"Smash everything you see!"

"Aye, aye, sir." Astro waved his hand and charged down the hall. He
exploded into a room, firing rapidly, and an electronics engineer froze
in a startled pose in front of his worktable. The big cadet gleefully
swung a heavy chair across the table of delicate electronic instruments,
and smashed shelves of vital parts, pausing only long enough to see if
he had left anything unbroken. He rushed out into the hall again. At the
other end he heard Connel in action in another room. Astro grinned. It
sounded as if the major was having a good time. "Well," thought the big
cadet, "I'm not having such a bad time myself!"

The next room he invaded contained the radar-control panel, and the big
cadet howled with glee as he smashed the butt of his paralo-ray gun into
the delicate vacuum tubes, and ripped wires and circuits loose.

Suddenly he stopped, conscious of someone behind him. He spun around,
finger starting to squeeze the trigger of his gun, and then caught
himself just in time. Major Connel was leaning against the doorjamb, a
wide grin on his face.

"How're you doing?" he drawled.

"Not bad," said Astro casually. "Be a lot of work here, fixing these
things, eh?" He grinned.

"What time is it?" asked Connel.

Astro looked at his watch. "Twenty to twelve."

"We'd better clear out of here and head for the jungle."

Astro hesitated. "You know, sir, I've been thinking."

"If you have an idea, spill it," said the major.

"How about releasing the prisoners, taking over a ship, and blasting
off?"

"And have the Solar Guard fleet blast us out of the skies? No, sir! Come
on, we've got to get moving!"

"We could still try to release Carson and the others," said Astro
stoutly.

"We can try all right, but I don't think we'll be very successful."

The two spacemen returned to the first floor of the building and headed
for the rear door without so much as a look at the line of frozen guards
along the wall. Once outside, they skirted the edge of the building,
staying close to the hedge, and then struck out boldly across the canyon
floor toward the prison building. They were surprised to see that their
smashing attack had gone unnoticed, and Connel reasoned that the
constant roar of activity in the canyon had covered the sounds of their
raid.

"We'll have to hurry, sir," said Astro as they turned into the lane
leading to the prison. "Ten minutes to twelve."

"It's no good, Astro," said Conn