He directed the placing of a very small charge
and was moving away from it so Koa could set it off when Santos suddenly
yelled, "Sir! The Connie is coming!"
Rip called, "Fire the charge, Koa," then looked up. The Consops cruiser
was moving slowly toward them. The canny Connie had been waiting for
something to happen on the asteroid, Rip guessed. When the spinning
slowed and then stopped, the Connie probably had decided that now was
the time for a final try.
"Where is the communicator?" Rip asked the sergeant major.
"One of the Connies has it."
"Get it. I'll notify Terra base of what happened."
Koa found the Connie with the communicator, tested it to be sure the
prisoner hadn't sabotaged it, and brought it to Rip.
"This is Foster to Terra base. Over."
"Come in, Foster."
Rip explained briefly what had happened and asked, "How is our orbit?
I haven't had time to take sightings."
"You're free of the sun," Terra base answered. "Your orbit will have to
be corrected sometime within the next few hours. The last blast pushed
you off course."
"That's a small matter," Rip stated. "Unless we can think of something
fast, this will be a Connie asteroid by then. The Consops cruiser is
moving in on us.
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