"I don't know," he said wearily, "I don't really know."
"Can't we try again?" she pleaded.
"I'm sick of trying," George said.
Her heart sank. She drifted through space watching the lifecraft bear down upon her. In a few seconds it would be close enough, so that the braking rockets—
"George!" she cried. "You're coming too close. I'll be burned by the braking rockets!"
"Accidents happen," George told her.
She screamed.
The lifecraft turned aside then, and long fingers of flame shot past her from the forward tubes. The ship drifted alongside her then, and all jets were cut.
She breathed sudden relief. "Thank goodness. For a few seconds there...."
"It was a bad few seconds for both of us," George told her. "Don't tempt me again, Silvia."