As soon as the prisoners had debarked from the Silver Cloud, Spelford began giving orders.

"Move. This way. Stay in single file."

The line crossed the field and pa.s.sed through a second airlock. Leaving the field behind, they entered a large manufacturing area. Several dozen men were working feverishly at ma.s.sive tables and work centers.

Sparks from welding areas were visible in the back parts of the area.

Flashing lights from many desks lit up the faces of men with intent gazes, whose attention was fixed on close work on numerous small circuit boards. A few workers glanced curiously at the line of prisoners, but they didn't waste time on a thorough investigation of the newcomers.

Spelford and his detail escorted the prisoners through an immense double door, down a wide pa.s.sageway, and into a large elevator. The elevator could accommodate fifty men easily. When all were inside, Spelford tapped a number into the control pad and the elevator began to descend. It stopped in seconds and the door opened into an area where several corridors came together. Two small elevator doors flanked the one from which the men emerged. The procession entered a dimly-lit corridor that extended for about a hundred yards. Many doors were set into the walls, but none was open.

Spelford led the way down the corridor. After covering about two-thirds of the distance, he stopped and slid open a plain, dark portal set into the right side of the pa.s.sage. He glanced into the room beyond, then stepped back and said, "In here." The prisoners entered, and the door closed behind the last one.

George St. George broke the silence. "We're not going to be able to absquatulate from these pirate yaps very easily, that's for sure. Guess we'll have to make the most of our stay here."

Zip strode into the center of the room and looked around. Indirect lighting provided plenty of illumination. "Clearly a dormitory of some sort," he observed to no one in particular. Bunk-style beds were s.p.a.ced around the walls. Through another door was a resting area with tables and chairs. In another room were washing facilities. On one side of the main room was a large window which overlooked the landing area and primary work center of the asteroid.

Joe and Mark strode over to the window and looked out. "The rotation of the asteroid provides the equivalent of gravity," observed Joe. "About what we're used to on the Moon-about one-sixth Earth. What do you think, Mark?"

"Feels like a little less to me," answered Mark. "We'll have to step up our exercises if we're going to maintain muscle tone."

"Nothing fancy, but everything we need," said one of St. George's men after a quick look around the rooms.

"For a long stay, maybe," said another.

"'K'intrishian' means 'wait,' if I remember correctly, Mark," said Joe.

"That's thirty-three points for you," responded the tall Starman.

Time pa.s.sed. From the window in the wall of the asteroid, the three Starmen looked down and saw a buzz of activity. About two dozen ships were docked on the field, and workers were still hovering around tables in the work center.

"Here comes another one," said Joe, as a s.p.a.cecraft pa.s.sed into view from the large tunnel that led to the outside.

"How many is that since we've been here?" asked Mark. "Six?"

"Yes, six in less than twenty-four hours," stated Zip.

The Starmen chafed under the burden of their powerlessness. They had already scoured the rooms carefully and found no sign of weakness they could exploit. Their food was delivered through an automated shaft that they could find no way of using as an escape route. They had neither seen nor spoken to anyone since Spelford had brought them to their prison.

Once again Zip looked out the window. "This place is amazing! This could not have been antic.i.p.ated by anyone! It must have been quite a shock when you found this asteroid, George."

"Oh yes, I was awestruck, completely, absolutely electrified! Imagine stepping into a remnant of an astounding civilization like this. When I found it, it was abandoned. It seemed as if no one had been in it for probably thousands of years."

"Tell us everything you know about this place," ordered Zip, looking intently at the asteroid miner and drawing him over to the nearest table. Zip gently eased the miner into a chair, then turned another chair around and sat in it, folding his arms over its back and facing George. The asteroid miner told the Starmen the story of his discovery of the asteroid and how Troy Putnam had learned about it. They had already heard a brief version of the story from Oritz Konig back at Mars Base.

"Of course, I didn't know this Putnam was a bad egg at the time. He just seemed like a friendly, curious s.p.a.ceman to me."

"What about the asteroid?" pressed Joe. "What have you figured out about the race that built it?"

"As I said, the asteroid was abandoned when I ran across it, but whoever built it couldn't have been too different from us. Same body type, same size, that's obvious. Look around you-beds, chairs, everything, just the way we'd make them. Their language was quite different, though. Took me a long time to learn how to use some of their stuff."

"How'd you learn your way around here?"

"When I first came upon the asteroid, the airlock was open. A huge orifice, made for s.p.a.ceships, as you can tell. I came through and landed. Went through one of the airlocks into the building portion here, where we are now, and just explored. Trial and error. It's not too difficult to get the basics down-opening and closing doors, and all that. Then figuring out the right mix of atmosphere. I had plenty of time. I got access to the first four or five stories, but I'm pretty certain the place is much bigger than that. At first, I couldn't get any further than the first few stories, but after a while I found my way around a couple of deeper sections."

"And then?"

"What do you mean, 'and then'? I got bored with it and moved on. I'm a miner, not an explorer or a settler or a scientist. There's nothing here but iron. I told a few people about it but n.o.body much believed me or cared until this Troy Putnam fellow I met in Yellow City. He's the only person who got excited about it, so when he asked me to bring him here, I did it, as I said. Why not? He paid my expenses for the trip, and a little more besides for my time. He was impressed with the place, as was I. Then I went looking for uranium and he went back to Ceres.

Never saw him again."

Zip pursed his lips, and his brow furrowed under his red hair-a common expression for the leader of the Starman team. "This has to explain why Zimbardo was looking for you," he said. "No one outside the pirates knows as much as you about his asteroid. That didn't seem to bother Troy Putnam, but Zimbardo must consider you a threat. But I can't understand why he has taken us prisoner. Zimbardo has no heart of mercy whatever. I would have expected him just to silence you for good.

Obviously he is preparing this place for some new and big enterprise and is probably occupied, but now I think we'll be hearing from him before too long. Before that happens, I think we'd better be gone."

"Escape? You talking about escape, Zip? From here?" asked Joe with amazement.

Zip addressed St. George. "Tell us everything you know about how this asteroid works. Leave out no detail whatever. Everything you can remember. Joe and Mark, pay close attention! We have to come up with a plan!"

A full day had pa.s.sed since Richard Starlight had called the special meeting in his office in the towers of Starlight Enterprise. Now he sat silent and alone in one of the chairs around the great table. Suddenly he spun the chair around and stared through the clear wall in front of him. His gaze went far past the lunar mountains into the distant sky where Mars was just rising, a tiny red point.

The President had issued his commands earlier that morning. A secret communication had been issued to the commanding officers of all the bases of s.p.a.ce Command. A similar message had been sent to the heads of large commercial enterprises such as Starlight Enterprise and Nolan Mining Enterprise, as well as the local authorities of population centers in the Asteroid Belt and on Mars. The communication had provided what information was known about the threat that the pirates manifested. It ordered s.p.a.ce Command and urged the private parties to keep the information secret so as to avoid panic and to prevent the pirates from learning that their sheathing apparatus had been observed in action, and advised all parties to prepare for any attack the pirates may launch. They were put on high alert for visual attack and to be ready for instant defensive response.

In Amundsen City, Keith Seaton sat at his desk, scanning the Asteroid Belt with his telescope. His strong build filled the chair in which he sat.

"There's Ceres," he said quietly as the image of the Belt's largest asteroid came up on the screen. Charlie Taylor and Allen Foster, who were sitting next to him, nodded. The fathers of the three Starmen weren't conversing much that night, but all were greatly comforted by each other's presence.

On Ceres, Sim Sala Bim received the encrypted message on tight beam, and felt immense sadness come over him as he read it. "Where are those three young Starmen now?" he wondered.

In the laboratories of Starlight Enterprise's main center on the Moon, scientists were working around the clock to devise a method by which their ships could track distant objects by sight instead of radar.

Additionally, under a very rare Presidential command, technicians were working frantically under Earth's pre-eminent astrophysicist, Stephen Hoshino, trying to devise an advanced means of detecting a ship that was invisible to radar.

The Inner Planetary system was waiting for a strike which its defenders knew would surely come-but not when, where, or how.

8: The Starmen Strike!

ALMOST an hour had gone by since George St. George had begun to tell the three Starmen what he knew of the asteroid. Zip, Mark, and Joe had listened intently, plying the asteroid miner with detailed questions as he continued his narrative. At last, no one had anything else to say.

"No more questions?" Zip asked. Both Joe and Mark shook their heads.

Their energy level had gone up appreciably since they had sat down with George. They had become spirited, now that they were determined to find a plan of escape.

"All right, then. It seems to me that this may be easier than we thought," stated Zip.

"You have an idea already?" asked Joe, with a slight turn of his head.

"It seems obvious that this asteroid was not intended to house prisoners. This room we're in is not a cell block-it's a dormitory."