Drifter's Run by William C. Dietz

wrist, they were out and into one of the holes or "lakes" that dotted the belt.
    Lando reduced power and checked the tac tank. Nothing. The surviving pirates were back on the other side of the doughnut, unable, or unwilling, to give pursuit.
    Lando let out a huge sigh of relief, dumped all systems to standby, and asked the ship for a damage report. A long list had just started to flood Lando's screens when Cap dropped into the co-pilot's seat. The older man looked gray and shaken. There was a forced steadiness to his voice.
    "Well done, lad. Next time, however, a little warning would be appreciated."
    "Sorry," Lando replied shakily. "There wasn't time."
    Cap nodded understandingly. "It was the best piece of piloting I've ever seen. How did you know the hole was big enough?"
    "The truth is," Lando answered, "I didn't know."
    The older man took a moment to absorb this, checked to see if Lando was serious, and laughed. Lando joined him, and by the time Melissa and Cy reached the bridge, both men were laughing hysterically.
    Thirty-six hours later Junk eased in next to an asteroid named Keeber's Knob. The "knob" was a bulbous rock formation that stuck up from the planetoid's surface, and Keeber was the famous Maxine Keeber, one of the few roid miners to actually strike it rich.
    The "Knob," as her fellow miners called the asteroid, contained a high concentration of chalcocite, an excellent source of copper, and therefore quite valuable. Even though copper was one of the most ancient metals used by man it was also one of the most useful.
    Rather than mine the chalcocite herself, Maxine had the good sense to sell the asteroid to Perez Mining, the small but growing company that now owned it.
    As Lando scanned the vid screens he saw a good-sized roid, maybe two hundred miles in diameter, half in the sun and half out. The company had just enough spin on rock to generate some internal gravity and keep things comfortable. Lando watched the surface rotate from light to dark. As it did the pilot saw enough weapons emplacements to repel anything short of a massed assault by Imperial marines.
    As if to reinforce this impression the voice that came over the com link was lazy and self-assured. "Hello, ship. Perez Mining here. You have five seconds to say something we approve of. After that you're free metal."
    Cap stepped up to the control panel and touched a switch. "Cut the crap, Tobias. You know who we are. How many ships look like Junk ?"
    "True enough, Cap," the other man replied cheerfully, "but ships change hands sometimes, so it pays to check. I'd ask how you're doing… except it's obvious. You're obnoxious as hell."
    "I'm obnoxious?" Cap demanded with feigned outrage. "How can a man with the personality of a Zerk Monkey's rear end call me obnoxious?"
    The banter went on for some time but Lando tuned it out. He had things to do. First he programmed Junk 'sNAVCOMP to keep the ship on the same relative course as the asteroid.
    Then Lando went below to prepare the tender for use as a shuttle. Unlike the zero-G-to-zero-G transfer off Snowball, this situation would involve some light gravity as the cargo neared the asteroid's surface, enough to spread the cargo all over the landscape unless they used the tender to ease the landing. Lando was in the process of unhooking a fuel hose from a receptacle in the tender's belly when Melissa appeared.
    "Hello, Pik."
    "Hello, Melissa. Watch out for the hose."
    Melissa jumped out of the way and trudged along behind as Lando pulled it over against a bulkhead. "Are you mad at me?"
    Lando dropped the hose and looked down at her. He saw a tremble in her lower lip and eyes that were shiny with barely controlled tears. "Of course not. Why would I be mad at you?"
    "Because I screwed up. I tried, I really did, but I couldn't hit them. Except for one, and that was luck."
    Lando sat down on a crate of spare parts. He winked. "A hit's a hit. When you win, always take credit for it, and when you lose, blame