“It’s quiet at the moment compared to what it can be like,” Hayter commented at last, stepping forward to stand between them. “As you can see, a number of sections down there aren’t manned; that’s because lots of things are shut down or just under automatic supervision while we’re parked in orbit. This is just a skeleton crew up here too.”
“Seems to be some activity over there,” Hunt said. He pointed down at a group of consoles where the operators were busily scanning viewscreens, tapping intermittently into keyboards and speaking into microphones and among themselves. “What’s going on?”
Hayter followed his finger, then nodded. “We’re hooked into a cruiser that’s been in orbit over Io for a while now. They’ve been putting a series of probes in low-altitude orbits over Jupiter itself and the next phase calls for surface landings. The probes are being prepared over lo right now and the operation will be controlled from the ship there. The guys you’re looking at are simply monitoring the preparation.” The captain indicated another section further over to the right. “That’s traffic control. . . keeping tabs on all the ship movements around the various moons and in between. They’re always busy.”
Danchekker had been peering out over the command center in silence. At last he turned toward Hayter with an expression of undisguised wonder on his face.
“I must say that I am very impressed,” he said. “Very impressed indeed. On several occasions during our outward voyage, I’m afraid that I referred to your ship as an infernal contraption; it appears that I am now obliged to eat my words.”
“Call it what you like, Professor,” Hayter replied with a grin. “But it’s probably the safest contraption ever built. All the vital functions that are controlled from here are fully duplicated in an emergency command center located in a completely different part of the ship. If anything wiped Out this place we could stifi get you home okay. If something happened on a large enough scale to knock out both of them-well . . .” he shrugged, “I guess there wouldn’t be much of the ship left to get home anyhow.”
“Fascinating,” Danchekker mused. “But tell me-”
“Excuse me, sir.” The watch officer interrupted from his station a few feet behind them. Hayter turned toward him.
“What is it, Lieutenant?”
“I have the radar officer on the screen. Unidentified object detected by long-range surveillance. Approaching fast.”
“Activate the second officer’s station and switch it through. I’ll take it there.”
“Aye aye, sir.”
“Excuse me,” Hayter muttered. He moved over to the empty seat in front of one of the consoles, sat down and ifipped its main screen into life. Hunt and Danchekker took a few paces to bring them a short distance behind him. Over his shoulder they could see the features of the ship’s radar officer materialize.
“Something unusual going on, Captain,” he said. “Unidentified
object closing on Ganymede. Range eighty-two thousand miles; speed fifty miles per second but reducing; bearing two-seven-eight by oh-one-six solar. On a direct-approach course. ETA computed at just over thirty minutes. Strong echoes at quality seven. Reading checked and confirmed.”
Hayter stared back at him for a second. “Do we have any ships scheduled in that sector?”
“Negative, sir.”
“Any deviations from scheduled flight plans?”
“Negative. All ships checked and accounted for.”
“Trajectory profile?”
“Inadequate data. Being monitored.”
Hayter thought for a moment. “Stay live and continue reporting.” Then he turned to the watch officer: “Call the duty bridge crew to stations. Locate the mission director and alert him to stand by for a call to the bridge.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Radar.” Hayter directed his gaze back at the screen on the panel in front of him. “Slave optical scanners to LRS. Track on UFO bearing and copy onto screen three, B5.” Hayter paused for a second, then addressed the watch officer again. “Alert traffic control. All launches deferred until further notice. Arrivals scheduled at 15 within the next sixty minutes are to stand off and await instructions.”
“Do you want us to leave?” Hunt asked quietly. Hayter glanced around at him.
“No, that’s okay,” he said. “Stick around. Maybe you’ll see some action.”
“What is it?” Danchekker asked.