George shook his head in a big arc. “Now Zip, I haven’t been on this chunk for over fifteen years. I’m not real sure where to go!”
“George, no one else has been on the asteroid at all. There’s no one but you.”
The asteroid miner looked down, dejected. “I don’t like any of this. But you’re right. Okay. We’ll go out the door and back to the elevators. We’ll take the one on the left. I’ll take us to a floor one level down, then through a huge storeroom. On the other side are other corridors. I’ve been through there, and there are places to hide and more elevators to get us other places on the asteroid. After that I’m not sure. Maybe I’ll remember when we get there.”
“Everyone got that?” said Zip. “Stay together and move quickly.” No one had anything else to say. Zip turned to Joe.
“Let’s go,” decreed Zip. Joe removed one end of a black wire and touched it to another terminal. The door slid open.
Outside was a scene that none of the Starmen had expected. Two pirates, dressed in their gray and black uniforms, were seated opposite one another at a small table on the far side of the corridor. The one on the right was a well-muscled, large man with dark hair, weighing well over 200 pounds; the other was blond, of medium build. He was leaning on his elbow, pondering his next move in a board game. When the door slid open, they both looked up, utter surprise written over their faces.
Both the Starmen and the pirates froze for a split second, then both sides moved at once. Mark charged for the big man and Joe for the blond. Simultaneously the huge pirate bellowed and threw the table toward the charging Starmen, scattering the game pieces. Mark stopped the flying table without slowing his pace and slammed it hard back at the pirates, legs first. The blond man managed to evade the table, but the big pirate took two table legs on his left thigh and upper chest. He groaned, and the laser pistol he had been drawing was caught behind the table. Mark quickly threw the table upside-down to his left, reached with both hands for the pirate’s right arm, and pulled the man quickly down and toward himself. His right knee came up and caught the man in the solar plexus. The pirate went down with a whoosh of air and lay still. Mark picked up his pistol.
Meanwhile, the blond pirate had screamed for help in a panicky voice, turned, and was dashing down the corridor toward the elevators. Joe took hold of the table’s leg nearest him and skated the table forcefully down the corridor after the escaping pirate. It caught the man behind his left ankle as he was running. In the low gravity, the pirate turned almost completely over, his pistol flying. Joe caught up with him and delivered a quick punch that rendered the man unconscious. The entire fight had taken less than ten seconds.
Zip stepped into the corridor calmly. “Did either of them have a chance to set off an alarm?”
“I think this one did,” responded Joe, pointing to the fallen pirate at his feet and picking up his laser pistol. “He had about five seconds while he was running to send an emergency call.”