That meant a
temporary base now and a better one later, when they had blasted the
little planet into its new course. He estimated roughly the approximate
positions where he would place his charges, using the sun and the star
Canopus as visual guides.
"This will do for a temporary base," he announced. "Rig the boat
compartment. While two of you are doing that, you others break out the
rocket launcher and rocket racks and assemble the cutting torch. Koa will
make assignments."
While the sergeant major translated Rip's general instructions into
specific orders for each man, the young lieutenant walked to the edge
of the sun belt. There was no atmosphere, so the edge was a sharp line
between dark and light. There wasn't much light, either. They were too
far from the sun for that. But as they neared the sun, the darkness would
be their protection. They would get so close to Sol that the metal on the
sun side would get soft as butter.
He bent close to the uneven surface. It was clean metal, not oxidized
at all. The thorium had never been exposed to oxygen. Here and there,
pyramids of metal thrust up from the asteroid, sometimes singly,
sometimes in clusters. They were metal crystal formations.
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