"I can make some guesses—close enough, probably, for Discovery work." Then, after a few minutes: "Two giants, a blue-white and a bluish yellow; and a yellow dwarf."
"Dwarf in the Trojan?"
"That would be my guess, since that is the only place it could stay very long, but you can't tell much from one look. I can tell you one thing, though—unless your Zabriska is in a system straight beyond this one, it's got to be a planet of the big fellow himself; and brother, that sun is hot!"
"It's got to be here, Jack. I haven't made that big an error in reading a beam since I was a sophomore."
"I'll buy that ... well, we're close enough, I guess." Jack killed the driving blasts, but not the Bergenholm; the inertialess vessel stopped instantaneously in open space. "Now we've got to find out which one of those twelve or fifteen planets was on our line when that last message was sent.... There, we're stable enough, I hope. Open your cameras, Mase. Pull the first plate in fifteen minutes. That ought to give me enough track so I can start the job, since we're at a wide angle to their ecliptic."
The work went on for an hour or so. Then:
"Something coming from the direction of Tellus," the watch officer reported. "Big and fast. Shall I hail her?"
"Might as well," but the stranger hailed first.
"Space-ship Chicago, NA2AA, calling. Are you in trouble? Identify yourself, please."
"Space-ship NA774J acknowledging. No trouble...."