<h2 id="c9"><br/><i>ADVENTURE ON THE SUN’S DOORSTEP</i></h2>
<p>Sue and Steve Shannon watched
the magic world of stardust through a port of
the rocket freighter. The ship was moving under
power of its atomic engines, headed toward
the sun.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_120">120</div>
<p>They had one more cargo stop to make before
returning to their beloved soil on the
Earth.</p>
<p>The twins heard the clack of magnetic
soles behind them. Without such shoes holding
them to the floor, space travelers would
float about helplessly like wingless birds.</p>
<p>“Hi, kids,” greeted their father. “Growing
tired of the view?”</p>
<p>“I guess I am, Dad,” Steve admitted. His
blue eyes were tired.</p>
<p>“How far away is Apollo’s Chariot now?”
Sue asked.</p>
<p>Mr. Shannon grinned. “That’s the umpteenth
time you two have asked that. But I
suppose I’m as restless as you are to get back
to Mom in Arkansas.”</p>
<p>Hearing this made Steve suddenly homesick.
There was really no place like home, just
like the poet had said. Steve knew Sue felt the
same way. He had seen a wistful look in her
hazel eyes every time they had talked of Little
Rock.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_121">121</div>
<p>The seemingly endless days finally did end.
The three Shannons went up into the lookout
dome with the crewmen. The dome was covered
by a darkened plastic screen to cut down
the blinding glare of the sun, which was very
close.</p>
<p>It was a heart-stopping sight for Sue and
Steve. The planet Mercury covered the face of
the sun like a black plate. Streaming out from
the edges were mountainous tongues of living
fire. Mr. Shannon called this flaming halo the
sun’s <i>chromosphere</i>.</p>
<p>“Gee, what a thing to see!” Steve gasped.</p>
<p>“It’s—it’s unbelievable!” Sue added, breathless.</p>
<p>“Indeed, it is,” Mr. Shannon agreed. “See
that thing like a lighted wheel just ahead of
us? That’s Apollo’s Chariot. It was named after
the famous Greek sun god, you know.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_122">122</div>
<p>Sue and Steve knew that Apollo’s Chariot
was really a space laboratory that was a home
for scientists who were studying the sun. They
had been the ones who had given their tiny
world its colorful nickname. It was protected
with asbestos and other special material to
shield it from the heat as it circled the great
star, month after month, year after year.</p>
<p>“We had to contact Apollo’s Chariot while
Mercury was shading our ship from the sun’s
rays,” Mr. Shannon said. “We aren’t protected
like Apollo’s Chariot is.”</p>
<p>“Mercury seems as big as the sun, the way
it covers it completely,” Steve remarked.</p>
<p>“That’s because we’re so close to Mercury,”
his father explained. “Actually, the sun is so
much bigger it’s like comparing a pinpoint to
a grapefruit!”</p>
<p>In the midnight darkness between the ships,
giant searchlights had to be turned on. Then
the scientists on the other ship came out onto
their loading platform to receive their cargo.
Conversation was carried on by means of space
suit radios with those aboard the freighter,
who stood on their own outside platform.</p>
<p>“Why can’t we get closer to Apollo’s Chariot?”
Steve asked Biff Warren, who was the
twins’ favorite among the crewmen. Biff was
piling boxes and crates at the edge of the platform.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_123">123</div>
<p>“Space regulations,” answered Biff. “If a
meteor should hit one of us, the other ship
would explode too if we were close. Also,
rocket tubes are so tricky that you never know
when one is going to misfire and send your
ship scooting off suddenly in the wrong direction.”</p>
<p>One end of a double cable was fastened to
rings on the freighter’s platform. Then the
other end was tossed across the space between
the two ships and attached by the scientists
to their own side.</p>
<p>Steve saw the crewmen around him pick up
cords from out of the cable equipment box.
They fastened one end to buckles on their
suits and the other to the cable. Steve guessed
that the lines were a safety measure to keep
the men from drifting off into space as they
carried the cargo across.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_124">124</div>
<p>The first crewman picked up a crate as
lightly as if it were a pile of feathers. Then
with his foot he shoved off from the platform.</p>
<p>He guided the crate through the emptiness
with his gloved hands and the men on the opposite
platform helped him aboard. Another
crewman stepped off the freighter with another
crate. Then another crewman with another
piece of cargo. The carriers returned by
the other cable line.</p>
<p>Steve went over to his dad who, as an official
of the American Space Supply Company, was
supervising the work as always. “Dad, may
Sue and I carry a box across? We’ll be careful.”</p>
<p>Mr. Shannon thought a moment. “I suppose
it will be all right. There’s no way you can
go adrift if you fasten on to the cable. But you
have to be careful you’re snapped on securely.”</p>
<p>Mr. Shannon made a place for them in line.
Sue in front. There was a wait before Sue’s
turn so that more crates could be placed on
the platform’s edge. The children looked beyond
Apollo’s Chariot at the huge black circle
of Mercury as it masked the mighty sun.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_125">125</div>
<p>“Biff,” Steve asked his friend as he was
stacking the crates, “why couldn’t the Apollo
scientists study the sun from Mercury?”</p>
<p>Biff chuckled and it made a funny crackling
sound over the young Shannons’ radios. “Men
will land on Mercury when they grow hides
of asbestos, Steve. It’s so hot on the sunward
side that there are supposed to be lakes and
pools of lead there! The other side never sees
the sun, so you can imagine how cold it is!
Think you two would like to go there?”</p>
<p>“I should say not!” Sue answered for both
of them.</p>
<p>When the next piece of cargo was ready to
go over, Biff checked the children’s safety
cords. Then he let Sue push off from the platform
with a box in front of her. A few moments
later, Steve followed. The boy heard
his sister giggle excitedly as they floated across.
Searchlight beams were in their eyes but they
didn’t mind. Steve, too, thought this great fun
after being cramped for so long on the
freighter. He looked down at the empty space
below, but he knew he could not fall and so
was not afraid. Reaching the other platform,
he and his sister were helped aboard.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_126">126</div>
<p>“They sure are using young crewmen these
days!” joked one of the scientists, a tall man
who seemed to be working harder than the
others. “Nice work, young folks!”</p>
<p>The scientist was in the act of changing the
children’s cords over to the returning cable
when a slight mishap occurred. One of the
crates coming over bumped into him. He
laughed as he again got to his feet but his
laughter quickly changed to alarm when Sue
suddenly pushed off from the platform. She
had thought her cable line was secure and that
she was ready to make the exciting trip back
across the gulf.</p>
<p>“Wait, miss!” the scientist called. “I didn’t
finish fastening your cable cord!” He reached
for Sue but her suit slipped out of the fingers
of his bulky space gloves.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_127">127</div>
<p>Steve froze for an instant in terror at what
he had seen. Then without thought of anything
else except his sister’s danger, he dove
right off the platform after Sue, not realizing
or caring that his own cable cord was not
fastened.</p>
<p>If the scientist had not grabbed for Sue
she might have floated safely across to the
freighter. But by touching her he had sent
her off in a direction beneath it.</p>
<p>Over his radio, Steve heard her screaming
for help and saw her flinging her arms and
legs about like a drowning swimmer. Steve
was moving faster than she and presently
caught up with her.</p>
<p>“What are we going to do, Steve?” she cried,
holding tightly to him. “We can’t stop! And
it’s so dark out here!”</p>
<p>Steve knew that unless someone came to
their aid they would drift on and on since
there was no air to slow them down. But he
didn’t tell Sue this.</p>
<p>He remembered, as he had at times before,
that a spaceman must keep his head in an
emergency. He spoke comforting words to Sue,
telling her to try to be calm, that help would
be coming.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_128">128</div>
<div class="fig"> id="pic4"> <ANTIMG src="images/i05.jpg" alt="He saw her flinging her arms and legs about like a drowning swimmer" width-obs="500" height-obs="653" /> <p class="caption"><i>He saw her flinging her arms and legs about like a drowning swimmer</i></p> </div>
<div class="pb" id="Page_129">129</div>
<p>Even as he told her this a spear of light hit
them and a voice broke in on their radio:
“Steve! Sue! Stop struggling! I’m on my way
to you!”</p>
<p>“Biff!” Steve exclaimed, and the dread in
his heart suddenly lifted. He looked over his
shoulder and saw their big friend approaching,
guided by the light that had been flashed
on them from the freighter.</p>
<p>There was a little plume of flame trailing
behind him. In a few minutes he had caught
up with them. Sue was so glad to see him she
grabbed the big spaceman and her helmet
bumped against his in an attempted kiss.</p>
<p>“Oh, I’m so glad to see you, Biff!” she
sobbed. “I was so <i>awfully</i> scared!”</p>
<p>“You’re all right now,” Biff said gently.
“Both of you hold on to me and we’ll go back.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_130">130</div>
<p>Steve took Biff’s left arm and Sue firmly
grasped one of Steve’s. Biff carried a type of
hand rocket, called a “pusher,” that he had
used to shoot himself along toward them. By
pointing the rocket in the opposite direction
from which he wanted to go, the “pusher”
pushed him in the manner of the rocket tubes
on the freighter.</p>
<p>Biff pointed the pusher away from the
freighter. Steve saw a burst of fire beside them
and the three of them sped off toward the big
ship. As Sue reached the platform, her father
was there to help her aboard. She could see
in his eyes the fear he had felt for them.</p>
<p>Steve was surprised to have the crew greet
him warmly with pats on the back. The boy
turned to his father. “Why are they calling me
a hero?” he asked. “It was Biff who saved us!”</p>
<p>“Not taking credit away from Biff, any good
spaceman would have done what he did,” said
Mr. Shannon. “But few would have attempted
your trick of jumping into space after your
sister with no way of getting back. Right,
Biff?”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_131">131</div>
<p>Biff nodded his plastic helmet. “It wasn’t
the smartest thing you could have done, Steve,
but it showed your bravery. Courage counts
just as much as ability in a spaceman. Don’t
ever forget that, son.”</p>
<p>Steve, who wanted to be a spaceman some
day, would not forget it.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_132">132</div>
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