The senior space officer held out a sheet of flimsy. It was pale blue, the
color used for highly confidential documents. "Sir, this came in Space
Council special cipher."
"Read it aloud," O’Brine ordered.
"Yessir. It’s addressed to you, this ship. From Planeteer Intelligence,
Marsport. ’Consops cruiser departed general direction your area. Agents
report crew _Altair_ may have leaked data re asteroid. Take appropriate
action.’ It’s signed ’Williams, SOS, Commanding.’"
Rip saw the meaning of the message instantly. The Consolidation of
People’s Governments of earth, traditional enemies and rivals of the
Federation of Free Governments, needed radioactive minerals as badly, or
worse, than the Federation. In space it was first come, first take. They
had to find the asteroid quickly. It was to prevent Consops from knowing
of the asteroid that security measures had been taken. They hadn’t worked,
because of loose space chatter at Marsport.
O’Brine issued quick orders. "Now, get this. We have to work fast.
Accelerate fifty percent, same course. I want two men on each screen. If
anything of the right size shows up, decelerate until we can get mass and
albedo measurements. Snap to it."
The space officers started out, but O’Brine stopped them. "Use one
long-range screen for scanning high space toward Mars. Let me know the
minute you get a blip, because it probably will be that Consops cruiser.
Have the missile ports cleared for action."
Rip’s eyes opened. Clear the missile ports? That meant getting the cruiser
in fighting shape, ready for instant action. "You wouldn’t fire on that
Consops cruiser, would you, sir?"
O’Brine gave him a grim smile. "Certainly not, Foster. It’s against orders
to start anything with Consops cruisers. You know why. The situation is so
tense that a fight between two space ships might plunge earth into war."
His smile got even grimmer. "But you never know. The Consops ship might
fire first. Or an accident might happen."
The commander leaned forward. "We’ll find that asteroid for you, Mr.
Planeteer. We’ll put you on it and see you on your way. Then we’ll ride
space along with you, and if any Consops thieves try to take over and
collect that thorium for themselves, they’ll find Kevin O’Brine waiting.
That’s a promise, boy."
Rip felt a lot better. He sat back in his chair and regarded the commander
with mixed respect and something else. Against his will, he was beginning
to like the man. No doubt of it, the _Scorpius_ was well named. And the
sting in the scorpion’s tail was O’Brine himself.