The brilliant orange of superheated rock had quickly
cooled in the near-absolute zero of airless space.
"Guess it's okay to go now," he thought. "Those space buzzards are not
detail men-just grab and destroy without even looking around. Lucky for
me."
The man went over to a small asteroid cruiser, built for speed in
touring the Asteroid Belt. Stepping in, he sealed the airlock and
pulled out a small recorder. He tuned in a complicated code and began
to speak.
"Steve Cliff, reporting in to Oritz Konig on Mars Base." Steve went on
to give the date, time, and location, and a brief but thorough report
of what he had seen, from the time the Starmen landed on Z25 to the
time the pirates' five ships had disappeared. He added to the file the
pictures he had taken, and concluded, "Now returning to Yellow City. If
you have anything else you'd like me to do, Oritz, contact me there. I
don't have to tell you I'm pretty fond o' those boys and I was more'n
delighted to keep an eye on 'em for you on this trip. Sorry this report
isn't any better. I'll stop in and see Sim before I continue my trip
back to Earth, just in case you leave a message for me there."
Having finished the recording, he put it into a small projectile with
an automatic timer to release and send the message in three hours.
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