She fell face first to the floor. "I can't keep it up!" she cried. The sound of her voice rolled along the hot steel deck. "I cant! I cant!" A double handful of tepid water was thrown in her face. "Get up!" Rat stood over her, face twisted, his body hunched. "Get up!" She stared at him, dazed. He kicked her. "Get up!" The tepid water ran off her face and far away she heard Judith calling.... She forced herself up. Rat was back in the chair. * * * * * Gladney unexpectedly exploded. He had been awake for a long time, watching Rat at the board. Wrenching loose a chest strap he attempted to sit up. "Rat! Damn you Rat, listen to me! _When're you going to start braking_, Rat?" "I hear you." He turned on Gladney with dulled eyes. "Lie down. You sick." "I'll be damned if I'm going to lie here and let you drive us to Orion! We must be near the half-way line! When are you going to start braking?" "Not brake," Rat answered sullenly. "No, not brake." "_Not brake?_" Gladney screamed and sat bolt upright. Nurse Gray jumped for him. "Are you crazy, you skinny rat?" Gray secured a hold on his shoulders and forced him down. "You gotta brake! Don't you understand that? You have to, you vacuum-skull!" Gray was pleading with him to shut-up like a good fellow. He appealed to her. "He's gotta brake! Make him!" "He has a good point there, Rat," she spoke up. "What about this half-way line?" He turned to her with a weary ghost of the old smile on his face. "We passed line. Three days ago, maybe." A shrug of shoulders. "Passed!" Gray and Gladney exclaimed in unison. "You catch on quick," Rat nodded. "This six day, don't you know?" Gladney sank back, exhausted. The nurse crept over to the pilot. "Getting your figures mixed, aren't you?" Rat shook his head and said nothing. "But Roberds said eight days, and he--" "--he on Mars. I here. Boss nuts, too sad. He drive, it be eight days. Now only six." He cast a glance at Judith and found her eyes closed. "Six days, no brake. No." "I see your point, and appreciate it," Gray cut in. "But now what? This deceleration business ... there is a whole lot I don't know, but some things I do!" Rat refused the expected answer. "Land tonight, I think. Never been to Earth before. Somebody meet us, I think." "You can bet your leather boots somebody will meet us!" Gladney cried. Gray turned to him. "The Chief'll have the whole planet waiting for _you_!" He laughed with real satisfaction. "Oh yes, Rat, they'll be somebody waiting for us all right." And then he added: "If we land." "Oh, we land." Rat confided, glad to share a secret. "Yeah," Gladney grated. "But in how many little pieces?" "I've never been to Earth before. Nice, I think." Patti Gray caught something new in the tone and stared at him. Gladney must have noticed it, too. The Centaurian moved sideways and pointed. Gray placed her eyes in the vacated position. "Earth!" she shouted. "Quite. Nice. Do me a favor?"