been dropped as a further means of getting the asteroid to
fire. But no rockets had been fired from the asteroid, so the pilot in
control of the drone had sent it at low speed, a perfect target.

That meant O'Brine wasn't sure of what was going on. He must have seen the
blip on his screen as the Connie cruiser flamed off, Rip reasoned. But the
commander probably suspected that the Connies had overcome the Planeteers
and were in control of the asteroid. He had sent the snapper-boats to try
and draw fire in an attempt to find out more surely whether Planeteers or
Connies had the thorium rock.

"The _Scorpius_ doesn't know what's going on," Rip told his Planeteers.
"O'Brine didn't know the cruiser was waiting to ambush him, so the rocket
we fired made him think the Connies had taken us over."

He put himself in O'Brine's place. What would his next step be? The
snapper-boats hadn't drawn fire, even when a drone was sent over at low
speed. The next thing would be to send a piloted boat over slowly enough
to take a look.

Rip hoped O'Brine would hurry. There was no longer any feeling in his arm
below Koa's safety line. That meant the arm had frozen. He had to get
medical attention from the _Scorpius_ pretty soon.

He gritted his teeth. At least he was no longer losing blood. He wasn't
getting any weaker. But every now and then his vision fogged and he had to
shake his head to clear it.

The pilotless snapper-boat made another slow run, then put on speed and
flashed back to the group of boats near the cruiser. Another boat detached
itself from the squadron and moved toward the asteroid.

Rip wished for a communicator powerful enough to reach the _Scorpius_, but
knew it was useless to try with his helmet circuit. The carrier waves of
the snapper-boats were on the same frequency, and they would smother the
faint signal from his bubble.

But the boats might be able to hear if they got close enough! He had a
swift memory of the communications circuits. The pilots were plugged into
their boat communicators. If a boat got near enough, he could turn up his
bubble to full volume and yell. Not only would the boat pilot hear him,
but his voice would go through the pilot's circuit and be heard in the
ship!

Rip grabbed Koa's arm. "Let's move away from the cave a little farther."

The two of them stepped away from the cave and stood in full view as the
snapper-boat moved cautiously down toward the asteroid. Rip planned what
he