Atom Drive

Atom Drive is by Charles L. Fontenay. A line under the title calls it a race between the tortoise and the hare, adding that this hare was using some dirty tricks to make sure the ending would be different.

Commander Ortega says that the Mars Corporation will retain its exclusive franchise to the Earth-Mars run unless the ship sponsored by the Atom-Star Company returns to Earth with full cargo at least twenty hours ahead of the ship sponsored by the Mars Corporation. Baat, captain of the Mars Corporation's gleaming new freighter, Marsward XVIII, tells Jonner he figured him the last man ever to desert the rockets for a hot-rod tow-job. Jonner tells Deveet that he brought the crates of dies for the groundcar factory down this time, and that they will bring down all the loose cargo before shooting the television cable down. A speaker reminds a listener of the 6,000-mile television cable the ship's hauling, saying Qoqol just shot the end of it down to Mars' surface by signal rocket, they hooked on, and now he will haul them up to Phobos.