“How will we deal with Jennings and his lawyers?”

Moore smiled. “Well, we may have a bit of leverage of our own, as it turns out. There were some anomalous findings on the asteroid where they discovered the artifact. It looks like some RIVAs were used to alter the rock’s orbit.”

Castillo frowned. “I don’t remember anything like that ever being mentioned.”

“Funny, that. Yet the physical evidence, in the form of exhaust by-spray, indicates a prolonged burn. I’ve got analysts doing a back-prop on the rock’s orbit. I’ll bet you a dozen donuts it intersects Big Rock. And by the way, why Big Rock? Unless there was also a Little Rock?”

“Does that mean the Big Rock strike might be infected?”

Moore shook his head. “Realistically, I don’t think it’s likely. Their behavior in advising us of the infection and willingly submitting to quarantine indicates that they understood the inherent risks in the situation. I think they may simply have wanted to divorce the strike from the infection.”

“Because of PR?”

Moore gave Castillo an unbelieving look. “Because of the military. Us. Our first thought would have been to interdict the entire area. I’m sure that occurred to them. A lie of omission, forgetting to mention that the rocks were originally close together—really, there aren’t any laws broken.”

“Pretty speculative, Ted.”

“Maybe not as much as you’d think. I had someone check. The Astra is missing considerable lengths of towing cable and several RIVA units from its inventory. You don’t get rid of cable, or throw away used RIVAs. Besides being a potential navigation hazard, they’re expensive.”

“Unless you’re getting rid of evidence.” Castillo pondered for a few moments, hand rubbing chin absentmindedly. “But if you don’t realistically think there was an actual risk, isn’t it a case of no harm, no foul? If they haven’t actually broken any laws, do we even need to care?”

“I’m still looking into that, Alan. But, regardless, I think there’s some leverage to be had. We could, if we wanted, apply pressure to the System Council to quarantine the area. Out of an abundance of caution, you understand. Consolidated Industrials, seeing their lucrative source of raw ore in danger of becoming inaccessible, might seek redress with the crew of the Astra.”

“As in, sue them to get the money back.”

“Yup. But all this can be avoided, if Captain Jennings simply takes a more diplomatic and philosophical stance on the question of Ivan Pritchard.”

* * *

Admiral Moore looked through the glass at Ivan Pritchard. This was, strangely, the first time he’d seen the man in the flesh, so to speak. Moore was impressed despite himself. Even with the crew outfit to break up the chrome, Pritchard could be hard to separate from the background.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Pritchard. I’m Admiral Moore.”