“Could it be something sent up here by the Sino-Soviets?” Aspasia asked.

“Come on, Spazzie,” Lorenza countered. “They don’t have that kind of tech. They aren’t even at our level. I’ve been to enough trade shows and conferences on automation to know. They’re the buyers, not the innovators.”

Seth nodded, silently. As the crew’s mining robot operator and general remote automation expert, anything Lorenza said on the subject could be taken as gospel.

“And why would they go to all that trouble to set up a booby trap for a mining ship?” Seth looked around the table. No one had an answer to that.

Seth noted Geiger examining his fingertips closely. “Worried that you caught it, Kady?”

“It’s not impossible. It got through Ivan’s suit. It could have gotten through mine. I don’t know that I touched the gunk, but I don’t know that I didn’t.”

“But there’s no reason to believe it would take any longer for any of us,” Seth replied. “And I don’t see anything different about you.”

“Still ugly,” Aspasia added.

“A metal, freakin’ arm,” Tenn said, into the air.

Raul reached over and punched Tenn, hard, in the shoulder. “Get a grip, asshole.”

Tenn yelped and glared at Raul, but the move seemed to have accomplished its goal.

“Well, regardless,” Aspasia said, “the Chief has a plan to move the Baby Rock, and he’ll be assigning tasks. I’m looking forward to being a billionaire, thank you, and some stupid alien booby trap isn’t going to get in the way.”

Kady and Seth responded at the same time.

“Billionaire?”

“Alien?”

Aspasia glared at Seth. “Alien is just a placeholder for damned if I know who did it. But it’s as good an explanation as any.” Then she speared Kady with her gaze. “And have you not looked at Cirila’s latest report? This is the biggest find in fifty years. We aren’t just retired, dummy, we’re now the ultra-rich.”

Tenn, apparently now recovered, piped up, “Albert told me the captain has done the filings, and we’ve got preliminary confirmation. And a couple of inquiries from ‘interested parties’.” Tenn made air quotes around the last two words, which brought smiles to everyone.

Seth scrubbed his face with his hands. He wasn’t sure how Ivan would react when he awoke. Even with the prospect of a new arm back on Earth, an amputation was still traumatic. Seth resolved to do something to cheer Ivan up.

* * *

It took Chief MacNeil very little time to come up with a plan for moving Baby Rock. The ship’s engineer called all hands to duty for the operation. Nothing could be left to chance. Any glitches could potentially contaminate Big Rock, and that would be it for their claim. Both he and the captain had made it clear that they wouldn’t attempt to cover up such an eventuality.