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And three-fourths or more of the hull might be torn loose from the cabin bow section. So much was unlikely, but it was possible. The impossible odds were that the four could survive even if the cabin were detached. They were decelerating at three gravities now. If part of the ship burned or melted or was torn away, the rocket thrust might speed the cabin up to almost any figure.
Koa, can you estimate from the exhaust how far away they are?" "Not very well, Lieutenant. From the position of the streak, I’d say they’re decelerating." The Planeteers looked at Rip. He was in command, and they expected him to do something about the situation. Rip didn’t know what to do. The rocket launcher, their only weapon, wasn’t designed for fighting spaceships.
"Could be from a ship hiding against the planet. There's nothing at all on the moon." They seemed to be approaching the planet more and more rapidly. Actually, they weren't, the ship was decelerating to get into an orbit, but the decreasing distance created the illusion of increasing speed. The red lights flashed once more. "Ship detected!
In other words, whereas the projectile launched from aloft has the downward pull of the earth or gravitational force in its favour, the shell fired from the ground in the reverse direction has to contend against this downward pull and its decelerating effect.
At the same moment, the Aquila flashed above the horizon, also decelerating. The Connie was caught squarely. A suave voice spoke on the universal band. "This is Federation SCN Sagittarius, calling the Consolidation cruiser near the asteroid. Please reply." Rip waited anxiously. The Connie would hear, because every control room monitored the universal band.
He cut the metal out in great triangular bars, angling the torch from first one side, then the other. Koa came and stood beside Rip. "I haven’t seen the Connie’s exhaust for a while, sir. Looks like they’ve stopped decelerating. We can’t see them at all." "Meaning what?" Rip asked. He thought he knew, but he wanted Koa’s opinion. "They’re in free fall now, sir.
Trask's fist began hurting; he found that he had been pounding the desk in front of him with it. He stopped it. "We caught him, we caught him!" he was yelling hoarsely. "Full speed in, continuous acceleration, as much as we can stand. We'll worry about decelerating when we're in shooting distance." The planet grew steadily larger; Karffard was taking him at his word about continuous acceleration.
Rip wondered what it was. He knew the cruisers had to be careful not to cross the thin line that might lead to war. The Sagittarius loomed closer, decelerating with a tremendous exhaust. The Connie couldn't have failed to see it, Rip knew. He was right. The Consops cruiser suddenly blasted more heavily, rushing in the direction away from the Federation ship. The direction was toward the asteroid.
And the vertical detector began to whistle shrilly. His eyes darted to the dial, and he spoke again. "Added report. Detector shows traffic approaching, bound due east, seven hundred miles an hour, high altitude.... Correction; six-fifty miles. Correction; six hundred." He paused. "Traffic is decelerating rapidly. I think, sir, this is the reported ship."
As other computations followed other observations, a second place of fall was calculated, then a third. Then the Oregon radar unbelievably reported that the object was decelerating. Allowing for deceleration, three successive predictions of its landing point agreed.
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