Artie said, "Sit down, Sam, and have a cup."
Elmer poured, and I gulped half the cupful down gratefully, then said, "Aren't you two going to watch the runaway crack into Mars?"
"Sure," said Artie. "I've got a small monitor screen in the com room. Want to join us?"
I did and said so. We all drank another cup of coffee and then went to the communications room. The three of us could sit and comfortably watch the small monitor.
A series of montages suddenly snapped off the screen to be replaced by the lonesome ship. This time there was Mars in the near background. I never could understand how the long-range scope mechanisms managed to bend their energies so that they could literally see behind something directly in front of them, but they could. That was how they could get Mars in the background.
The excited announcer was saying that the crew would abandon ship in four minutes since all hope of a course change was gone. And in another three hours the runaway would enter atmosphere.
"Sure," Elmer said, "the crew will abandon ship. But where can they go after they do? Mars, that's where."
"I guess all you can say about it is that they are going right out of the fire into the frying pan," Artie said morbidly.
"Yeah," Elmer said. "They sure are. About all they can do is land on Mars with the short range of the lifeboats."
"Oh, they got enough range, all right," Artie said. "Only they don't have enough food and water for all the crew to reach some other planet. They have no choice but to try Mars."