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But we won't be able to sneak up on them all." "We have an advantage," Rip reminded them. "We've been on the asteroid longer. We know our way around, and we're used to space walking. They've just come out of deceleration, and they won't have their space legs yet." Santos reported. "They're breaking up into groups of two. Three are guarding the snapper-boats. One is the man with the chatter gun."
But it was actually 06 hours 35 minutes ship time before the two spacecraft sighted each other more than two hours after they plunged toward a rendezvous. The Plumie ship was a bright golden dot, at first. It decelerated swiftly. In minutes it was a rounded, end-on disk. Then it swerved lightly and presented an elliptical broadside to the Niccola. The Niccola was in full deceleration too, by then.
"Isn't there any other way?" asked Fitzhugh worriedly. "Can't we stop the ship and check them, so that we won't be subjected to this?" "'Fraid not," answered Mike. "In the first place, cutting the external field would be dangerous, if not deadly. The abrupt deceleration wouldn't be good for us, even with the internal field operating.
Headquarters must have known the method when they assigned us and ordered the equipment." Koa stood up. He was the only one who could have moved upright against the terrific deceleration. He walked to a rack at one side of the squadroom and took down a copy of "The Space Navigator." Then, resuming his seat, he looked questioningly at Rip. "Anything else, sir?
None of the minor planets were big enough to have an atmosphere or much gravity. If only he could get a look into those cases! 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.
"Captain, it's my guess the body will match speeds with us at about 200 miles, at his present rate of deceleration," Clay said. "Hold everything you've got on him, and watch closely for anything that might be a missile," I said. Clay worked steadily over his chart table. Finally he turned to me.
The Onzarians picked up enough to put on a real atomic war within fifty years. After that they expanded through their own system, and even took over nearby suns. They certainly had the motive for conquest, too. Gold was running out on their own planet, and they'd go to any lengths to get it." Thane glanced at his watch and got back onto his couch. "About time for deceleration," he said.
He saw a deep valley with a flat hard surface set between two tall cliffs. It would be a tricky spot for a landing, but it looked like the best place available. Tom snapped open the intercom. "Attention! Attention! Stand by for touchdown. Power deck stand by for deceleration. Radar bridge stand by for range and altitude checks!" Sharply, crisply, Tom's orders crackled through the ship.
"You’d better, because you might fall over when you hear this. Listen, men. Two days ago the freighter Altair passed through the asteroid belt on a run from Jupiter to Mars." He sat down, too, because deceleration was starting. As his men looked at each other in surprise at the quickness of it, he continued, "The old bucket found something we need. An asteroid of pure thorium."
If he waited off Walden until a liner went down to the planet's great spaceport, he could try it. He would go into a close orbit around Walden which would bring him, very low, over the landing grid within an hour or so of the liner's landing. He'd turn the yacht end for end and apply full rocket power for deceleration. The yacht would drop like a stone into the landing grid.
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