The rest have nothing."
"Pederson, report."
"No weapons I can see, sir."
Koa looked at Rip. "They must think the asteroid is clean. Otherwise
they'd have more than a chatter gun in sight. You can bet they have
knives and pistols, too."
Rip had been playing with an idea. He tried it on his men. "These Connies
would be useful to us alive, if we could capture them."
Dowst caught his meaning first. "As hostages, sir?"
"That's it. If we could capture them, the Connie cruiser would be
helpless. We could use the snapper-boat radios to warn the ship that any
false move would mean harm to their men."
Koa shook his head doubtfully. "I'm not sure the Connies worry about
their men, but it's worth the try. We can capture some of them if they
split up to search the asteroid. But we won't be able to sneak up on them
all."
"We have an advantage," Rip reminded them. "We've been on the asteroid
longer. We know our way around, and we're used to space walking. They've
just come out of deceleration, and they won't have their space legs yet."
Santos reported. "They're breaking up into groups of two. Three are
guarding the snapper-boats. One is the man with the chatter gun."
"Are their belt lights on?"
"Yes.
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