"We've examined the spaceship. No one's in it, hurt or otherwise. It's a single seater. A pirate ship all right."
"You sure? How can you be certain?"
"Aside from the fact that it would have no business around here if it wasn't, the papers are a give-away. There's a whole sheaf of them. Reports on the Ganymede jewel shipments mostly. And a full set of data on our own little world, Mart. If there's a Venusian around, he sure knows his way."
"Dope on Callisto? What kind?"
"A detailed map of Comprotown, showing every building. A full schedule of freighter hops both ways to Jupe and Earth. Details of shipments. That sort of thing."
"Holy stars! But why should a pirate be interested in ore?"
"Don't imagine he is. Or in Comprotown, either. I'd say from the papers, it was precautionary information. We don't keep our operations a secret here. He could have picked it up from any magazine article describing Comprotown in detail.
"But I still don't see—"
"The Ganymede jewel shipments, Mart. I'd say he was bound for Gany and his ship went blooie while he was scudding past Callisto. He got pulled down here and just barely made a landing he could walk away from. I'm afraid there'll be trouble."
Mart whistled. "Well, the Director's due now. He'll want a search organized and—Wait, here he is. Tell it over again, Cap, and you'll be reporting direct.... Listen to this, Director."