Pete awoke to the hissing, and it took him a while to realize it was not the same sound which had put him asleep. This noise he knew—the release of oxygen in a pressurized cabin.
“Ah! I see you’re awake.”
“Mr. Fairchild!”
“Don’t be surprised. You’ll know us all,” Mr. Fairchild assured him. “Sleeping inside are Sam Smith and Clarence Roth, whom you’ve met. That figure huddled uncertainly over the controls is your friend Ganymede Gus. You see, you are among friends.”
Pete looked around at the curving walls of the cabin. “Don’t tell me we’re in space?”
“Hardly, young man. We’re flying south at the speed of sound, at an elevation of forty thousand feet. Gus!”
“Yeah, boss?”
“Where are we now, Gus?”
“Well, near as I can make out from the instruments, we’re just about over the Equator. Fo
