turned red as his hair. "Funny
how fast a man ages in space," the Planeteer major remarked. "Take
Foster. A few weeks ago he was just a cadet, a raw recruit who had never
met high vack. Now he's talking like the grandfather of all space. I
don't know how the Special Order Squadrons ever got along before he
became an officer."

Rip had been feeling a little too proud of himself.

"It's good to get back," Rip said.

CHAPTER TWENTY

On the Platform

There were two things Rip could see from his hospital bed on the space
platform. One was the great curve of Earth. He was anxious to get out
of the hospital and back to Terra.

The second thing was the asteroid. Spacemen were at work on it, slowly
cutting it to pieces. The pieces were small enough to be carried back to
Earth in supply rockets. It would be a long time before the asteroid was
completely cut up and transported to Terra base.

Sergeant Major Koa came into the hospital ward and sat on Rip's bed. The
plastifoam mattress compressed under his weight. "How are you feeling,
sir?"

"Pretty good," Rip replied. The worst of the radiation sickness was over,
and he was mending fast. Here and there were little bloodstains, just
below the surface of his skin, and he had no more hair than a plastic
ball. Otherwise he looked normal. The stains would go away, and his hair
would grow back in a few weeks.

Santos, now officially a sergeant, was in the same condition. The rest of
Rip's Planeteers had resumed duties on the space platform. He saw them
frequently, because they made a point of dropping in whenever they were
near the hospital area.

Koa looked out at the asteroid. "I sort of hate to see that rock cut up.
There isn't much about a chunk of thorium to get sentimental over, but
after fighting for it the way we did, it doesn't seem right to cut it
into blocks."

"I know how you feel," Rip admitted, "but, after all, that's what we
brought it back for."

He studied Koa's dark face. The sergeant major had something on his mind.
"Got vack worms chewing at you?" he asked. Vack worms were a spaceman's
equivalent of "the blues."

"Not exactly, sir. I happened to overhear the doctor talking today.
You're due for a leave in a week."

"That's good news!" Rip exclaimed. "You're not unhappy about it, are
you?"

Koa shrugged. "We were all hoping we'd be together on our next
assignment. The gang liked serving under you. But we're overdue for
shipment to somewhe