That meant O'Brine wasn't sure of what was going on. He must have seen
the blip on his screen as the Connie cruiser flamed off, Kip reasoned.
But the commander probably suspected that the Connies had overcome
the Planeteers and were in control of the asteroid. He had sent the
snapper-boats to try to draw fire, in an attempt to find out more surely
whether Planeteers or Connies had the thorium rock.
"The _Scorpius_ doesn't know what's going on," Rip told his Planeteers.
"O'Brine didn't know the cruiser was waiting to ambush him, so the rocket
we fired made him think the Connies had taken us over."
He put himself in O'Brine's place. What would his next step be? The
snapper-boats hadn't drawn fire, even when a drone was sent over at low
speed. The next thing would be to send a piloted boat over slowly enough
to take a look.
Rip hoped O'Brine would hurry. There was no longer any feeling in his arm
below Koa's safety line. That meant the arm had frozen. He had to get
medical attention from the _Scorpius_ pretty soon.
He gritted his teeth. At least he was no longer losing blood. He wasn't
getting any weaker. But every now and then his vision fogged, and he had
to shake his head to clear it.
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