"Why not, Willy?"
It was my turn to be silent for a minute. It seemed a lot longer. I said, "I think you better tell me all about it, Willy."
He did.
I went back to the recreation room.
The trideo was on and some narrator's voice was explaining and showing the course of the ship on a chart, and just where it would go.
The ship was still unaccountably out of control. The plotted course showed that it would intercept Mars. And a map of Mars showed precisely where the ship would strike the surface.
Of all the barren areas on Mars where the ship could strike and do a little less surface damage, it was headed instead straight for the only densely populated, industrial area.
I looked at Goil and saw that his morale could be trod on. He probably already had computed his own monetary loss as well as the company losses. But he wasn't saying a word. He was keeping his misery to himself.
Let him stew until morning, I thought. By then he should be ripe for the little package I was planning to hand him.