When the astronomer arrived minutes later, the space station was 1700 miles above the Earth, still shearing into space on an ascending curve.
"Get a quick look at this, Jones," Kevin spoke rapidly. "See if you can tell where it will be two hours from now."
The astronomer studied the curve intently as it continued to grow under Kevin's pencil.
"It may be an outward spiral," he said haltingly, "or it could be a ... parabola."
"No!" Bert protested. "That would throw us into space. We couldn't—"
"We couldn't get back," Kevin finished grimly. "There'd better be an alternative."
"It could be an ellipse," Jones said.
"It must be an ellipse," Bert said eagerly. "The Moonbeam couldn't have given us 7000 mph velocity."
Abruptly the lights went out.
The radar scope faded from green to black. Morrow swore a string of violent oaths, realizing in the same instant that anger was useless when the power mirrors lost the sun.