You've probably all heard of the larger asteroids, Pallas, Juno, Ceres, etc., but I'll wager a week's pay you've never heard of a  bunch of a dozen smaller asteroids out beyond Juno, called the Musicians.  They ended up with that name because Dave Dorcas, somebody who'd been out in space too long, thought they looked like a bunch of musical instruments, a drum, a piano, a fiddle, etc.  Soon after that, that same space happy idiot had managed to run his ship the Hard Case into the  drum, a hunk of barren rock not much bigger than an old fashioned sedan car.  Gossip has it that he then tried to rename the drum something obscene, but as he'd already registered it with Titan base as Tambour, the original name stuck.

He'd barely made it out alive in a rescue pod, and as he was picked up by the salvage tug the Envy, hungry and a bit dehydrated a couple of weeks later, he didn't come to much harm.  The same couldn't be said for the asteroid Tambour.

'Sorry, Mr Benson,' he said ruefully.  'My ship was a bit bigger than that bleep piece of bleep space junk, and sent it into a new bleep trajectory.  It's broken away from the Musicians, and seems to have taken a new orbit, heading straight for Juno.'

'Dammit!'  Captain Benson swore.  He couldn't let that thing slam into Juno, as there was a science lab and observation post on there, with a personnel list of around 20.  At the same time, he couldn't afford to ignore the Hard Case, as pickings in the salvage business had been pretty slim lately.  He needed that ship if he was to pay his crew that month.  To make things worse, Jorgensen in the Ariadne had been sniffing around lately, and would swoop on the Hard Case if Benson in the Envy so much as stopped for a coffee on the way.  In addition, the Hard Case had rebounded off Tambour, and both ship and asteroid were heading in different directions, oblivious of human pay cheque deadlines.

'Unfortunately, the Hard Case doesn't appear to be heading into any trouble, so we have to go after Tambour,' Benson griped.

'Want me to send a warning to Juno, just in case?' asked Snodgrass.

'For crying out loud, NO!'  yelped the captain.  'Jorgo's bound to be tuned into our frequency, and he'll be here like a shot!'  

Snotty proved he was a good choice for a second in command when he replied, 'Yeah Boss, I know, but we have to give them enough warning to evacuate Juno.'

Benson called him something his mother had certainly not named him, but had to agree.  'OK, but how long do we have before Tambour hits?'

'Seven days, but we'll be there in four.'

'Then a day to get the grapples on Tambour and nudge it into a harmless orbit, then, what - another two days to where the Hard Case will be by then?'

Smithy had been frantically pressing computer buttons, and chimed in, 'I make it three days from Tambour to the Hard Case,' he said.  'That's eight days in all. Sorry Boss, but the Ariadne can be there in five.'

'Compute our course,' Benson told Smithy sadly.  'I'll get onto Juno.'

Sending the hapless Captain Dorcas of the Hard Case to sling his bedroll in the tiny crew's quarters, he settled at the communication panel.

While he waited for Juno to answer his hail, Benson managed a few deep breaths to calm himself.

'Juno Observation Post,' came the voice from the speakers.

'Hi Sparky,' replied Benson with the traditional name for radio operators everywhere.  'Envy here, Benson speaking.'

They were only four days apart, so there was no communications lag, and his voice came back immediately.  'It's Potter here, but that's OK.  What can we do for you?  Need us to track down a piece of space junk for you?'

'It's what we can do for you,' said Benson, and explained the problem.  'Why does Jorgo always have to stuff things up for us?'

'It's what he does best, sympathised Potter.  'You're not the only one he's pipped at the post.'

'And this time, we'll get bugger all for saving Juno, while he walks off with our prize.'

'Yeah, its a shame he has to be so close.  Though you'll become famous over this.'

'What, as the hero who saved a world?'  asked Benson, starting to grin.

'No, as the guy who literally got stuck between...'

'Don't say it Potter!' he growled.

There was no stopping him.  '...a rock and a Hard Case!'