Nibley walked up and stood beside the captain.
"Captain Kroll...."
Kroll turned. "Oh, hello, Grandpa—"
"Tough luck."
"Yeah. Yeah. I guess that's what you'd call it. Tough luck."
"You're going to take off anyway, Captain?"
"Sure," said Kroll quietly, looking at the sky. "Sure."
"How's the protective computator on board your ship?"
"Not so hot. Bad, in fact. It might conk out before we get half way through the asteroids."
"That's not good," said Nibley.