"That's what I hope," O'Brine agreed. "Well, here's where we part. Is there anything you need?"
Rip made a mental check on supplies. He had more than enough. "The only thing we need is a long-range communicator, sir. If you're leaving, we'll have no way to contact the planet bases."
"I'll see that you get one." The Irishman thrust out his hand. "Stay out of high vack, Foster. Too bad you didn't join us instead of the Planeteers. I might have made a decent officer out of you."
Rip grinned. "That's a real compliment, sir. I might return it by saying I'd be glad to have you as a Planeteer corporal any time."
O'Brine chuckled. "All right. Let's declare a truce, Planeteer. We'll meet again. Space isn't very big."
A short time later Rip stood in front of his asteroid base and watched the great cruiser drive into space. A short distance away a snapper-boat was lashed to the landing boat. O'Brine had insisted on leaving it, with a word of warning.
"These Connies are plenty smart. I don't like[pg 164] leaving you unprotected, even within reach of Mercury and Terra, but orders are orders. Keep the snapper-boat and you'll at least be able to put up a fight if you bump into trouble."
The asteroid sped on its lonely way for two days and then a cruiser came out of space, its nuclear drive glowing. The Planeteers manned the rocket launcher and Rip and Santos stood by the snapper-boat just in case, but the cruiser was the Sagittarius, out of Mercury.
Captain Go Sian-tek, a Chinese Planeteer officer, arrived in one of the cruiser's landing boats accompanied by three enlisted Planeteers. They were all from the Special Order Squadron on Mercury.
Captain Go greeted Rip and his men, then handed over a plastic stylus plate ordering Rip to deliver six cubic meters of thorium for use on Mercury. While Koa supervised the cutting of the block, Rip and the captain chatted.