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Updated: May 7, 2025
There was a count-down of seconds, and the abominably unpleasant sensation of breakout, and the ship was in normal space again. There was the sun of Garen, burning peacefully in a vast void with millions of minute, unwinking lights in the firmament all about it. There was a gas-giant planet, a mere fifteen million miles away. Further out there were the smaller, frozen worlds.
He moved to verify again the complete pulverizing of the ashes in the fireplace. The communicator buzzed. He pressed the answer button. A voice said, "Sir, the space-liner Vestis reports breakout from overdrive. Now driving for port. Message ends." Bors's eyes popped wide. He'd heard exactly that only minutes ago! It could be coincidence, but it was a very remarkable one.
Bors almost chanted, while with gestures toward the radar-screen he picked out the objects near which breakout should fall. "Point oh five seconds." The ship went into overdrive and out. It seemed as if the universe dissolved from one appearance to another outside the viewports. "Five, four, three, two, one! Hold fire!"
The statement was hopelessly inaccurate. There was no answer from the ground when breakout came and Calhoun drove the Med Ship to a favourable position for a call. He patiently repeated, over and over again, that the Med Ship Aesclipus Twenty notified its arrival and requested coordinates for landing.
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 the electron telescope at maximum magnification.
Calhoun looked at a clock and opened his mouth to speak again, when a taped voice said abruptly: "When the gong sounds, breakout will be five seconds off." There was a steady, monotonous tick, tock, tick, tock, like a metronome. Calhoun got up and made a casual examination of the ship's instruments. He turned on the vision screens.
There was no answer from the ground when breakout came and Calhoun drove the Med Ship to a favorable position for a call. He patiently repeated, over and over again, that Med Ship Aesclipus Twenty notified its arrival and requested coördinates for landing.
But we won't stay here to be killed as his proxy! Not without fighting first!" A voice, crisp: "Target globe launched, sir." "Low-power overdrive toward the gas-giant planet. One-twentieth second. Five, four, three, two, one!" There was the unbearable double sensation of going into, and breakout from, overdrive simultaneously.
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