And we have no idea when we will learn the
pirates' next move, and we don't know where the Starmen are now."
The room was silent. Everyone was stunned. When Mars was liberated they
had thought that the conflict was at an end. Now they saw that their
situation was more desperate than they thought possible.
After a moment, Robert Nolan spoke up. His eyes were wide and his voice
was high-pitched. "Wh-, what can we do? Can't we find these pirates?
Can't we just send out ships and comb the entire area of the Belt where
they disappeared? Can't we...?"
Keith Seaton broke in. "Robert, believe me, if there were anything we
could do, anything we could think of that wouldn't be the equivalent of
running around in circles, we'd be doing it! The Starmen are our sons!
Richard informed us last night that they were captured, and we've done
just about nothing else but try to think of something we can do."
Allen Foster joined in. His voice was level and determined, clearly
being controlled with supreme effort. "It is impossible to do a random
search of the Asteroid Belt-even if we restrict our search to the
section where the hidden base must lie. We've done the math. We may as
well be looking for a black marble hidden at night anywhere in North
America."
"And invisible ships!" Nolan gasped.
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