 What gave Starre the right to claim the asteroid as her own when Parker and Queazy arrived?
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Planet Stories Summer 1945. Queazy discharged their tremendous inertia into the motive-tubes in such a manner that the big, powerful ship was moving at the same rate as the asteroid below—47.05 miles per second. "Now all we have to do is find out if she's made of tungsten, iron, quartz crystals, and cinnabar! "Better take it easy," he advised, "until I land the ship and we use the atomic whirl spectroscope to determine the composition of the asteroid." While Queazy—so called because his full name was Quentin Zuyler—dropped the ship straight down to the smooth surface of the asteroid, and clamped it tight with magnetic grapples, Bob flung open the lazarette, brought out two space-suits. Moments later, they were outside the ship, with star-powdered infinity spread to all sides. And yet, if by some chance there was such a rigidly specified asteroid, their financial worries would be over. That they had actually discovered the asteroid, using their mass-detectors in a weight-elimination process, seemed like an incredible stroke of luck. For there are literally millions of asteroids in the asteroid belt, and they had been out in space only three weeks. Now it was a fad that was sweeping Earth, and Burnside wasn't the first rich man who had decided to hold a wedding on top of an asteroid. Now that he and Queazy had found the asteroid, they were desperate to get it to its destination, for fear that the Saylor brothers might get wind of what was going on, and try to beat them out of their profits. Now they scuffed along the smooth-plane topside of the asteroid, the magnets in their shoes keeping them from stepping off into space. They came to the broad base of the asteroid-wedge, walked over the edge and "down" the twelve-foot thickness. By the naked eye, they could see iron ore, quartz crystals, cinnabar, but he had the spectroscope and there was no reason why he shouldn't use it. He satisfied himself as to the exterior of the asteroid, and then sent the twin beams deep into its heart. The radiations from the sundered molecules traveled back up the beams to the atomic-whirl spectroscope. A cold, completely disagreeable feminine voice said, "May I ask what you interlopers are doing on my asteroid?" He and Queazy caught up with her on the side of the asteroid they hadn't yet examined.
 By common law, asteroids up to a certain size belong to whoever happens to be on them.
 She had made a deal with the Interplanetary Commission.  Her grandfather had purchased the asteroid for her.  By common law, asteroids up to a certain size belong to whoever happens to be on them.  She had signed an interplanetary lease agreement.