“Whew!” he exclaimed a moment later. “Well over 290,000 miles per hour! It would be better to turn this asteroid aside and pass by the Earth rather than try to bring it into orbit, as Zimbardo had planned at first. We’re going too fast for that!” “My thoughts exactly,” said Madera, seating himself on a stool next to Gene. “Let’s see how you do it.” Gene plotted coordinates and tracked the trajectory of the runaway asteroid, then calculated the amount of thrust needed to pass the Earth at a safe distance. He figured how much he could slow the asteroid down without putting too much stress on the inhabitants. When he was finished, he turned to Madera. “Okay?” “Looks right to me!” “Well, then...here goes.” Gene entered the figures into the primary guidance system and activated it. Tears suddenly came into his eyes. “Oh, please let it be enough, let it be right, let it work,” he whispered. * * * * * The Starmen woke after twelve hours of sleep aboard the _Star Ranger_. Uncharacteristically, Joe was the last one up. He found a note in the washroom that read, “We’re on the _Tempest_. Join us for breakfast whenever you’re ready.” He washed up quickly and hastened to the SE fleet command ship. Readily admitted, he found his two colleagues in the dining area. Mark and Zip were just finishing a large platter of scrambled eggs and cheese, potatoes, freshly-squeezed juice, and hot coffee. “I’ll have the same, but with tea,” he announced, and sat down. “Yes sir,” came a voice from the galley. “How’re you feeling this morning, Mark?” asked Joe. “How’s your hand?” “Couldn’t feel better, Joe! Had a good sleep at last, and my hand should be healed in a couple of weeks. It was a second-degree burn.” A few moments later, Gene came out carrying Joe’s breakfast. “Gene!” exclaimed Joe. “Yes, Mr. Taylor. Just trying to help out a little,” said the erstwhile pirate. “He cooks as well as he pilots,” said Mark. “We’re safe, then.” Joe made it a statement rather than a question as he shook some pepper onto the steaming eggs. “Yes,” said Zip. “The asteroid will sweep past the Earth in a week, missing it by about 50,000 miles. It will be visible for almost the whole night over the south Pacific, like a fast-moving star. Should be quite a sight!” “Then what?” asked Joe between gulps of juice. “Then what, what?” responded Mark. “Then where does it go?” “As Gene said yesterday,” explained Zip, “it’s moving too fast to enter an orbit around the Earth, so Gene steered it into a course around the sun. It will take about seven months to circle the sun just inside Earth’s orbit. Then it will catch up to the Earth and can easily be placed into an Earth orbit at that time. Scientists from Starlight Enterprise will live on it and try to learn its secrets. In fact, a ship will be launched from SE in a couple of days with a crew of them. They’ll intercept the asteroid and start the exploration right away.”