"If you have any questions, relay them to your Section Official in the fifty-five minutes which remain. Good luck to all of you...." The rules were thorough, all right. This could turn out to be a two-way proposition which would help both the Government and the families, and the Government wanted it to be a rousing success. In the first place, there were literally thousands of families, all waiting tensely for blast-off. None of them had been earning sufficient income, thanks to the depression following the final East-West war on Earth, and now it was hoped that they could earn their keep by mining the asteroids. Further, I knew that the Government had been forced to abandon its mineral deposits on all the asteroids except Vesta, and now it could use the extra wealth from the silent mines which waited on a thousand little worlds in deep space between Mars and Jupiter. * * * * * I sat smoking cigarette after cigarette, until Clair reminded me that the supply wasn't infinite. She pored over our charts, studying the three or four asteroids which had seemed most promising, looking up with a smile now and then to watch Gramps strum his guitar and sing about a fly with a blue tail. The radio barked, "Three minutes to blast-off!" Outside, I could hear the roar of a thousand rocket engines tuning up, and a shroud of smoke and fire blanketed the field. "Two minutes!" "Hey, Gramps," I said. "Put down that banjo and strap yourself into a bunk. We're set to go--" "It's a guitar," he told me. "A _gui_-tar. Okay, kid, plenty of time." I stood up and helped Clair into her bunk, kissing her lightly on the lips. "I'm a little scared," she said. "Don't be silly. Nothing to be afraid of, honey." I was glad she couldn't feel me trembling. Gramps was next, and I saw to it that his straps were fastened properly, then I sat down again in the pilot-chair, buckling a heavy leather belt across my thighs. "Thirty seconds!" I remember wondering vaguely if the Karden could get us to the Belt in one piece, and not hours behind every other ship. Then a shrill whistle outside was going "beep-beep-beep!" and I pulled the firing lever back all the way. * * * * * I grinned at Clair. "How do you like weighing exactly nothing?" "You always told me I was a little too skinny, Captain Brooks, sir!" Gramps scowled darkly. "Aw, you two kids are just making fun of the Karden, that's all. So what if we ain't got any gravity to speak of?"