Harry Harrison 
Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers 

Chuck and Jerry, two fun-loving students at an American College discover a faster-than-light space drive and smuggle it into the football team’s plane. They, together with the lovely Sally Goodfellow, crusty Pop and loveable old John view with horror a practical joke gone awry as the plane screams off to Titan, a frozen moon of Saturn. But that’s only the beginning. When loveable old John’s true and awful identity becomes known, a wild battle across the Universe and through centuries ensues, catapulting friends and deadly foes into the midst of a yarn spun from the grandest tradition of the classic space opera.