He went back to the supply room
and told Koa which boats were to be used, instructed him to get the
supplies aboard, then made his way to Commander O'Brine's office.
O'Brine was not in. Rip searched and found him in the astroplot room,
watching a 'scope. Green streaks called "blips" marked the panel, each
one indicating an asteroid.
"All too small," O'Brine said. "We've only seen two large ones, and they
were too large."
"Space is certainly full of junk," Rip commented. "At least this corner
of it is pretty full."
A junior space officer overheard him. "This is nothing. We're on the edge
of the asteroid belt. Closer to the middle, there's so much stuff a ship
has to crawl through it."
Rip wandered over to the main control desk. A senior space officer was
seated before a simple panel on which there were only a dozen small
levers, a visiphone, and a radar screen. The screen was circular, with
numbers around the rim like those on an Earth clock. In the center of the
screen was a tiny circle. The central circle represented the _Scorpius_.
The rest of the screen was the area dead ahead. Rip watched and saw
several blips on it that indicated asteroids. They were all small. He
watched, interested, as the _Scorpius_ overtook them.
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