She was rewarded a few minutes later by seeing the Hell Bat turn on its axis for deceleration. She realized then what she should have guessed at once.
Neither their ships nor the freighter were equipped with interstellar drive. The rocket trail had ceased. Unless the robot were insane, and intent only on getting away from the Solar System, to drift forever in space, it had been headed for some destination.
The freighter was decelerating to match speed with that destination. Was it some planetoid far out beyond the orbit of Pluto? There were several of them out there, too far from things to be converted to space stations, containing nothing worth mining.
Whatever the destination the robot had headed for, it couldn't be far away now.
Her throat grew tight as she swung the ship. She debated seriously whether she should give up and let Larry take over. But the thought of his anger and contempt for her after the dirty trick she had played on him made her compress her lips into a grim line.
She shook her head. She was going to find the freighter and handle the robot by herself. Or she was going to die trying.
A lump formed in her throat. She didn't like the idea of dying quite so well now. Not when she had just begun to—
She didn't complete the thought but Larry's face rose before her. His too straight nose that only a surgeon could have created. His calm gray eyes. His wide shoulders and....
The "space officer" and the robot saw the ball of fire that came into being. It was in the stern screen. It would not have been discernible among the greater lights of the stars except that it winked on, grew almost to third magnitude, then blinked out.