Adventures in the Far Future & Tales of Outer Space — page 189: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

another twenty minutes would take them out of radio range. “How about our final course correction data?” Goodrich asked. “Have you got that worked up yet?” “Just a minute,” Welsh said. “I'll check.” The minute stretched out. “Thumbtack, Rubberneck,” Goodrich said. “You still there?” “Thumbtack,” the operator’s voice said. “Wait. They’re working on a new angle here. We'll have something for you in just a minute.” Goodrich waited, wondering vaguely what the new angle was. Rubberneck had been planned down to the last second for six months now, and so far had cost a little over a billion dollars. The worst of his nausea was gone, but it had left him feeling limp and beat-up, and not too bright. A new voice came on the radio. “Goodrich?” it asked. “This 1S Goodrich.” “Captain Bartell here. We're going to have to change your course, want you to vector in on that bogey. We have to get a look at that thing, this is more important than Rubberneck. It may change our whole planning’ on Highjump. You understand that, don’t you?” “Yes, sir,” he said. “I see. We'll do what we can. We hadn't planned any major maneuvers, though. How about fuel?” “You'll have enough. We grossed you out on fuel, since you wouldn't be carrying cargo this trip, and we wanted a good safety factor till we have a chance to check fuel consumption figures. “In any event, your landing reserve isn’t important. | want you to close with this thing ... uh, let’s see, let’s call it ‘Bertha’ ... | want you to close with Bertha and make an identification, even if you have to bum your last drop and sit up there until we get up and bring you back down. Do you have that?” CORniclooo SS CO