But the old man had one thing that interested young Raine: his telescope mounted in a domed observatory on the top floor. Every night, Raine spent hours staring through that scope, sighting stars, marking them on the charts. Cap tried to tell him that those charts were as perfect as human intellect could make them. Raine had an answer for that too.
"Those charts are three years old," he said. "In three years a whole universe could be created or destroyed. Take a look at this star on Graph 5. I've been watching it, and the way it's acting convinces me there's another star, probably a Wanderer, approaching it from here." He indicated a spot on the chart.
He was efficient and persistent. He watched his star, checked and rechecked his calculation, and in the end, to Cap's amazement sighted the Wanderer almost exactly where he said it would be.
That discovery only excited him more and after that he spent an even greater amount of time in the observatory. Then late one night he came to the top of the stairs and called for Cap.
Cap went up to the scope, and at first he didn't see anything. Then he did see it: a darker shadow against the interrupted starlight.
"It's a ship," the old man said.
Raine nodded. "My guess too. But what's it doing out of regular space lanes?"
"You forget you landed here yourself. Straba does occasionally attract a visitor. Her crew may need water or food."
Raine shook his head. "I hedge-hopped in from asteroid, Torela. This fellow seems to be coming from deep space."
They continued to watch that approaching shadow, taking turns at looking through the scope. It seemed to take a long time coming; but finally there was a roar and a rush of air and a black shape hurtled out of the eastern sky. The two men ran outside where Cap began to curse volubly. The ship's anti-gravs were only partially on. It had hit hard, digging up three hundred yards of the sixteenth fairway and completely ruined two greens.