Captain Rogan's furrowed brow indicated that he had reached the same conclusion.
"Modify thrust to hold course and cut acceleration," he said quietly. "I'll send Berry up to make the layout." The video plate blanked out.
Berry, the navigator, had turned in shortly after the fix and was probably asleep by now. Archer would need him—it was going to be tricky to plot a follow-course this close to the planet with enough leeway to match velocities. And they would have to pour it on a little, in all probability, to insure a safe margin—he wondered how the paying guests would like that. Not that it would matter to Captain Rogan—the Space Code came first.
Will Archer pressed a key, and a high-pitched gong began to sound at one-second intervals. It would warn the ship's occupants of a change in acceleration, and would continue until the change was completed.
Berry came in, walking quite steadily with the flat-footed gait of one wearing magnetic shoe-plates. He nodded sleepily, ran a hand through his tousled blond hair, and strapped his slight frame into the seat at the computing table.
"I can tell you right now," he said glumly, "it's going to be rough. At 3 G tops, it'll take five elements and seven hours, at the very least. We won't get within 50 percent of optimum."
Archer read between the lines. Berry was a confirmed pessimist, and if he specified seven hours, it meant there was a fair chance of overtaking the other ship in less.
On the trip "down," Will Archer did not mind the roller-coaster effects nearly so much as his gradual loss of orientation. It was not his first experience with incrementing a free descent, but it was by all odds his longest one. In succession, the planet was "up," "down," sideways and all over the place. Only the screen remained relatively unconfused. Certainly no planet-evolved organism could hope to match its gyroscopic single-mindedness.
Some six hours later, the planet's projection occupied virtually the whole screen. The locator ring, now in shadow for contrast, picked out the other ship, which presently became visible as a black speck somewhat above the screen's center.