He blinked wearily. "We took a chance. We had to. They have space travel. The general wouldn't be so anxious not to offend them if they were inferior to our own civilization."
"But we didn't see their ships."
"Again we weren't looking in the right place. There's nothing in this system they travel to. But there is a comparable planet in Proxima, and in recent months they've been on opposite sides of the respective suns. They wait for more favorable positions."
It was not luck that had favored the general. Theory said there should be intelligent life in the Centauri system and it further indicated that it would be found on an Earth type planet. It was half correct, and the wrong half had fallen against the accidentals. Stubbornly insisting on following the plan laid down by his superiors, the general had won. "What are we going to do?" said Jeriann. "There are hostages down there."
"We'll get them back," said Docchi. "Nobody can stop us."
"Can we? Their ships are faster than ours."
"They can't use their speed close to a planet. And the expedition won't be aggressive in someone else's backyard. We can't land without breaking up the asteroid but we'll go near enough so they won't be able to intercept our ship."
It was a daring maneuver. The bulk of the asteroid could be used to cut off any attempt to overtake their returning ship. "There's Roche's limit," said Jeriann.
"Doesn't apply. We're not a simple planetoidal mass. We'll clamp the heaviest gravity we're capable of and, barring something unforeseen, we can hold the crust together at a distance of ten to twenty miles of the surface."
She understood; they'd take the risk if necessary but it ought to be avoided, because it was a risk. Nobody knew what solid tides would be set in the crust of the asteroid as the result of an external gravity field.