e to get along until the
asteroid is safely in an orbit around earth. After that, I'm going to take
a great deal of pleasure in feeding you to the spacefish, piece by piece."

It was Rip's turn to get red. "I'm sorry, Commander. Accept my apologies."
He certainly had a lot to learn about space etiquette. Apparently there
was a time for spacemen and Planeteers to fight each other, and a time for
them to cooperate like friends. He hoped he'd catch on after a while.

"I'm sure you'll be able to figure out what to do with this stuff,"
O'Brine said. "If you need help, let me know."

And Rip knew his apology was accepted.

The deputy commander arrived, drew O'Brine aside, and whispered in his
ear. The commander let out an exclamation and started out of the room. At
the door he turned. "Better come along, Foster."

Rip followed as the commander led the way to his own quarters. At the
door, two space officers were waiting, their faces grave.

O'Brine motioned them to chairs. "All right. Let's have it."

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 cleare