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Weight returned to them, weight more violent than the six gravities they had known for a bare fourteen seconds at take-off. But that, at least, had been smoothly applied. This was deceleration at a higher figure yet, and accompanied by the shaking of bodies which weighed seven times as much as ever before and bodies, too, which for weeks past had been subject to no weight at all. They endured.
"You hear me? And if I don't hear from you in some reasonable time, I'll raise a stink from here to Vega!" Bart broke away and ran. He was afraid, if he didn't, he'd break up again. He closed the cabin door behind him, trying to calm down so that the Mentorian steward, coming to strap him in for deceleration, wouldn't see how upset he was. He was going to need all his nerve.
Earth was to him little more than a port of call, and it brought him sadness to see how eagerly Leithgow stared at her growing face. Their parting was not far away now. The Sandra logged off the miles. Then came the day when only ten thousand were left, and, soon after, five thousand. Deceleration had long since been begun.
Several times during the cleaning the men would leave the tube and go into the main mixing chamber while the tube was blasted with live steam to throw the stuff they had scraped off out into space. Each squad was on its last tube when a spaceman arrived. He saluted Rip. "Sir, the safety officer says to secure the tubes." That could mean only one thing: deceleration. Rip rounded up his men.
We are going into no-weight. Prepare to stay in no-weight indefinitely. Rotation stops in two minutes." Rip realized why the order was given. The Scorpius could not maneuver while in a gravity spin, and O'Brine wanted to be free to take action if necessary. The voice horn came on again. "Now get it again. The ship may maneuver suddenly. Prepare for acceleration or deceleration without warning.
The inner planets could be covered in a matter of minutes on a straight speed run, although to take off from one and land on the other meant considerable time used in acceleration and deceleration. The Planeteers were used to such speed. Hearing that it would take over three weeks to reach Earth had jarred them. "This piece of metal isn't a spaceship," Rip reminded them.
So Mike had taken the deceleration and the murderous vibration almost in his stride. He floated longer and landed more gently than the rest. Joe grinned painfully at the memory of Mike's tale. He'd come on board the rescue destroyer in a towering, explosive rage.
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