Inspection of the Plume.

	Up close, the plume coming from the asteroid was visible. It was faint, a sort of sparkling of white lights sputtering out of the asteroid, with a warped mirage-like cone of steam fading out.

	"Is... is it a rocket engine?" asked the Astrogator. The Pilot took a look through the telescope.
	"It *could* be, but don't have a clue why it would be there," said the Pilot.
	"We have to stay out of the way of any telescopic observations from the asteroid if at all possible," the Captain said.
	"Well clearly we need to see what the Spanish or French or whatever are doing on that rock. It's clearly important enough to carry a warship and--" said the Pilot.
	"Not a very *good* warship, given what we've been able to do with it. A good ship with a good crew should easily take on a small Cargo Boat like ours," said the Astrogator. The Pilot frowned at the Astrogator.
	"Indeed, I believe we surprised them," said the Science Officer.
	"But how are we going to approach the asteroid without being seen?" asked the Astrogator.
	"We could do an E.V.A.," said the Captain.
	"Impractical. An E.V.A. from fifty kilometers away? We haven't a tether that would reach that far," said the Science Officer.
	"We have the *Rocket Backpack*," said the Captain.
	"Ah yes, the Rocketpack. Just about the most dangerous backpack devised. Two hundred meters per second of delta-v packed into something the size of an armchair. It's a disaster waiting to happen!" said the Astrogator.
	"I'm willing to try it," said the Pilot.

	The Pilot found the Rocket Backpack in an emergency closet in the airlock. It was intended for use in the event of another astronaut being torn from their tether and lost in space. It was also far overpowered for that purpose. With the right instrumentation and life support considerations, the Rocketpack would have been capable of allowing an astronaut to rendezvous with a vessel in another orbit. It was a large brown and grey metal box with bulky cylinders of hydrogen peroxide and kerosene. Thruster valves were mechanically linked into the control levers, which were positioned on armchair-like armrests. It had tubes and adapters that could couple onto the space suit's life support systems to extend the water and oxygen storage.

	The Astrogator, Captain, and Science Officer looked at the Rocket Backpack with distrust. The Pilot looked at the Rocket Backpack with excitement. The Science Officer helped the Pilot get hooked up and belted into the Space Suit and Rocketpack. Once the air was depressurized, there would be no talking to the crew. Sign language at close range and a hand-held heliograph mirror at further range would allow her to communicate with the ship. The Pilot gave the Science Officer the "OK" and pulled herself out of the airlock into space.

	This was not the Pilot's first spacewalk. She had been a construction worker and engineer for the American Space Program's Freedom Space Station, and she had plenty of practice operating tools in zero-gravity. This was also not her first time using the Rocketpack. She tried not to think about the near failures of her previous two attempts using the rocket pack, and she pulled forward on the control levers.

	Still, this was the Pilot's first time committing espionage. She didn't really know how it was normally done, but decided that the best thing to do would be to record what she saw in a notebook. She noted the appearance of several small parabolic boiler dishes on the sun-facing side of the asteroid. She knew it was best to conserve fuel, and made a slow approach to the asteroid. She touched down on the surface of the rocky asteroid and tried to take a step. Her foot merely bounced off of the dusty surface and caused some pebbles to fly off. Walking here wasn't going to work. She took the Rocketpack controls once again, and flew over to the source of the Plume.

	The Pilot came across a deep, flattened crater. The Plume was coming from a tall metal tube embedded in the surface. A standard American Space Program surface habitat module was set up, buried into the sand as well. The Pilot gave the tube a close inspection, noting that the steam plume was in fact littered with rocky debris and sand. Upon further inspection, she noted several nearby craters also had similar metal tubes. She was too busy inspecting the various pieces of machinery to notice a space-suited figure a few hundred feet behind her, who was aiming a rocketgun at her suit. She definitely noticed the piercing pain in her side. She doubled over in pain, gasped, and grabbed her side. She pulled out her own gun, spun around, and tried to fire it at the attacker. The shots all missed the attacker, and in frustration she threw the gun at him. She clenched her jaw. Panicked, she spun around and flew away, trying to get as far away from the attacker as possible. Abruptly she was jerked back. She fired the thrusters forward again. She was jerked back once more. Again she tried, and realized that she was somehow tethered down to the ground.

	Pulled back down to the ground, the Pilot saw the space-suited figure approach her as she lost consciousness.