"Sir!"
"Protective arrest—although it won't be announced that way. No time for explanations right now. Give me the precise reading and time for that asteroid."
When he had the information he activated a keyboard at one side of his desk which fed the orrery computer several miles away. A few seconds after he punched in the data, the reply came back with the exact present location of the asteroid. He immediately threw a switch which lowered the lights and simultaneously splashed a map of the solar system on all of one blank wall. The map carried the caption Pioneer Logistic and showed a dozen labelled points scattered throughout the system's inner and median reaches. A few were moving very slowly while others appeared to be at rest.
After a minute's careful scrutiny the General leaped to his feet, muttering, "Good, good, Hazelton can get there in four hours." Starting his sender, he brought on Message Center and commanded: "Get me Admiral Hazelton on the Star-Seeker. Top Priority Instant Action Field Officer Line."
Cramer, accustomed to slower transmission channels, was startled by the speed with which Hazelton's voice came into the room. "Standing by, General."
"Admiral, have your daily code book handy?"
"Right here."
"Put her on today's complete garble in precisely ten seconds." He set his own coder and waited. "Okay. Hazelton, are you receiving me clearly?"
"Perfectly, Chisholm."
"All right, now nobody else can follow what I'm going to tell you. Immediately shift course for 325.83.21 in asteroid quadrant, subsection 38." A protesting squawk came hurtling across space. "First give your people my orders, then I'm going to tell you why."