Chapter V: Part II: Spacehounds of IPC

_One of the most fascinating mysteries of the heavens is the comet.
It goes through space, gets near enough to the earth to be seen,
and then goes off and disappears in celestial distance. Often it
has a hyperbolic orbit, which would make it impossible to come back.
Yet it may return--apparently contradicting the geometry of conic
sections. This only goes to prove once more that it is risky to say
anything is impossible--even that our hero of this story manages
beautifully, with the aid of Cantrell's Comet, to avoid complete
annihilation while stranded in interstellar space._

_Read "what went before" and then continue the second instalment._

What Went Before:

The Interplanetary Vessel Arcturus sets out for Mars, with
Breckenridge as chief pilot, carrying on board, besides its
regular crew and some passengers, the famous Dr. Stevens,
designer of space ships and computer. He checks computations
made by astronomers stationed in floating observatories, and
after he has located any trouble and suggests a plan for
minimizing the hazards of the trip from the earth to Mars,
he reports his findings and suggestions to Mr. Newton, chief
of the Interplanetary Corporation.

Stevens then takes Nadia, Mr. Newton's beautiful young daughter,
on a specially conducted sight-seeing tour of the Arcturus and
thoroughly explains to her all of the works of the vessel. Nadia
has herself had a good science education. While they are down at
the bottom of the ship--nearing the end of their tour--Stevens
feels a barely perceptible movement of the vessel from its course.
When he turns on the visiplate, he is horrified to find that a
mysterious ray of unparalleled power has neatly sliced the Arcturus
in several places.

Nadia and Stevens are completely separated from the rest of the
crew and passengers of the ship, so they get into a lifeboat,
which is equipped for a limited amount of space travel. Despite
the strict and apparently effective vigilance of the enemy
destroyer, Stevens and Nadia make their getaway in the lifeboat,
which they aptly call "Forlorn Hope," and finally make a safe
landing on Ganymede, where Stevens plans to build a power-plant
and a radio transmitter, to enable him to communicate with the
earth or with the IPV Sirius, which is used by Westfall and Brandon
(two of the world's best scientists) as a floating laboratory.

With the very scant apparatus and material available, Stevens
sets to work on his power plant. Just as they have it completed
and ready to start for Cantrell's Comet, where Stevens believes
he can obtain the necessary metal for his giant transmitting
tube, they experience a close call with carnivorous plants on the
satellite and later with savage inhabitants, which precipitates
their trip to the comet.