"He is?" Aron's eyes widened. "How do you know?"
"Because you haven't been out of my sight since we took The Egg in tow, and you haven't been near that control board while we were on duty. Stein must have let Farlan get away from him again."
"Why not Stein?"
"You forget. Stein and Wessfeld arrived together from Charax, at the rendezvous. They had to be clean."
Aron unstrapped and arose.
"Shouldn't we boost acceleration and try to evade them?" he asked, gesturing at the radar screen.
"We can't now," said Jonner. "We're on an escape hyperbola and we've got to hold this acceleration until she runs out, or we'd throw it completely off."
Aron went below. Jonner watched the screen anxiously. The Marscorp ships must have set an interception course, for their acceleration was much too high to be following their own escape orbit. They were getting closer rapidly.
Jonner looked at the chronometer and at the tape still ticking through the ship's control mechanism. Eleven minutes was a brief time, but it seemed long when enemy ships were overtaking them at twice their acceleration.
Towing The Egg, this old ship could not match the Marscorp attackers' acceleration. It could accelerate much faster than it was, but if he was to hit the Earthward orbit he had been ordered to take he would have to hold his present acceleration until the eleven minutes was up.