Koa came and stood beside Rip. "I haven't seen the Connie's exhaust for a while, sir. They've probably stopped decelerating. We can't see them at all." "Meaning what?" Rip asked. He thought he knew, but he wanted Koa's opinion. "They're in free fall now, sir. That could mean they're just hunting in the area. Or it could mean that they've stopped somewhere close by. They could be looking us over right now, for all we know." Rip surveyed the stars. "If that's so, they're not too close, Koa. Otherwise they'd block out a patch of stars." "Well, sir--" Koa hesitated. "I mean, if you were looking over this asteroid, and you weren't sure whether the enemy had it or not, how close would you get?" "Probably about one AU," Rip said jokingly. That was one astronomical unit, equal to about ninety-three million miles, the distance from Earth to the sun. "That's a safe distance, sir," Koa agreed with a grin. "But let's suppose the Connie isn't as timid as I am," Rip went on. "He might be only a few miles out. The question is, would he wait to get closer before launching his snapper-boats?" The tall officer answered frankly, "I've never been in a space grab like this. I don't know the answer." "We'll soon know," Rip replied grimly. A thought had just struck him. The _Scorpius_ had trouble finding the asteroid because it was just one of many sailing along through the belt. But now the asteroid was the only one traveling _across_ the belt. It would make an outstanding blip on any radarscope. It wasn't possible that the Connie cruiser had missed the blip and its significance. "The Connie may be looking us over," Rip added, "but I'll tell you one thing. He knows we've taken the asteroid." Koa looked wistfully at the atomic bomb which remained. "If we had a way to throw that thing at them...." "But we haven't. And the thing wouldn't explode, anyway. We don't have the outside casing with an exploder mechanism, so it has to be turned on electrically." Rip could see no way to use the atomic bomb against the Connies. It was too big for use against a landing party. Besides, it would put the Planeteers themselves in danger. "Ever have trouble with the Connies before?" he asked Koa. "More'n once, sir. Sometimes it seems like I'll never get a job where I don't have to fight Connies." Rip was trained in science and Planeteer techniques, and he didn't pretend to know the ins and outs of interplanetary politics. Just the same, he couldn't help wondering about the strange relationship between the Consolidation of People's Governments and the Federation of Free Nations. Connies and Feds, mostly Planeteers but sometimes spacemen, were constantly skirmishing. They fought over property, over control of ports on distant planets and moons, and over space salvage. Often there was bloodshed. Sometimes there were pitched battles between groups of platoon size.