There are no population centers of any size within 10,000 miles of the
place, and no known solitary miners. It's a completely dead spot, and
sats are spaced very thinly there. Yet fourteen sats in a sphere at
least a thousand miles in diameter were put out within a ten-minute
period. No natural phenomenon can explain that. Space Command has the
closest ship, but it won't get to the site for a little more than 22
hours. The nearest backup ship is more than three hours after that. SE
doesn't have a ship of any kind at all within four days of the site, so
we'll have to depend on Space Command for the first reports."
"Wake up! Everybody wake up!" Starman Joe Taylor was shouting.
"What is it? What's wrong?" Voices came from several men, jerked awake
by Joe's outburst.
"Food! There's food here!" he burst out. "And water! Someone brought us
food and water! Lots of it!"
Within seconds everyone was up and crowding around Joe. Now that he had
roused his companions, he was bent over a half dozen large boxes, one
of which was partially open. He reached in and took out a container
filled with fruit. He handed it to one of George St. George's men,
reached into the box again, and withdrew a vessel with water in it. It
had a spigot on it as if it were made for traveling.
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