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The gravity's tolerable a little on the light side, maybe, compared to the glacier planet." He was silent, staring at the blank wall of the control-room. He frowned. Suddenly he said: "Does anybody back on Earth know that Babs and I were castaways?" "No," said Holden, still very quiet indeed. "Alicia ran the control-board. She told everybody you were too busy to be called to the communicator.
He leaned against the control-board desk top and folded his arms across his massive chest. He looked at each of the cadets and Shinny a long time before speaking. Finally he stepped forward and stood among them, turning now and then to speak directly to each of them. "We have only four days, five hours, and some few minutes to pull Junior out of Tara's grip, and later, the grip of Alpha Centauri.
It's going to be tricky, because they must be pretty well scared about that ship. But it's a highly desirable thing to get done!" He went to the ship's control-board and sat down before it. "Twenty minutes to break-hour," he observed. Murgatroyd peered out of his little cubbyhole. His eyes were anxious. Tormals are amiable little creatures.
Half-awake, he blinked at the ceiling of the control room of the Liberty. His uncle was saying amiably to the young man at the control-board, "That's a very pretty fleet-formation, if we do say so ourselves!" Bors stood up, one-half of his mind still startled by his dream, but the other half reverting instantly to business. But all matters of business had been attended to.
He pushed a button on the control-board. He pointed to a microphone. He got at an oxygen-bottle and inhaled deeply. Oxygen, obviously, should be an antidote for panic, since the symptoms of terror act to increase the oxygenation of the blood-stream and muscles, and to make superhuman exertion possible if necessary.
They were mostly metal backbone and a series of tanks, with rocket motors mounted on ball and socket joints. They looked like huge red insects, but they were officially rocket recovery vehicles, and Joe's crew referred to them as space wagons. They had no cabin, but something like a saddle. Before it there was a control-board complete with radar-screens.
The many-times-multiplied voice rolled and echoed among the hills. But it was very clear. Where it could be heard it could be understood, and it could be heard for miles. But there was no response to it. Calhoun waited a reasonable time. Then he shrugged and seated himself at the control-board. "It isn't easy," he observed, "to persuade desperate men that they've out-smarted themselves!
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