usian quickly
responded to his unit-mate's orders. Opening the induction valves
leading to the reactors, the cadet shot full power into the radiation
chambers, sending the little space scout into a long downward curve,
safely out of the path of the dangerous asteroid.

"Whew!" breathed Roger over the intercom. "That was fast thinking, Tom.
I wouldn't have had time to plot a course change. And with all that
other stuff around here, we might have missed this one and hit two
others!"

"Yeah," agreed Astro. "It must have been good, because I'm still here!"

"Got your radar sweeping ahead, Roger?" asked Tom. "Any sign of an
opening in this stuff?"

"Radar's going all the time, Tom," replied Roger. "But I don't think
we're going to find a passage large enough to take the whole fleet
through."

"I'm afraid you're right," said Tom. "I guess we'd better get out of
here. How much fuel do we have left, Astro?"

"Enough to hang around here for another fifteen minutes. But let's not
cut it too fine. We might have to spend a little time looking for the
fleet."

"I don't imagine Vidac would lose any sleep," sneered Roger, "if we got
lost!"

"Well, fifteen minutes is fifteen minutes," said Tom, "so we might as
well take a look."

Roger gave the course change to Tom and the small ship shot to another
section of the asteroid cluster while the electronic finger of the radar
probed ahead, searching for an opening through the mass of hurtling
rock. Time and again in the past fifteen hours, the cadets had
discovered what they thought to be a way through, only to find it too
small for the massed flight of spaceships to maneuver safely. Now after
the many hours of concentration the boys were tired and more than
willing to return to the fleet.

"Time's up," Tom finally announced. "Plot a course back to the
_Polaris_, Roger. Stand by for a course change, Astro. We're heading
home!"

Tom's remark about heading "home" went unnoticed, since the three cadets
had long since thought of the giant rocket cruiser as being their home,
more than Space Academy or their real homes with their families.

After making contact with the _Polaris_, Roger quickly plotted an
intersecting course that would put them alongside the command ship of
the fleet in a few hours. Then, safely out of the dangerous cluster of
flying meteors and asteroids, the three cadets gathered on the control
deck and relaxed for the first time since the beginning of their
s