Mike took acceleration better than the others, but his voice was thin
when he gasped, "Looks--like this does it, Joe!" Seconds later he gasped
again, "Right! The rocket's above us and still going away!"

The gyros squealed again. The ship plunged into vapor which was the
trail of the enemy rocket. For an instant the flowing confusion which
was Earth was blotted out. Then it was visible again. The ship was
plunging downward, but its sidewise speed was undiminished and much
greater than its rate of fall.

"Mike," panted Joe. "Get the news out. What we did--and why. I'm--going
to turn the ship's head back on our--course. We can't slow enough
but--I'd rather crash on Earth than let them blast us----"

The ship turned again. It pointed back in the direction from which it
had come. With the brutal sternward pressure produced by the
landing-rockets, it felt as if it were speeding madly back where it had
come from. It was the sensation they'd felt when the ship took off from
Earth, so long before. But then the cloud masses and the earth beneath
had flowed toward the ship and under it. Now they flowed away. The
appearance was that of an unthinkably swift wake left behind by a ship
at sea. The Earth's surface fled away and fled away from them.

"Crazy, this!" Joe muttered thickly. "If the ship were lighter--or we
had more power--we could land! I'm sorry, but I'd rather----"

Haney turned his head from where he clung near the bow-ports. His
features changed slowly as he talked because of acceleration-driven
blood engorging his lips and bloating his cheeks. After one instant he
closed his eyes fiercely. They felt as if they would pop out of his