Satellite of Death

The five men chosen to be the first crew were almost ideal for the job—sensitive, intelligent men, skilled in the techniques of spaceflight, loyal to the countries of their birth. There wouldn't be any chance of collusion among them, of a conspiracy against one country or against Earth itself, as some feared.

Their tasks for the hours immediately after the discovery of the strange spaceship were mostly routine; Lal dictated a comprehensive report on the spaceship and beamed it to United Nations Headquarters on Earth, while Beveridge and Golovunoff, spacesuited, filmed the alien ship from every conceivable angle, inside and out. Lasseux and Gregson tended to the workings of the satellite, overseeing the cybernetic governors which had the actual responsibility of operating the big wheel in the sky.