"Not very far—in space. They must have lots more speed than we do to have caught up with us like that."
"What shall we do?" Mrs. Carver grabbed her husband's arm with trembling fingers.
He turned his head and smiled up at her. "We'll figure out some way to beat them, Honey," he soothed. "There's lots more can be done yet."
"Sure, Mom, they're still a long way behind us." Jon tried to keep the anxiety out of his voice. "And you know the old saying, 'a stern chase is a long chase.'"
"Can't we increase our acceleration and so our speed?" Jak asked.
"Yes, we'll have to do that, at least." Mr. Carver's voice was grim. He looked at Jon. "Step it up to two and a half, as soon as you're all in your seats. We'll stay there more of the time from now on, and we'll change the period to six in and two up."
"How about one and a half for the two hours?"
"We'll try it. If we sleep or nap more while we're at max, we ought to be able to stand it."
"We're still almost ..." Jon figured rapidly at the computer, "... three weeks out of Terra, even at that increased speed."
His father grimaced, while his wife and elder son uttered gasps of dismay. "I know. It'll be tough, but we've got to win."