They should be here in
about three hours."
"No debris?"
"No, Zip. I've found where the explosion took place and examined that
more carefully than any other area. It was a violent blow. I think
about a third of an asteroid was turned into dust when it went off, and
that's powerful enough to vaporize any ship that was carrying a weapon
with that kind of potential."
Zip shook his head as if warding off a buzzing insect. "All right.
Nothing we can do about it." He turned to the third Starman on the
crew. "Mark," he called out. "Would you send a report to Mars please
and ask Commander De Koven what he wants us to do?"
"Okay, Zip."
Mark prepared the message and sent it off. The response would come
through after a delay of several minutes. As they waited, Joe said,
"You seem uneasy, Zip. What's there to worry about?"
"I just like completion. That ship we were chasing carried the last of
the pirates from Mars, and I'd just feel a lot better if there were
some debris, some evidence that they hadn't escaped."
"Zip," came a deep voice from the lounge next to the flight deck,
"there's a lot of uncertainties in life, 'specially life in space. I
been around a lot and believe me, the exception is when you really know
everything that happened-and that's never."
"Sure, Steve," answered Zip, raising his voice.
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