“Wish you’d give me an orbit on this thing, Joyce,” he said, “so I could lock onto it.”
“It ain’t got no orbit, man,” Joyce said. “I’m trackin’ it, but I don’t understand it. That rock is on a closing curve with us, and slowin’ down fast.”
“What’s the velocity, Joyce?” I asked.
“Averagin’ about 1,000 relative, Captain, but slowin’ fast.”
“All right, we’ll hold our course,” I said.
I keyed for a general announcement.
“This is the Captain,” I said. “General Quarters. Man action stations and prepare for possible contact within one hour.”
“Missile Section. Arm No. 1 Battery and stand by.”
Then I added, “We don’t know what we’ve got here, but it’s not a natural body. Could be anything from a torpedo on up.”
I went back to the Beam screen. The image was clear, but without detail. The two discs slowly drew apart, then closed again.