The four of them through the as the of upward. They the and the people who had it. Joe said his teeth, "We our landing-rockets and make it us, but it'll have fuel for that!"
The Chief in Mohawk. The as if they ought to have fire at their and of sulphur. Mike the said in his small voice. Haney stared, his burning.
Their ship was a little over 400 miles up, now. The was 100 or better. The would be 200 miles ahead and higher. The was furiously. It had to travel, but its of climb was already and it every second.
The ship to right or left on rockets, but the also. It was from the ground. It did not need to crash the small ship from space. Within a limited number of miles the blast of its would any that exist. And of the ship not turn back. Even the of all its landing-rockets not twenty of ship to a halt. They speed it up, so it would pass the calculated meeting place ahead of the rocket. But the bomb would in a chase. In any case, the ship not stop.
But neither the rocket.
Joe how he saw the of that fact. On land or sea, of course, an or a ship moves in the direction in which it is pointed. Even an needs to make only minor for air which affect it. But an object in space moves on a which is the of all its previous and courses. Joe's ship was moving above the Earth at so many miles second. If he north—at a right to his present course—the ship would not to move to the east. It would move in to moving east. If the from Earth north or east it would continue to move up and add the other motion to its rise.
Joe at the of which was the rocket's trail. He it so that he wanted to it at the cost of destruction, to its makers. At one moment, he was aware of anything but his own and the to the at any cost. The next instant, somehow, he was not angry at all. Because somehow his brain had up the that the no more turn than he could—and he saw its meaning.
"Mike!" he sharply. "Get set! Report what we do! Everybody set for acceleration! Steering ready, Chief! Get set to help, Haney! I don't know we'll out of this alive, but we'd into our space suits."
Then he to his chair and in in haste. The ship was then a of the way to the meeting place and the had very much to go. But it was faster.
The ship's and as Joe on their controls. The little ship in emptiness. Its and pointed down. The their roarings.
Joe himself panting. "The—rocket's faster—than we are. It's been gaining—altitude maybe—two minutes. It's than when—it started but—it can't stop—less than a minute, so we under it——"
He did not make computations. There was no time. The might have started at four or five acceleration, but it would speed up as its fuel burned. It might be at fifteen now, and have an of four miles a second and still increasing. If the little ship under it, it not kill that rate-of-climb in time to in a chase.
"Haney!" Joe. "Watch out the port! Are we going to make it?"
Haney forward. Joe had the he'd the with his own eyes. It to need to watch it. Mike spoke into the to ground. He was each action and order as it took place and was given. There was no time to anything. But Mike of the radar. He it.
It the of Earth's surface, 400 miles down. It a moving pip, much too much nearer, which was the rocket. Mike a on the screen with a pencil where the showed. It moved. He another dot. The to move. He other dots.
They a line—curved the was accelerating—which moved toward the center of the screen. The would cut the screen's exact center. That meant collision.
"Too close, Joe!" said Mike shrilly. "We may miss it, but not enough!"
"Then fast," Joe. "Landing firing, three—two—one!"
The of the landing-rockets their ears. Weight upon them, three of toward the of clouds and which was the Earth. The ship with all its power. It was intolerable—and ten times they had been so long and were still and and from the air-graze only minutes back.
Mike took than the others, but his voice was thin when he gasped, "Looks—like this it, Joe!" Seconds later he again, "Right! The rocket's above us and still going away!"
The again. The ship into which was the of the enemy rocket. For an the which was Earth was out. Then it was visible again. The ship was downward, but its speed was and much than its of fall.
"Mike," Joe. "Get the news out. What we did—and why. I'm—going to turn the ship's on our—course. We can't slow but—I'd crash on Earth than let them blast us——"
The ship again. It pointed in the direction from which it had come. With the pressure produced by the landing-rockets, it as if it were where it had come from. It was the they'd when the ship took off from Earth, so long before. But then the cloud and the earth had toward the ship and under it. Now they away. The was that of an wake left by a ship at sea. The Earth's surface away and away from them.
"Crazy, this!" Joe thickly. "If the ship were lighter—or we had more power—we land! I'm sorry, but I'd rather——"
Haney his from where he near the bow-ports. His slowly as he talked of acceleration-driven blood his and his cheeks. After one he closed his fiercely. They as if they would out of his head. He gasped, "Yes! Get to air-resistance. A chance—not good but a chance—ejection seats—with space suits—might make it...."
He to let himself toward his chair. He not possibly have forward. It was a to let himself down, with his normal weight at him and after the taken a little while ago.
Sweat out on his skin as he himself sternward. Once his on a hand-line and he had to the of nearly six hundred by a single hand and arm. It would not be a good idea to at three gravities.
The landing and roared, and Joe the a little farther, so that the of clouds nearer.
Haney got to his chair. He let himself into it and his closed.
Mike's voice barked: "What's the chance, Haney?"
Haney's mouth opened, and closed, and opened again. "Rocket flames," he gasped, "pushed back—wind—splash on hull—may melt—lighten weight—hundred to one against——"
The were than that. The ship couldn't land its was too great for the landing to out. If it had five of twenty, landing might have been possible. Haney was saying that if the ship were to be into air while despite its rockets, that the might be out by the wind. Instead of in a lance-like shape, they might be pushed out like a blast when it the earth in a take-off. Such a blast spreads out in all directions. Here the might be spread by wind until they played upon the of the ship. If they did, they might melt it as they melted their own cases in firing. And three-fourths or more of the might be from the section. So much was unlikely, but it was possible.
The were that the four if the were detached. They were at three now. If part of the ship or melted or was away, the might speed the up to almost any figure. And there is a limit to the number of a man can take, in an chair.
Nevertheless, that was what Haney proposed. They were to be killed anyhow. Joe it.
He into atmosphere. At 60 miles a thin to without reason. At 40 miles, the ship had more than two miles second of its speed since the landing-rockets were ignited, and there was a in all its fabric—though of the of speed it was not as as the atmosphere-graze. At 30 it to shake and tremble. At 25 miles high there was as a and as a as at the air-graze. At 12 miles above the surface of the Earth the temperature the part of the at red heat. The ship to be traveling at times the speed of sound, and air not move away from it. It was to white at the entering surface, and the metal to red at that point. But the just of the mouths was still. There the it in incandescence. Hull plates, and white——
The of the in. The ship's empty space was with air at pressure and heat.
The where the played. There was a monstrous, of the that remained. That of the ship the full of the thrust. They it at a of fifteen or more.
They did.
Joe as and as peacefully as if he had been on the jaw.
An unknown but time later, he himself with a astonishment. The had out. They had only after the of the ship into two fragments. Radars on the ground are authority for this. Those were important. The an additional half-mile second of velocity, which was to make the the up too, and the being not destroyed.
The was heavy, of course, but it was an object, some twenty across. It was velocity, and wind-resistance it. Even so, it 47 miles to the east in the last 10 miles to Earth. It a and itself a 70-foot in the ground.
But there was nobody in it, then. A little over a month before, it had to Joe that seats were the most of all possible pieces of to have in a space ship. He'd been as much as be. With an seat, a pilot can be out of a plane traveling over Mach one, and live to tell about it. This fast, but Joe Mike in an seat and him out. He and the Chief Haney to a seat, and then the Chief Joe off—and the four of them, one by one, were out into a of air. But the ribbon-parachutes did not burst. They nearly the necks of their passengers, but they let them almost gently.
And it was preposterous, but all four intact. Mike, being and to be ejected, came by himself in a he'd been with special favor. The Chief and Joe almost together. After a long time, Joe out of his space and and to help the Chief, and they each other up as they off together in search of Haney.
When they him he was sleeping heavily, exhausted, in a canebrake. He hadn't to his or take off his suit.
