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Now, ten minutes after Brennschluss, they were going to start deceleration. That meant they had really high-vacked it to get somewhere in a hurry. He calculated swiftly. "I don't know exactly," he admitted. "But from the ship's actions, I'd say we were aiming for the far side of the asteroid belt. Anyway, we'll fall short of Jupiter." There was a glimmer of respect in O'Brine's glance.
Koa had half turned to shake hands. Suddenly he spun on around, banging his head against the deck. Rip felt a surge of relaxing muscles that had been braced against acceleration. At the same time, silence flooded in on them. Rip murmured "Brennschluss," and the murmur was like a trumpet blast. The Scorpius had reached velocity, and the nuclear drive had cut out.
The feeling increased until he felt normally heavy again. There was no other sensation, even though the space cruiser now was spinning on its axis through space at unaltered speed. The centrifugal force produced by the spinning gave them an artificial gravity. Now that he thought about it, brennschluss had come pretty early. The trip apparently was going to be a short one.
He saw the cruiser's shape stand out in the glow of the sight, saw the sighting rings move as Santos corrected for its speed. The corporal fired. Fire flared back past his shoulder. The rocket flashed away, its trail dwindling as it sped toward the great bulk above. It reached Brennschluss, and there was darkness. Rip held his breath for long seconds, then gave a weak cry of victory.
The Planeteer officer knows what brennschluss is. He doesn’t look old enough to know which end his bubble goes on." Rip started to his feet, but Koa’s hand on his arm restrained him. With a violent kick the big sergeant-major shot through the air. His line of flight took him by the spaceman, and somehow their arms got linked.
The tube reached brennschluss and Rip called orders. "Same process. Get ready to repeat. Dominico, bring one of your tubes." While Koa was connecting another exploder to the wire, Rip took a tube from Dominico. "Take your space knife and saw through the tube you have left. We’ll need about three-fifths of it. Keep both pieces."
When they opened the cases brought aboard by the Martians, he would see that the method of blasting the asteroid into a course for earth was all figured out for him. Rip was anxious to get at those cases. Not until he saw the method of operation could he begin to figure his course. But there was no possibility of getting at the stuff until brennschluss.
The Planeteer officer knows what Brennschluss is. He doesn't look old enough to know which end his bubble goes on." Rip started to his feet, but Koa's hand on his arm restrained him. With a violent kick, the big sergeant major shot through the air. His line of flight took him past the spaceman, and somehow their arms got linked.
Brennschluss ... funny, he thought, how words stay on in a language even after their original meaning is changed. Brennschluss was German for "burn out." It was rocket talk, and it meant the moment when all the fuel in a rocket burned out. It had come into common use because the English "burn out" also could mean that the engine itself had burned out. The German word meant only the one thing.
But the ship was still decelerating, and he would have to wait. He put his head against the chair rest and settled down to wait as patiently as he could. Brennschluss was a long time coming. When the deceleration finally stopped, Rip didn't wait for gravity. He hauled himself out of the chair and the squad room and went down the corridor hand over hand.
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