"Faster than with Nona?"
"I think so. Of course I don't know what she could have gotten out of it if she'd tried—but she always seemed to hold something back."
She would rather not have asked but the answer was on his face. "But it's not good enough?"
He sat down near the command unit. "They found out what we were doing and increased their own speed. It's slightly greater than ours."
"Well, why do we do it?" she said. "It takes more and more power to add another mile per second as we approach the speed of light. But that holds true for them too."
He tried to frown away the problem she posed. "Sure, but it doesn't matter to them as long as they can match anything we do."
"But they'd just as soon not. They're inconvenienced the same as we are when they have to divert too much power. They're better organized and it's not so bad, but still they have to do without their ordinary comforts. I don't see any point in tormenting ourselves. Let's turn on the lights and warm up the place. They'll do the same when they see it."
"Maybe they will," he said grudgingly. He was not going to accept her advice.
She tried again. "Will the scanner reach Earth?"
He shook his head. "Not quite. The range is limited. I can't give you figures but I estimate we're well over halfway to the Centauris." He got up and paced in front of the command unit. "I know what you're thinking—the appeal to the people of Earth. We tried it once. You know where it got us."