"That's Turkoon, isn't it?"
"Aye, that's old Turkoon,” quavered Stilicho Keene. “The sweetest, safest, snuggest little harbor in the whole system. Good air and good water, and ringed round with all those swarms and asteroids that keep the prying naval cruisers away. A paradise for us gentlemen of the void. Aye, there it lies, like a pretty emerald in space, just as it lay when I first saw it long ago.
"It's seen a plenty, has old Turkoon. It's seen the bloody days of the old wild corsairs, with the scarred ship's roaring in to it, loaded with ores and jewels and silks and women. It's seen the days of Martin Cain, a generation ago, when full a thousand ships of the Companions put forth to space at one time. It's seen them all come and go — all the great, brave gentlemen of the void, has old Turkoon."
"And now,” Thorn said ironically, “it sees the Companions led by a girl."
"Aye, boy,” shrilled the old pirate, “it sees a girl leading us now. But she's Martin Cain's daughter — as deadly dangerous as ever her sire was. Aye, and as great a leader."
* * *
The Venture roared closer to the green asteroid and then dropped rapidly toward it, air whistling outside its walls.
"I didn't think an asteroid this small could have an atmosphere,” commented Sual Av, peering downward.
"'It must have unusual mass for its size — probably a core of neutronium or other super-heavy elements,” Thorn guessed. “Otherwise, the escape of its air molecules would be inevitable, and it wouldn't be able to hold an atmosphere."
"Let's hope that nothing holds us here, once we get what we're after,” muttered Gunner Welk.