justed
the pressure, turned on the oxygen of his suit, and waited. In a moment
the indicator showed the pressure to be equal to that outside in space,
and he opened the outer portal cautiously.

A section of the asteroid belt swam above him. Hundreds of small
planetoids and various-sized pieces of space junk drifted in the cold
vacuum of space overhead. Roger looked around. The asteroid he was on
was so small and the horizon such a short distance away that the base of
Miles' giant black ship was half-covered by the curvature of the
planetoid.

Holding the wrench tightly in his hand, the blond-haired cadet circled
around the space hut cautiously, looking for Quent Miles, but the
spaceman was nowhere in sight. He had walked all the way around the hut
and back to the air lock when he saw a movement out of the corner of his
eye. It was Miles, returning to the space hut. Moving quickly, Roger
ducked behind a huge boulder and waited for Miles to come closer. It
would be impossible to hit Miles with the heavy wrench. The space helmet
would ward off the blow. His only chance was to get aboard the ship
while Miles was inside the hut. And he would have to move fast. When
Miles discovered the hut was empty, he would come looking for the young
cadet.

But to the cadet's great relief, Miles went past the hut and disappeared
over the horizon of the asteroid in the opposite direction.

Slipping out from behind the boulder and utilizing the near lack of
gravity, Roger ran in giant leaps toward the black spaceship. His last
jump brought him to the base of the ship where he quickly clambered up
the ladder, opened the portal, and slipped into the air lock. In a
matter of seconds he had built up the pressure in the lock to equal the
pressure inside the ship. He opened the inner portal and raced up the
ladder to the control deck. Throwing himself into the pilot's chair, he
prepared to raise ship. Then he slumped in despair. The master switch
had been removed. It was impossible for him to blast off!

He leaped out of the chair and scrambled up the ladder to the radar
deck. He flipped on the audioceiver and nervously waited for the tubes
to warm up. Nothing happened. Only then he remembered that the
communications would not work without power from the generators and they
could not be started without the master switch.

"Boy! He sure wasn't taking any chances of me getting away and leaving
him here," Roger muttered to himself, as he tur