"Go on!" said the Old Man with rising excitement. Risks don't scare him. Danger is his bread and butter. "Go on!"
"If we can hold the velocity-intensifier in operation until just before we effect landing, we'll drop to normal acceleration right smack over that sector of Iapetus where the mines are, thus cancelling the sixty-odd minutes of stratosphere cruise the Gemini will have to make—and dropping us into the cradles at practically the same moment."
"If that happens," I broke in, "who gets the contract, Cap? Is there any provision for deadlock in the Space Regulations?"
The Skipper fumbled with the loose-leaf pages of his memory.
"Yeah," he finally decided, "there is. The Interplanetary Commerce Code rules that whenever two companies effect a simultaneous landing, their product shall be offered the governing board of the newly opened territory in direct competition."
I snorted loudly. "A hell of a lot of good that does us! It'll be a matter of choosing seeds against seeds. And if I know those Cosmic Corporation crooks, they'll bribe the Iapetus governing board blue in the face."
"Wait!" cried Biggs. "It may not be seeds against seeds. It may be seeds against—flowers!"
"Huh!" gasped the Old Man. "What was that, boy?"
"My ... er ... horticultural experiment," said Lancelot. "By the time we arrive there—perhaps by now—we may actually have flowers to show them. Exhibit A of the sort of thing our seeds will produce. It should provide a clinching argument."
Hanson stared at him bewilderedly. "You mean them seeds you swiped are growing flowers in three days?"