"Try a dead stop, but be ready to move out fast in case the alien continues a collision course."
Braun nodded. In the artificial gravity field, no effect of deceleration was perceptible. The ship slowed and stopped as dead as a ship stops with no reference point to anything. What actually happened was a delicate balancing upon a number of mathematical equations, themselves unstable.
Mass proximity needles, showing the expected increase by squares, indicated that the stranger also had come to a full stop by matching exactly at zero. It was an interesting fact that so far from home the familiar laws of gravity seemed to hold their familiar relations. More interesting was the fact that the alien object or ship had stopped.
"See anything?" asked Charters.
"Not a thing," admitted Topping.
"How about the telescopes?"
McClure, the astrogator, reported then. Under the circumstances, his voice sounded curiously matter of fact.
"A faint point of light. Not enough disk to tell much of anything about it. We'll try with—"
"Can't be more than a mile away, I'd guess," said Braun. "What do we do now? Just sit here and wait?"
Topping grunted. "Reminds me of a pair of strange dogs meeting away from home and sniffing at each other with mutual curiosity and mistrust."