He liked the twinkle in
the Frenchman's eye. He would have given a lot to know what scheme
Galliene and MacFife had cooked up.
The Connie had overheard Galliene's greeting. He glared at Rip. The
Frenchman saw the look and smiled happily. "Ah, you do not know each
other? Commander, I have the honor to make known Lieutenant Foster of the
Federation Special Order Squadrons. He is in command on the asteroid."
The Connie blurted, "So! I send boats to help you, and you fire on them!"
So that was to be the Consops story! Rip thought quickly, then held
up his hand in a shocked gesture that would have done credit to the
Frenchman. "Oh, no, Commander! You misunderstand. We had no way of
communicating by radio, so I did the only thing we could do. I fired
rockets as a warning. We didn't want your boats to get caught in a
nuclear explosion."
He shrugged. "It was very unlucky for us that the sun threw my gunner's
aim off and he hit your boats--quite by accident."
MacFife coughed to cover up a chuckle. Galliene hid a smile by stroking
his moustache.
The Connie commander growled, "And I suppose it was accident that you
took my men prisoner?"
"Prisoner?" Rip looked bewildered. "We took no prisoners.
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