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Updated: May 7, 2025
Then the overdrive unit had to be inspected and set for the length of journey that a direct overdrive hop to Dara would mean, and Calhoun had to make sure again that each of the four could identify Dara's sun under all circumstances and aim for it with the requisite high precision, both before going into overdrive and after breakout.
As the investigating small ship drew nearer to the deathly-still cargo vessel, the guesses about the meaning of its breakout and following silence grew more and more wild. But, singularly, there was no single suggestion that the mystery might not be the work of blueskins. Blueskins were scape-goats for all the fears and all the uneasiness a perhaps over-civilized world developed.
They would use the supplied data-tables to compute firing constants for given ranges and relative speeds. They would, of course, return to formation to permit other ships the same practice with the new method of missile handling. Bors read the letter from Talents, Incorporated. It gave an exact time for the breakout of the Mekinese fleet.
The electron telescope could detect its larger planets, especially a gas-giant fifth-orbit world of high albedo. Calhoun had his four students estimate its distance again, pointing out the difference that could be made in breakout position if the Med Ship were mis-aimed by as much as one second of arc. "And now," he said briskly, "we'll have coffee. I'm going to graduate you as pilots.
His young students took command in four-hour watches, with at least one breakout from overdrive in each watch. He built up enthusiasm in them. They ignored the discomfort of being hungry though there had been no reason for them to stint on food on Orede in growing pride in what they came to know.
In overdrive there was not as yet a way to know accurately one's actual speed, and at astronomical distances small errors piled up. Correction of line was important, too, because a course that was even a second off arc could mount up to hundreds of thousands of miles. But even with that usual previous breakout, the Mekinese cruiser did not turn up conveniently close to its destination.
Bors aimed the ship according to the calculation Logan had given him, scrupulously setting the breakout timer to the exact figure listed. He was still uncomfortable about the destruction of the Mekinese cruiser when he said curtly, "Overdrive coming!" He'd have preferred a more sportsmanlike type of warfare.
A breakout at no more than sixty light-hours from one's destination wasn't bad, in a strange sector of the Galaxy and after three light-years of journeying blind. "Arise and shine, Murgatroyd," said Calhoun. "Comb your whiskers. Get set to astonish the natives!" A sleepy, small, shrill voice said; "Chee!" Murgatroyd the tormal came crawling out of his small cubbyhole. He blinked at Calhoun.
Another wrenching flicker into overdrive and through breakout without pause. The cargo-boat was within ten miles. "Calling cargo-boat!" rasped Bors, in what would be the arrogant tones of a Mekinese naval officer hailing a mere civilian ship. "Identify yourself!" A voice answered apologetically, "Cargo-ship Empress, sir, bound from Loral to Mekin with frozen foods."
They would not be strictly accurate, because a sunspot could knock all meaning out of any reading beyond two decimal places. But the first breakout was just far enough from the Wealdian system for Calhoun to be able to pick out its planets with electron telescope at maximum magnification.
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