Norton shook his head. "A lifeship is aimed at providing the maximum protection for a maximum number of people, under a minimum of luxury. Stop whining. We're still alive, I keep telling you."
"At," sneered Andrews, "a hundred bucks an hour."
"Are you going to argue, or do you want to try some vigor for that bad temper of yours?"
"We've got some power left over from the bank," suggested Andrews. "Let's use that."
"Not on your life. That's reserve. Sooner or later we're going to use it for radio pulses."
"Radio pulses?"
"For fine control direction-finding and locating."
Andrews snorted. "How are they going to pick up radio pulses when they're going thirty or forty parsecs an hour?"
"They use gravitic mass detectors. As soon as someone gets a register, they send one of the scouts out to drop below light and listen for radio pulses. If he hears any, then the whole search squadron stops and starts really to comb the neighborhood with radar."
Andrews shivered again. "I'll try that generator," he said. "Could we pedal enough juice to run the drivers?"