“A space station?”
“That’s what I’m assuming. Nottoo big as space stations go. It appears to be operational, butthereare no life signs in it. I’m guessing it was abandoned a long timeago.”
“Can we get to it with the shuttle?”
“I think so. Fifty more miles up andthe trip would be difficult, if not impossible. But it’s in alocation I think you can manage.”
“That’s interesting. This is aprimitive planet. There are not supposed to be any high-tech spacestations floating around.”
“Which is one reason we were notlooking for it. It looks old, but very sophisticated.”
“Feed the coordinates to the pilot,”I said to Madigan. “Head for the North Pole, first. We’ll dropoff squad members and then head for the station. I’ll take about adozen men and check it out.”
Captain Simmons was still on the
