"Check altimeter."
"One thousand seven hundred."
"Level off."
A moment of maneuvering, then Jon reported, "Ship level at twenty-four hundred, traveling parallel to ground surface."
"Check rocket balance."
"All tubes on balance."
"Switch on auto-pilot."
"Auto on, but keeping ready to switch back to manual if necessary."
Jak loosened his straps and went to look out of the port, but Jon kept his gaze fastened on the lookout plate before him, his hands resting lightly on the controls, although they were not connected now.
Beneath them the land was sliding by, as the ship cruised at the slow speed, for it, of just under a thousand miles an hour. The boys saw the same sort of jungle forests, the same occasional clearings. From time to time the glint of water revealed rivers or lakes, the latter seldom more than a mile or so in width or length.