"Here's something," Paul shouted and we looked up at the screen.
Another mass was recorded. "It's too close," he commented. "But it's
something at least."
"We'll have to head for a probable orbit and follow it," I said.
"The whole thing looks improbable up close," John said.
"I agree," Paul said.
"Consider this. We're thirty days past its probable orbit. That's quite
some figuring, roughly a small fraction of one percent. Unbelievably
small error considering the distance we've come. I'm willing to stake
my life that there will be such a planet."
"One thing," said John, "if this planet should exist we can find it in
less than a year by following its probable orbit."
"That's half our answer," Carl said. "We can still look farther out
with the radar."
John shook his head ponderously. "I remember when they first tested
this drive. To the moon and back in sixty hours, with the ship so hot
you could fry eggs on the wall. Now with the bugs taken out we can hit
two million miles in an Earth day."
"Remember Ellington talking about the speed of light within the realm
of fuels and metals?"
"Yeah. We could meet some of our children's children coming out to meet
us."
"Except that married men didn't make this trip," I reminded them.
When we turned and set up an arbitrary course we were within forty
million miles of the brilliant sun. Opaque shields went over the
portholes to keep out the blinding glare, and we settled down to the
routine of resting and watching the instruments. I set up two man
watches, partly to keep us from getting in each other's way in the
crowded quarters. The ship, with its bulk cut in half by the engines
had never been designed for comfort. There was enough room for flight
operations, but little privacy. Besides the five small cabins on the
upper level there was a series of equipment lockers and the larger
navigation and control room.
Below, the gallery and the laboratory were set forward of the air lock.
Another small room where waste could be jettisoned out, broke up the
pattern of equipment that was braced sideways for landing. Adequate
space, if not ample, but Karen presented a problem. Scientist or not,
she was a woman who hadn't realized that privacy would be hard to
achieve aboard the ship.
We changed our comfortable attire for uniforms from the clothing
locker, and tried to ignore Karen's brief costume. At the start of my
third watch I met Paul coming out of Karen's room.
"Paul, you and John better get some rest. I'll call you in six hours if
nothing comes up."
"Okay sir. I was just looking in on her."