Swenson said dispiritedly, “I suppose there isn’t any other answer.”
Long looked up, staring at the irregular bright splotch in the sky.
Rioz followed his glance. “What’s the matter?”
For a moment, Long did not reply. The sky was black otherwise and the ring fragments were an orange dust against it. Saturn was more than three fourths below the horizon and the rings were going with it. Half a mile away a ship bounded past the icy rim of the planetoid into the sky, was orange-lit by Saturn-light, and sank down again.
The ground trembled gently.
Rioz said, “Something bothering you about the Shadow?”
They called it that. It was the nearest fragment of the rings, quite close considering that they were at the outer rim of the rings, where the pieces spread themselves relatively thin. It was perhaps twenty miles off, a jagged mountain, its shape clearly visible.
“How does it look to you?” asked Long.
Rioz shrugged. “Okay, I guess. I don’t see anything wrong.”
“Doesn’t it seem to be getting larger?”