e
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. I never expected to see this one
again. How little of the future can we humans fathom, for all our
science! If I could only have looked into the future, even for a few
short hours! How different then would have been the outcome of this
tragic voyage!

The asteroid came rushing at us. Its orbital velocity, I later computed,
was some twenty-two miles a second. Our own, at the present maximum, was
a fraction over seventy-seven. The asteroid had for some time been under
observation by the lookout. He gave his warning only when it seemed that
our trajectory should be altered to avoid a dangerously close passing.

At the combined speeds 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, unnoticed in the gem-strewn black velvet of Space. A speck.
Then a gleaming dot, silver white, with the light of our Sun upon it.

Five minutes. The dot grew to a disc. Expanding. A full moon,
silver-white. Brightest world in the firmament--the light from it bathed
the Planetara, illumined the deck, painting everything with silver.

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 suggested.

* * * * *

I cast up the rough elements from the observational instruments in the
turret. It took me some ten or fifteen minutes. 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 out 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