"About the third hundred million. All of those ciphers going by made a hollow sound, like a bullet whistling in the wind."
"Well, we're trying to make the theories of probability match with figures. We'll know in about forty-five hours whether we were right or not."
"It's a good thing we have all space to go around in. Are you sure that we have all eternity?"
"Don't get anxious. They're still coming in like a ton of bricks four times per hour, which means that they're riding easy. I don't want to overrun them at about three thousand MPS and have to spend a week decelerating, returning, more decelerating, and then matching velocities."
"I see. You know best. And where is this Asteroid Belt that I've heard so much about?"
"To the south of us by a few million miles. Those bright specks that you can't tell from stars are asteroids. The common conception of the Asteroid Belt being filled to overflowing with a collection of cosmic rubble like the rings of Saturn is a lot of hooey. We'll be past in a little while and we haven't even come close to one. Space is large enough for all of us, I think."
"But not when all of us want the same space."
"I don't care for their area," said Walt with a smile. "Let 'em have it, I don't care. I'll stay up here and let them run as they will."
"You mean the ones that are moving downward?" asked Arden, indicating the sky.
"Those are asteroids, yes. We're to the north, as you may check by going around the ship to the opposite side. You'll see Polaris almost directly opposite, there. Sol is almost directly below us, and that bright one that you can see if you squint almost straight up is Saturn."