The rock in space was not quite a sphere, being far too tiny a bit of cosmic debris to have sufficient gravity to round off its ragged corners. One side was rough -- like a ragged mountain top that was broken off at the peak and hurled into space by an all-powerful hand.
Slowly the Scout Ship edged closer, braking with forward jets. Was this it, at last -- the missing asteroid?
Author Biography
Alan Edward Nourse (1928 - 1992) was an American science fiction writer and physician. He wrote both juvenile and adult science fiction, as well as nonfiction works about medicine and science. His SF works sometimes focused on medicine and/or psionics. His pen names included Al Edwards and Doctor X. He served in the U.S. Navy after World War II. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in 1951 from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. He married Ann Morton on June 11, 1952, in Linden, New Jersey. He received a Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) degree in 1955 from the University of Pennsylvania. He served his one-year internship at Virginia Mason Hospital in Seattle and practiced medicine in North Bend, Washington, from 1958 to 1963 and also pursued his writing career. He had helped pay for his medical education by writing science fiction for magazines.
