You couldn't pound into him the knowledge necessary to navigate a ship.
"I can't do it, Joshua," he cried. "It's impossible to do it."
Where were the planets? he wondered. How could he find the planets? And when he found them, if he found them, what would he do then?
The ship was falling toward the sun.
He didn't know where to look for planets.
And they were going too fast—they were going far too fast.
Sweat burst out upon him, beading brow and running down his face, dripping from his armpits. "Take it easy, lad. Take it easy now."
He tried to take it easy, but it didn't work.
He reached down and slid open the tiny drawer beneath the control panel. There was paper there and pencils. He took out a sheet of paper and a pencil. He jotted down the readings on the dials.
Absolute velocity.