The rest of them were gathered around, paying
close attention to what he was saying. Already the atmosphere was one
of peace. No one seemed afraid now.
Through the window beyond, a portion of the vast arm of the Milky Way
spread out in its eternal beauty. The Starmen were silently wondering
the same things: How long would it be before they met Lurton Zimbardo?
Would he recognize them? Why did he want St. George alive?
6: Battle Lines
THE PIRATES' ASTEROID swung in a smooth, private orbit about a thousand
miles beyond the farthest extremity of the Asteroid Belt. Lurton
Zimbardo was in his private sanctum, a well-equipped workroom with
precision astronomical equipment, sky charts, and an enormous inventory
of computer files. As he turned his telescanner toward the Inner
Planets, he saw the spread of the Belt before him.
Countless celestial bodies moved in an incredibly slow pattern like a
stately dance. Reflected sunlight glinted from oblique surfaces into
the light-gathering lenses of the telescanner. When the occasional
crystalline surface or frozen lake on a passing asteroid caught the
radiance just right, an intense but transitory sparkling brilliance was
generated, and created a pattern of astonishing beauty on the scanner's
computer screen.
Zimbardo entered a few more bits of data into the criteria of his
search pattern and then said, "Enter.
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