“I’ll let you have the Vigilant Warrior,” said Sim. “It’s a local ship, designed for operating in the Asteroid Belt. We own it, but it hasn’t been used in a while and probably no one will recognize it as an SE ship. It’s the best I can do on short notice, but it should serve you well.”
“I’m sure it’ll be fine, if you say so,” answered Zip.
Sim Sala Bim got right to work, and the Vigilant Warrior was ready for takeoff within two hours. As soon as it was ready, the Starmen lifted off from Yellow City. As Joe piloted the ship into the heart of the Belt, Zip looked back for a brief, wistful moment and saw the unusual dark red color of the Star Ranger, his ship, on the field of Yellow City.
“That’s it,” said Mark, as the navigation equipment locked onto the asteroid that was the home of the elusive Montezuma Vly.
“Hmmm. No wonder it’s so hard to find,” observed Zip, looking over Mark’s shoulder for a moment. “Not far from major travelways but so unobtrusive you’d never notice it.”
“It just hovers almost in the shadow of that large, worthless chunk here. Should be able to see it out the window before too long.”
Joe was busy threading the Vigilant Warrior through the asteroids for the next few minutes. He kept the ship at a moderate pace and passed easily around the slowly turning asteroids. They were all moving at about the same speed and maneuvering was not difficult.
“Should be coming up on it about now,” offered Mark.
“There it is,” said Zip almost immediately. The Vigilant Warrior had eased its way around an oblong worldlet—the “large, worthless chunk” that Mark had just mentioned—bringing into view a crescent-shaped, stony asteroid about a mile long. It looked almost like a fat banana with the ends tapering into sharp points.
“Montezuma’s Castle,” breathed Zip. “Kind of looks like a moon for that large asteroid.”