"Very good, Mr. Danley. Now assume that the surface of your rock is at nine hundred ninety-five meters. Bring your boat to a dead stop exactly fifty centimeters from that surface."
Danley worked the controls again. He grinned with satisfaction when the distance meter showed nine nine five point five on the nose.
Captain St. Simon sighed deeply. "Mr. Danley, do you feel a little shaken up? Banged around a little? Do you feel as though you'd just gotten a bone-rattling shock?"
"Uh ... no."
"You should. You slammed this boat a good two feet into the surface of that rock before you backed out again." His voice changed tone. "Dammit, Mr. Danley, when I say 'surface at nine nine five', I mean surface!"
Edway Tarnhorst had been dictating notes for his reports into his recorder, and was rather tired, so when he asked Peter Danley what he had learned, he was rather irritated when the blond man closed his blue eyes and repeated, parrotlike:
"Due to the lack of a water-oxygen atmosphere, many minerals are found in the asteroids which are unknown on Earth. Among the more important of these are: Oldhamite (CaS); Daubréelite (FECr2S4); Schreibersite and Rhabdite (Fe3Ni3P); Lawrencite (FeCl2); and Taenite, an alloy of iron containing—"
"That's not precisely the sort of thing I meant," Tarnhorst interrupted testily.
Danley smiled. "I know. I'm sorry. That's my lesson for tomorrow."