He knew they were going too fast even for the automatic pilot to keep
the ship safe once they entered the thick sweep of the asteroids. He
also knew that the Belt was their only hope of escaping the Starmen on
their trail. Powered by adrenaline, his senses were functioning at
their peak. With amazing alacrity and intensity, Zimbardo aided the
automatic pilot and threaded the Silver Spear through the weaving
asteroids. It almost seemed as if he were in a trance.
Soon a dark asteroid loomed ahead, roughly shaped like a potato,
forty-five miles long and twenty-five wide, rotating slowly around its
longest axis. It was nearly invisible both to the eye and to the
instruments, but Zimbardo knew where it was. He barked out a command.
The Silver Spear slowed quickly, and moments later a huge airlock door
opened in one of the poles of the asteroid. Zimbardo piloted the ship
into the airlock, through the stone tunnel that led into the interior
of the asteroid, and then touched down.
The thin, wiry man raced for the control room as fast as he could run,
pushing men out of the way and heeding no one who called out to him.
Once inside, he quickly pressed a series of buttons and entered a
numeric code. Once it was entered and confirmed, he made a fist and
slammed it hard on a large red button.
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