Benson was asleep in the Captain’s cabin when the Envy’s proximity alarm sounded, tearing him from the arms of an alcohol induced vision of the highest paid stripper on Titan base.  As Daisy del Sol faded back into his fuzzy cerebrum, he groaned his way into a sitting position, and groped for his dressing gown.

As he staggered into the Envy’s control cabin, he found his second in command, Snodgrass, seated before the sensor panel.

“What’s out there?” he snarled.  “And turn that bloody row off!”  The alarm faded to silence as Snodgrass touched a contact, then resumed his scrutiny of the sensor screen.

“Dunno, boss, something small, that’s for sure.  Maybe a small asteroid.”

“Well, wake Smithy up and get him to check its trajectory.  Tell him if it’s coming for us, to alter course to avoid it.  I’m going to grab a sonic shower and a couple of Alka Seltzers.  Geez, weeks without spotting anything, and it had to happen now.  Couldn’t wait a couple more hours!”  Benson’s grumbling trailed off as he left the control room, bumping onto Smithy on the way.

“What’s on the sensors?” Smithy asked.  “And what’s up with the Boss?”

“Don’t know yet, and a hangover.”

“Yeah, he hit the slops pretty hard last night.  He was rattling on about how he wanted to be on Titan base watching some stripper strutting her stuff.”

“In between moaning about Jorgo sneaking up in the Ariadne and taking our last salvage.  He got pretty burned up about that.  Hey, hold on, I’m getting two readings here!”

Smith slid into the navigator’s seat and started punching data into his console.  After a few minutes he looked across at Snodgrass.  “It’s fine, nothing’s heading our way, no need to dodge.  Any wiser on the two blips?”

“It could be an asteroid with its own tiny moon, but that’s strange, there’s a weak signal coming from the smaller one.  Better investigate, I suppose.”

By the time Benson reappeared, looking slightly better than before his sonic shower,  both objects were plainly visible on the sensor screen.

“OK Snotty, what have you got?  Anything worth salvaging?”

“Depends on how you look at it, Boss.  There’s an asteroid out there with a space suit orbiting it, and the suit’s sending out a distress signal.”  Snodgrass looked up at Benson.  “Maybe the suit is occupied!”

“Hail it and ask.”

“I just did,” chimed in Smith.  “No reply; maybe we need to get in closer.”

“Keep trying.”

Five minutes later they were close enough to make out a faint transmission from the suit.  “Help!”

Benson prepared the grapple beams to haul the derelict suit aboard, and left Snodgrass to operate them.  “I guess you’re old enough to play with the big boys’ toys now,” he gibed.

Snodgrass used the lowest resolution on the Envy’s grapple beams to avoid crushing the man in the space suit.

"How the hell did he get out here?  Where's his ship?" Benson wondered as he waited by the airlock for the man to approach.

"I dunno Boss, but there’s no sign of a ship within sensor range.  Could he be a miner, blasted out of his base?" he asked.

“Maybe it’s a matter transport experiment gone wrong,” suggested Smithy, “And he’s supposed to be on the other side of the solar system.”

“Maybe he’s a mutineer, dumped overboard, you know, like a pirate having to walk the plank!”

“Could be a modern Captain Bligh!”

“It’s Val Jorgensen,” Snotty volunteered.  “Jorgo’s finally had enough of her.”

"We'll know soon enough," grunted Benson, preparing to open the airlock.

He knew better however, when their visitor was brought inside the Envy.  The man's helmet was removed, revealing wild eyes in a youthful face, incongruously topped by snow white hair.

The broken man gibbered frantically. "Wrong asteroid!  Wrong bloody asteroid! "

Benson talked soothingly as he led him to the tiny sick bay, where he administered an intravenous sedative.  “He’ll be more lucid when he wakes up,” he reasoned.

He was wrong again however.  Their visitor babbled the same words all the way back to Titan base, and Benson and the rest of Envy’s crew never learnt anything more about the drifter.

For months after that, Benson woke sweating, hearing the desperate voice calling “Wrong bloody asteroid!”  At least it cured him of his dreams about Daisy del Sol!