ere were all
the references he would need for computing orbit, speed, and just about
anything else that might be required. He had to admire the thoroughness
of whoever had written the order. The unknown Planeteer had assumed that
the space cruiser would not have all the astrophysics references
necessary and had included a copy of each.

Several large cases remained. Koa ripped the side from one and let out an
exclamation. Rip hurried over and looked in. His stomach did a quick
orbital reverse. Great Cosmos! The thing was an atomic bomb!

Commander O'Brine leaned over his shoulder and peered at the lettering on
the cylinder: EQUIVALENT TEN KT.

In other words, the explosion the harmless-looking cylinder could produce
was equivalent to ten thousand tons of TNT, a chemical explosive no
longer in actual use but still used for comparison.

Rip asked huskily, "Any more of those things?" The importance of the job
was becoming increasingly clear to him. Nuclear explosives were not used
without good reason. The fissionable material was too valuable for other
purposes.

The sides came off the remaining cases. Some of them held fat tubes of
conventional rocket fuel in solid form, the igniters carefully packed
separately.

There were three other atomic bombs, making four in all. There were two
bombs each of five KT and ten KT.

Commander O'Brine looked at the amazing assortment of stuff. "Does that
check, clerk?"

The spaceman nodded. "Yes, sir. I found another notation that says food
supplies and personal equipment to be supplied by the _Scorpius_."

"Well, vack me for a Venusian rabbit!" O'Brine muttered. He tugged at his
ear. "You could dump me on that asteroid with this assortment of junk,
and I'd spend the rest of my life there. I don't see how you can use this
stuff to move an asteroid!"

"Maybe that's why the Federation sent Planeteers," Rip said--and was
sorry the moment the words were out.

O'Brine's jaw muscles bulged, but he held his temper. "I'm going to
pretend I didn't hear that, Foster. We have 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 space fish, 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. There
was a time for spacemen and Planeteers to fight each other and a time for
them to cooperate.

"I'm su