Elec reached across to retrieve it and hand it to Billy. “Ta-da!”
“Seriously?” said Billy, taking it.
“A temporary measure to stake your claim for the prize. When your engineer retrieves the real thing from the engine room, you swap it out. Genius.”
Billy scoffed. “This wouldn’t fool a child of five.” He turned the fake rock in his hands and tossed it a couple of times to gauge its weight. A beep on his control panel made him jump. “That bugger Brazell’s just announced his hundredth rock!”
Elec spread his hands as though to say, “Well, what are you waiting for?”
Billy hesitated, staring at the fake rock in a trance.
A second beep jerked him out of it. “He’s on his way here to the station. OK, let’s do this.”
He charged back to the hold, leaving Elec uttering a huge sigh of relief.
