The crews were left floating in space. Forces of
some kind we are not familiar with pulled them into the proximity of
the remaining ship, where they were taken aboard. Clearly, against
forces like that we are helpless. The ship returned immediately. The
men are badly shaken."
Kimball grunted again. "And Vly?"
Zimbardo answered. "They never talked to him. But we don't need him. A
short time after this incident he radioed to St. George and we
intercepted the beam. We'd been looking for it. Vly probably assumed
that with the destruction of our landing party he was safe and so was
St. George. But his call went directly to asteroid Z25. It was
encrypted so we couldn't read it, but we didn't have to know what the
message was to know where it went. Our other five ships were two days
away from the location. They went directly there and picked up all the
miners, including St. George, in a very neat operation."
The intercom buzzed. "Mr. Zimbardo?"
"Yes, what is it?" he responded with obvious irritation.
"Sorry to bother you, sir, but you asked to be informed as soon as the
ships returned. The Silver Cloud and its four companion ships are
expected to dock in approximately 45 minutes."
"Very good!" Zimbardo's initial irritation was instantly dispelled.
"Tell Mr. Lather to put the prisoners into the cell block.
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