She drew back her head to look at him incredulously, "You still
think--! Oh, Bill, you foolish guy, you're the one I love, the one
I've always loved."
For a moment he searched her eyes and saw only a revelation of honest
feeling. A surging gladness flooded through him, releasing an
unconscious hard ball of tension inside.
"Christy, what a knothead I've been!" He gathered her up to kiss her
fervently. "So long, Christy. Old Staker was a piker at dreaming
compared to what I'm dreaming for you and me!"
The field men had the rocket fueled up and provisioned to go. "This'll
be no picnic, but there's a prize out there if we want it bad enough.
You'll all have a share in it, instead of handing it all over to the
government. Are you with Tom and me?"
"Sure, Bill. Let's go!"
"Yeah, let's open 'er wide up!"
They all clambered up the ship's access ladder in high spirits. In a
moment a warning red signal rocket shot into the sky and burst,
warning all local aircraft. Another five minutes and the rocket leapt
off the Earth with a long, shattering roar.
Bill kept the fissioning metals pouring through the atomic explosive
after-chambers until the men screamed at the acceleration. Finally he
eased it off to free flight and the _Space Dragon_ followed the
trajectory of the _Space Bird_.
All the way he hovered over the radar scope. Then after long hours of
fatiguing watching he crawled into his bunk.
Later he woke up to Radarman Jones' voice in his ear.
"Captain--wake up. We've picked up a ship on the scope!"
Bill piled out and forced his floating feet to magnetic contact with
the steel deck. He followed Jones down the short corridor to the
communications cabin.
At the radar scope Bill studied the ship, then gave orders
decelerating the _Space Dragon_.
"There's another ship!" Jones exclaimed, pointing at the edge of the
scope.
Bill peered at the new ship, studying its characteristics. Then he
nodded his head. "It's the _Space Bird_ all right. But that first
one--I got an idea it must be an Asteroid Mining ship. Margo must have
transmitted the _Space Bird_ trajectory to Asteroid Mining. I don't
see how anybody would know where to find us in such immense distances
as Beta Quadrant."
Stepping over to the communications panel he called the _Space Bird_.
No answer, and though he kept calling he could not raise the ship.
Then he called Staker Field on Earth.
"Caxton?"