"No-oorth."
"Then Hot Rod is—" Quickly he stopped and rephrased the statement which would have had a question in its tone but not its semantics, into a question that would read semantically. "Is Hot Rod pulling us north?"
"No-o-oo," came the reply.
Carefully. "Is Hot Rod pulling us?"
"No-o-oo."
Mike was stumped. Then he figured a literalness in his phrasing.
"Is Hot Rod pushing or in any other way giving motion to Space Lab One?" he asked.
"No-o-oo," came the answer.
Now Mike was stumped.
"Is Space Lab One under acceleration?" he asked.