"Sit down," the spaceman invited gruffly.
Rip did, and wondered what was coming next.
"We'll start to decelerate in about ten minutes," O'Brine said. "Eat while you can." He signaled and a spaceman brought Rip the day's ration in an individual plastic carton with thermo-lining. The Planeteer opened it and found a block of mixed vegetables, a slab of space-meat, and two units of biscuit. He wrinkled his nose. Space-meat he didn't[pg 046] mind. It was chewy but tasty. The mixed vegetable ration was chosen for its food value and not for taste. A good mouthful of earth-grass would be a lot more palatable. He sliced off pieces of the warm stuff and chewed thoughtfully, watching O'Brine's face for a clue as to why the commander had invited him to sit down.
It wasn't long in coming. "Your orders are the strangest things I've ever read," O'Brine stated. "Do you know where we're going?"
Rip figured quickly. They had accelerated for six and a half hours. Now, ten minutes after brennschluss, they were going to start deceleration. That meant they had really high-vacked it to get somewhere in a hurry. He calculated swiftly.
"I don't know exactly," he admitted. "But from the ship's actions, I'd say we were aiming for the far side of the asteroid belt. Anyway, we'll fall short of Jupiter."
There was a glimmer of respect in O'Brine's glance. "That's right. Know anything about asteroids, Foster?"
Rip considered. He knew what he had been taught in astronomy and astrogation. Between Mars and Jupiter lay a broad belt in which the asteroids swung. They ranged from Ceres, a tiny world only 480 miles in diameter, down to chunks of rock the size of a house. No accurate count of asteroids—or minor planets, as they were called—had been made, but[pg 047] the observatory on Mars had charted the orbits of over 100,000. Most of them were only a mile or two in diameter. Others, much smaller, had never been charted by anyone. One leading astronomer had estimated that as many as 50,000 asteroids filled the belt.
"I know the usual stuff about them," he told O'Brine. "I haven't any special knowledge."
O'Brine blinked. "Then why did they assign you? What's your specialty?"