The ships went on and on and on. The Chief muttered to himself and made
very minute adjustments of the movement of one of his drones. Mike
fussed with his. Haney regarded the controls of his drones with a
profound calm.
Nothing happened, except that they seemed to be falling into a
bottomless pit and their stomach-muscles knotted and cramped in purely
reflex response to the sensation. Even that grew tedious.
The headphones said, "_You will enter Earth's shadow in three minutes.
Prepare for combat._"