Mr. Withers.
And Mr. Poppy. No one else. Well, then, there are six of us altogether.
Let us go."
There was almost no talking. Each man seemed to know what to do without
being told. They opened the airlocks to pass through the manufacturing
center, and then into the airless launching pad. Without haste but
without unnecessary delay, they entered the Tartarus, a gleaming silver
and red ship that could support a crew of eighteen.
The six men strapped themselves into acceleration couches with Gebbeth
in the pilot's position. "Take us out, Mr. Gebbeth," said Zimbardo. "I
will tell you where to go when we are free."
"Yes sir," said Gebbeth, and initiated the launching sequence. In a
short time, Lurton Zimbardo's spacecraft had left the asteroid.
"Top speed, Mr. Gebbeth," said Zimbardo. "Make sure the sheathing
equipment is functioning. Head away from the sun."
"Of course, sir."
When Zimbardo burned out the asteroid's power, much of the energy
needed to power its sheathing apparatus disappeared. The sheathing
plates then only received power through the solar energy panels, and
they did not provide enough energy to hide the asteroid completely. It
appeared on radar as a faint blip, allowing the Earth ships to locate
it without difficulty. About two hours after Zimbardo's departure, the
fleet command ship Tempest came upon the asteroid.
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