For thirty minutes the ship plunged on through the Sirian system at the double deceleration. Then for fifteen minutes, the entire personnel was in the darkroom, waiting for the first glimmer of the plates. And at the time that the plates were finished, the velocity of the _Haywire Queen_ had dropped from thirty thousand-odd miles per second to velocities normally used in mere interplanetary travel. The super drive was cut and the ship coasted under standard drive at thirty feet per second, per second, acceleration, and the men hung the plates up in the darkroom and began to inspect them for telltale streaks. "Here's one," said McBride. "About four hundred million miles from Sirius." "And another," offered Larry, plying dividers and log tables, "about three thousand million." "Got another," offered Hammond, "but it's doubtful as a possible landing place. Almost ten thousand million mites from the primary. Bet it's colder than a pawn-broker's heart." "Couple more on my plate," said McBride. He went to the formerly empty solar map and added the discoveries according to scale. "But that one at four hundred million is my best bet." "Sounds reasonable," agreed Hammond. "Sirius would support humanoid life at that distance. Let's concentrate on it." "Good. It's in fine position to be concentrated on. Let's see, now, what should we be looking out for?" "Might be seetee matter," suggested Larry. "Good. How do we find out?" "We don't until the last ditch. But it is the most important, nevertheless. We wait until everything else has been disposed of and then make for the planet. Just outside of the atmosphere we heave 'em a rock or two and watch what happens." "A slow moving rock?" grinned McBride. "Doesn't really matter. If it is slow enough to keep from friction-incandescence, fine. But the eruption made by seetee contact is quite a bit different, spectroscopically. Also we can check the explosion with counters. The by-products of such a bit of eruption is full of nuclear radiations. Mere incandescence is just that and nothing more." "Well, that's that. We can wait. What's next?" "Radioactivity. How much and what kind? Atmosphere. How much and what kind? Et cetera. Also how much and what kind? Do we intend to land?" "I don't know. After all, we came for the express purpose of trying out our drive on an interstellar basis, you know. It can be done with ease, neatness, and dispatch. Seems to me that a landing on one of those planets will have to be made attractive or we won't. We're equipped for all kinds of spacial research, power research, and so on. But we're not equipped for much planetary investigation, exploration, or diplomatically involved intrigue." "Going to let Drake get away with being the only person making the first landing on an alien star system?"