and an outstretched hand.
"Glad to have you aboard!" he joked.
After the back slapping between Roger, Astro, and Tom was over, Connel
questioned Tom on his strange departure from the satellite.
"It was just like I told you, sir," explained Tom. "They got out of the
brig," he paused, not mentioning the spoon that Loring had used or how
he had gotten it. "They forced me to take them to Tara. I managed to get
the gravity turned off and gave them a lesson in free-fall fighting.
They're still frozen stiff up on the control deck."
"Good boy!" said Connel. "I'll go and have a talk with them. Meantime,
Astro, you and Shinny and Alfie get below and see how much fuel we have
in emergency supply. We're going to need every ounce we have."
"Aye, aye, sir," said Astro. The three hurried to the power deck.
Connel followed Roger and Tom to the control deck. Loring and Mason were
still in the positions they were in when Tom had fired his paralo-ray.
Connel took Tom's gun and switched to the neutralizer.
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