"Sure will after that. So then we'll be 'By Jove' at six thousand. That would be a swell place to make turnover, I think. At 1-G decel, to about four thousand MPS, that'll put us about ... um, that'd take us ninety hours! We'll make that 3-G, at twenty hours, which will put us about three hundred and fifty million miles along, which plus the original four hundred and sixty million adds up to eight hundred and ten million miles--" "When an astronaut begins to talk like that," interrupted Arden, "we of the skyways say that he is talking in Congressional figures. The shoe is on the other foot. What on earth are you fellows figuring?" "Where we'll be and how fast we'll be going at a given instant of no particular importance," offered Walt. "When did you wake up?" "About the third hundred million. All of those ciphers going by made a hollow sound, like a bullet whistling in the wind." "Well, we're trying to make the theories of probability match with figures. We'll know in about forty-five hours whether we were right or not." "It's a good thing we have all space to go around in. Are you sure that we have all eternity?" "Don't get anxious. They're still coming in like a ton of bricks four times per hour, which means that they're riding easy. I don't want to overrun them at about three thousand MPS and have to spend a week decelerating, returning, more decelerating, and then matching velocities." "I see. You know best. And where is this Asteroid Belt that I've heard so much about?" "To the South of us by a few million miles. Those bright specks that you can't tell from stars are asteroids. The common conception of the Asteroid Belt being filled to overflowing with a collection of cosmic rubble like the rings of Saturn is a lot of hooey. We'll be past in a little while and we haven't even come close to one. Space is large enough for all of us, I think." "But not when all of us want the same space." "I don't care for their area," said Walt with a smile. "Let 'em have it, I don't care. I'll stay up here and let them run as they will." "You mean the ones that are moving downward?" asked Arden, indicating the sky. "Those are asteroids, yes. We're to the North, as you may check by going around the ship to the opposite side. You'll see Polaris almost directly opposite, there. Sol is almost directly below us, and that bright one that you can see if you squint almost straight up out of the port is Saturn." "I won't bother crossing the ship to see Polaris. I prefer the Southern Cross anyway. The thing I'm most interested in is: Are we accomplishing anything?" "I think that we've spent the last thirty hours just catching up," explained Walt. "Up to right now we were going backwards, so to speak: we're on even terms now, and will be doing better from here on in." "It's the waiting that gets me down," said Arden. "Oh, for something to do!"