loders and the hand dynamo?"

"Dowst has the exploders. One of the Connies is carrying the dynamo."

Speaking of the Connies ... Rip hadn't seen the Consops cruiser recently.
He looked up, searching for its exhaust, and finally found it, a faint
line some distance away.

The Connie commander was stalemated for the time being. He couldn't land
his cruiser on a spinning asteroid, and he had no more boats. Rip thought
he probably was just waiting around for any opportunity that might present
itself.

The Federation cruisers should be arriving. He studied his chronometer.
No, the nearest one, the _Sagittarius_ from Mercury, wasn't due for
another ten minutes or so. He turned up his helmet communicator and
ordered all hands to watch for the exhaust of a nuclear drive cruiser,
then turned it down again and gave Koa instructions.

"Have Trudeau turn his load over to a Connie and collect the exploders and
the dynamo. We'll need wire, too. Who has that?"

"Another Connie."

"Get a reel. Cut off a few hundred feet and connect the dynamo to one end
and an exploder to the other."

The crystal came around again and Kemp got to work. Rip stood by, again
reviewing all steps. They couldn't afford to make a mistake. He had no
margin of error.

Kemp finished the hole a few seconds before the crystal turned into the
sunlight again. Rip told him to keep the torch going. There might be some
last minute cutting to do. Then the lieutenant hurried off at an angle to
where Dominico was plodding along with the fuel tubes.

Koa had turned the tube he carried over to a Connie. Rip got it, and told
Dominico to follow him. Then he angled back across the asteroid to where
Kemp was holding position.

The asteroid turned twice before Koa arrived. He had a coil of wire slung
over his arm and he carried the dynamo in one hand and an exploder in the
other, the two connected by the wire.

Rip took the exploder. "Uncoil the wire," he directed. "Go to its full
length at right angles to the hole. We have to time this exactly right.
When the crystal comes around again, I'll shove the tube into the hole,
then scurry for cover. When I'm clear I'll yell and you pump the dynamo.
Dominico and Kemp stay with Koa. Make sure no one is in the way of the
blast."

Koa unreeled the wire, moving away from Rip. The lieutenant pushed the
exploder into one end of the fuel tube and crimped it tightly with his
gloved hand.

Koa and the others were as far away