The spacemen vanished through the valve, and the
massive door slid closed. The overhead lights flicked out. Rip now
snapped on his belt light, and the others followed suit.
In front of the boxlike landing boats a great door slid open, and air
from the lock rushed out. Rip knew it was only imagination, but he felt
as though all the heat from his suit was radiating into space, chilling
him to near absolute zero. Beyond the lights from their belts, he saw
stars and recognized the constellation for which the space cruiser was
named. A superstitious spaceman would have taken that as a good sign.
Rip admitted that it was nice to see.
"Float 'em," he ordered.
The Planeteers gripped handholds at the entrance with one hand and
launching rails on the boats with the other, then heaved. The boats
slid into space. As the safety lines tightened, the Planeteers were
pulled after the boat.
Rip left his feet with a little spring and shot through the door.
Directly below him, the asteroid gleamed darkly in the light of the tiny
sun. His first reaction was "Great Cosmos! What a little chunk of rock!"
But that was because he was used to looking from the space platform at
the great curve of Terra or at the big ball of the moon.
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