If present speed and
course are maintained, object will fly by the Earth. Closest approach
will be attained in 15 days, 8 hours, 3 minutes, 14 seconds at a
distance of approximately 10,689 miles."
There was silence in Richard's office for over a minute. Then someone
said, "It's going to miss."
18: Collision Course!
EXHAUSTED with relief, the party broke up. The men from Space Command
left the Starlight Enterprise plant and returned to their headquarters.
Robert Nolan and Beowulf Denn lifted off from a launching deck not far
from Richard's office and set course for the space station that was the
central facility for Nolan Mining Enterprise.
Richard had already given orders that ships from Starlight Enterprise
be assigned the immediate task of pursuing and capturing the eighteen
pirate ships that had destroyed NME's decoy freighters the day before.
The SE freighters that had actually carried the probes into space had
been joined by SE ships gathered quietly from various sources during
the previous week. They had converged during the journey so that many
were in place throughout the area of the search, ready to respond to
any orders that might come.
Inside many of them were the Firewasp fighters SE produced for use in
the Asteroid Belt. The Firewasps were small, tremendously fast and
amazingly maneuverable one-man ships that had been concentrated in
several SE bases in the Asteroid Belt.
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