For two hours, Eddie did nothing, except hum contentedly, like a miniature washing machine. Occasionally, a weird, flickering pattern of multi-colored lights would trace across the scanning screen.
At 11:06 A.M., October 19, 1955, a flat, toneless voice came from the vocader grill:
"Laminar flow equilibrium temperature at mach 8.0, altitude 150,000 ft., of a point 10 ft. back from the leading edge is 1000 degrees Fahrenheit, assuming skin has 0.85 emissivity."
There was a small, whirring noise, and the vocader circuit clicked off.
"What the devil does that mean?" demanded the General.
"Your aerophysicists might like to know!" came back the tart reply.
At 1:34, Eddie clicked into action again:
"In flight between two planets, the theory of minimum energy orbit should be discarded in favor of acceleration at reduced speed for calculated periods of time."
"By the time we're flying between planets," General Sanders commented bitterly, "the record of my court-martial will be ancient history!"
Twenty minutes later, Eddie added: