“Watch,” Harcraft said. He bumped the magnification as much as he dared. “The Ankorbadian fleet,” said Banner between clenched teeth. They spent the next hour scanning the ship’s micro-library for anything at all on Ankorbadian religious practices. There was nothing. Arnold awoke in another hour and seemed remarkably free of hysteria. “What do you know about our friends’ religious holiday?” asked Banner. “We checked the library without any luck.” Arnold scratched the side of his face. “Lemme think. Yeah, I remember. They go home to celebrate spring, like you said.” “They all go home?” “Uh-huh. They got to. Only time they can mate. Only place, too.” “How long they stay? I’ve heard it’s about one of our months, but we have to know exactly.” “That’s all I know. Read it some place a long time ago. Can I go back to sleep now?” “Go back to sleep,” said Banner. They spent the next three hours maneuvering carefully around the asteroid. They took six thousand feet of movies and stared at the projections for another three hours. One thousand seven hundred and thirty silvery needles flashed reflected starlight into astonished, wild eyes. “At least,” whispered Banner, “there’s nobody there.” “A lot of good that does us. They’ll be back from their home planet in a few weeks, just as soon as the breeding season is over. Why should they leave anybody here? There’s not a map in the galaxy that indicates the position of this piece of rock. And we haven’t any weapons.” “I don’t suppose the computer—” “You can’t compute an orbit without at least one more reference point. Besides, we’re four weeks from any kind of fleet contact.” “Great. In other words, they’ll be back here, ready to roll before we can even tell anybody that we don’t know how to find it again.” “Right. And since there’s not any room left to park another ship of that size, it’s a pretty safe assumption that they are ready to roll.” “Armageddon,” muttered Harcraft. “You sure we don’t have anything to—” “Weapons? Yeah. We have a pistol and three small nitro paks in a locker some place. You couldn’t even blow your way inside one of those ships. And if you could, you’d spend two weeks and then blow yourself to hell before you’d know anything about the armament.” “O.K., let’s land and look around. Go get Arnold.” They cut off the sleds and plunged down, landing between two of the ships. Before putting on suits, Banner sent Arnold to the locker to get the three nitro paks. He hoped it would help him overcome the terrible feeling of nakedness and impotence. They spent only a little time out of the ship. There was nothing to see that hadn’t been seen before, and the heavy artificial gravity generated by the alien ships—coupled with a maze of deep crevices—made walking difficult and dangerous. Back in the control cabin, Banner turned to Harcraft, “Any ideas?”