"Appleton, Victor - Tom Swift Jr 06 - And His Outpost In Space" - читать интересную книгу автора (Appleton Victor)

exposure to the rays of the sun. At high altitudes the rays were more powerful
than in the denser air blanket surrounding the earth. Wires from the battery were
connected to a voltmeter and other electrical instruments.
6 OUTPOST IN SPACE
When the young inventor returned to the flight deck, his face wore a
disappointed frown.
"Anything wrong?" Bud inquired.
"The voltmeter reading is way down," muttered Tom thoughtfully, running his
fingers through his blond crew cut.
"What does that mean?"
"That the battery's efficiency for storing electricity will have to be improved. In
other words, the battery will take a charge but won't hold it properly. I'll have to
try some other method."
"Maybe you should send up a trial balloon like those other fellows," Bud
suggested.
Tom grinned. "We'll go one better and send up an experimental rocket. I
think that the best place to power solar batteries is beyond the atmosphere."
"I don't get it," Bud said in a puzzled voice. "How could you go into
production? You couldn't send up a new rocket every time-"
Suddenly the copilot's voice trailed off and he stared at his friend. The full
meaning of Tom's words had just sunk in.
"Look, genius boy, you aren't thinking of setting up a space station to
manufacture your batteries!"
Tom nodded. "Exactly. Dad and I have been talking for a long time about
building a space station. We're both convinced that it's practical."
He was about to jot down an equation that had just occurred to him when
Bud yelled:
"Tom! A missile's coming straight at us!"
CHAPTER 2
THE GORILLA MAN
AS THE STRANGE yellow-nosed object hurtled toward the Sky Queen, Tom
went into action. With a frantic lunge, he grabbed the controls and slammed the
throttle wide open.
The plane dived like a thunderbolt. Almost in the same instant, the missile
whizzed overhead in free flight. Tom pulled the Sky Queen out of the dive
gradually, then steadied her with the jet lifters.
Bud gulped in ashen-faced relief. "Good work, Tom. Whew! I thought we
were goners! Say, that was a guided missile, wasn't it?"
"I think so," Tom agreed. "All I could see for sure was the bright-yellow
warhead."
Bud mopped his forehead nervously. "Boy, this hunk of sky is really crowded
today." Then he managed a grin. "Guess we should have got our reservation in
earlier."
7
8 OUTPOST IN SPACE
Tom frowned. "What I'd like to know is whether that missile was aimed at us
deliberately."
"You and me both! I wonder who could have launched it?"
"I don't know, but we'll find out." Tom switched on the radio.
As he waited for the set to warm up, he pondered the mystery of the strange