He was exasperatingly silent.
"Enough!" exploded Carter. "He can explain when we get to port.
Meanwhile I'll put him where he'll do no more harm. Gregg, lock him in
the cage."
We ignored his violent protestations. The cage--in the old days of sea
vessels on Earth, they called it the brig--was the ship's jail. A
steel-lined, windowless room located under the deck in the peak of the
bow. I dragged the struggling Johnson there, with the amazed watcher
looking down from the observatory window at our lunging starlit forms.
"Shut up, Johnson! If you know what's good for you--"
He was making a fearful commotion. Behind us, where the deck narrowed
at the superstructure, half a dozen passengers were gazing in
surprise.
"I'll have you thrown out of the service, Gregg Haljan!"
I shut him up finally. And flung him down the ladder into the cage and
sealed the deck trap door upon him. I was headed back for the chart
room when from the observatory came the lookout's voice:
"An asteroid, Haljan! Officer Blackstone wants you."
I hurried to the turret bridge. An asteroid was in sight. We had
nearly attained our maximum speed now. An asteroid was approaching, so
dangerously close that our trajectory would have to be altered. I
heard Blackstone's signals ringing in the control rooms; and met
Carter as he ran to the bridge with me.
"That scoundrel! We'll get more out of him, Gregg. By God, I'll put
the chemicals on him--torture him--illegal or not!"
We had no time for further discussion. The asteroid was rapidly
approaching. Already, under the glass, it was a magnificent sight. I
had never seen this tiny world before--asteroids are not numerous
between the Earth and Mars, or in toward Venus.
At a speed of nearly a hundred miles a second the asteroid swept into
view. With the naked eye, at first it was a tiny speck of star-dust
unnoticeable in the gem-strewn black velvet of space. A speck. Then a
gleaming dot, silver white, with the light of our Sun upon it.
I stood with Carter and Blackstone on the turret bridge. It was
obvious, that unless we altered our course, the asteroid would pass
too close for safety. Already we were feeling its attraction; from the
control rooms came the report that our trajectory was disturbed by
this new mass so near.
"Better make your calculations now, Gregg," Blackstone urged.
I cast up the rough elements from the observational instruments in the
turret. When I had us upon our new course, with the attractive and
repulsive plates in the _Planetara's_ hull set in their altered
combinations, I went to the bridge again.
The asteroid hung over our bow quarter. No more than twenty or thirty
thousand miles away. A giant ball now, filling all that quadrant of
the heavens. The configurations of its mountains, its land and water
areas, were plainly visible.
"Perfectly habitable," Blackstone said. "But I've searched all over
the hemisphere with the glass. No sign of human life--certainly
nothing civilized--nothing in the fashion of cities."
A fair little world, by the look of it. A tiny globe, come from the
region beyond Neptune. We swept past the asteroid. The passengers were
all gathered to view the passing little world. I saw, not far from me,
Anita, standing with her brother; and the giant figure of Miko with
them. Half an hour since this wandering little world had showed
itself, it swiftly passed, began to dwindle behind us. A huge half
moon. A thinner, smaller quadrant. A tiny crescent, like a silver
barpin to adorn some lady's breast. And then it was a dot, a point of
light indistinguishable among the myriad others hovering in this great
black void.
The incident of the passing of the asteroid was over. I turned from
the deck window. My heart leaped. The moment for which all day I had
been subconsciously longing was at hand. Anita was sitting in a deck
chair, momentarily alone. Her gaze was on me as I glanced her way, and
she smiled an invitation for me to join her.