The pre-set control clock reached firing time. The valve slid shut and the take-off bell reverberated through the ship. And so it happened that the spacemen of the SCN _Scorpius_ turned their valves, threw their controls and disengaged their boron control rods, and the great cruiser flashed into space, while the deputy commander and the safety officer were completely tangled with a very flustered and unhappy new Planeteer lieutenant. Sergeant-major Koa and his men had made it before the valve closed. Koa, a seven-foot Hawaiian, took in the situation and said crisply in a voice all could hear, "I’ll bust the bubble of any son of a space sausage who laughs!" CHAPTER TWO - RAKE THAT RADIATION! The deputy commander and the safety officer got untangled and hurried to their posts with no more than black looks at Rip. He got to his feet, his face crimson with embarrassment. A fine entrance for a Planeteer officer, especially one on his first orders! Around him, the spacemen were settling in their acceleration seats or snapping belts to safety hooks. From the direction of the stern came a rising roar as liquid methane dropped into the blast tubes, flaming into pure carbon and hydrogen under the terrible heat of the atomic drive. Rip had to lean against the acceleration. Fighting for balance, he picked up his spack and made his way to the nine enlisted Planeteers. They had braced against the ship’s drive by sitting with backs against bulkheads, or by lying flat on the magnesium deck. Sergeant-major Koa was seated against a vertical brace, his brown face wreathed in a grin as he waited for his new officer. Rip looked him over carefully. There was a saying among the Planeteers that an officer was only as good as his senior sergeant. Koa’s looks were reassuring. His face was good-humored, but he had a solid jaw and a mouth that could get tough when necessary. Rip wondered a little at his size. Big men usually didn’t go to space; they were too subject to space sickness. Koa must be a special case. Rip slid to the floor next to the sergeant-major and stuck out his hand. He sensed the strength in Koa’s big fist as it closed over his. Koa said, "Sir, that was the best _fleedle_ I’ve ever seen an earthling make. You been on Venus?" Rip eyed him suspiciously, wondering if the big Planeteer was laughing at him. Koa was grinning, but it was a friendly grin. "What is a _fleedle_?" Rip demanded. "I’ve never been on Venus." "It’s the way the water-hole people fight," Koa explained. "They’re like a bunch of rubber balls when they get to fighting. They ram each other with their heads." Rip searched his memory for data on Venus. He couldn’t recall any mention of _fleedling_. Venusians, if his memory was right, had a sort of blowgun as a main weapon. He told Koa so.