Jellico was still functioning. But
if the Captain collapsed the whole responsibility for the snap-out would
fall directly on Shannon. An infinitesimal error would condemn them to
almost hopeless wandering--perhaps for ever.
Dane and Ali relieved Rip of all duty but that which kept him chained in
Wilcox's chair before the computers. He went over and over the data of
the course the Astrogator had set. And Captain Jellico, his eyes sunk in
dark pits, checked and rechecked.
When the fatal moment came Ali manned the engine room with Weeks at his
elbow to tend the controls the acting-Engineer could not reach. And Dane,
having seen the sick all safely stowed in crash webbing, came up to the
control cabin, riding out the transfer in Tang Ya's place.
Rip's voice hoarsened into a croak, calling out the data. Dane, though he
had had basic theory, was completely lost before Shannon had finished the
first set of co-ordinates. But Jellico replied, hands playing across the
pilot's board.
"Stand-by for snap-out--" the croak went down to the engines where Ali
now held Stotz's post.
"Engines ready!" The voice came back, thinned by its journey from the
Queen's interior.
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