"If they're still alive and there ever was a Titania Station," Croker amended, backing air violently to stop himself as he neared the hammock. "Look, Ness, we know that the First Uranus Expedition arrived. At least they set off their flares. But that was three years before the War and we haven't any idea of what's happened to them since and if they ever managed to set up housekeeping on Titania--or Ariel or Oberon or even Miranda or Umbriel. At least if they built a station that could raise Earth I haven't been told. Sure thing _Prospero_ hasn't heard anything ... and we're getting close." "I won't argue," Ness said. "Even if we raise 'em, it'll just be hello-goodby with maybe time between for a battle report." "And a football score and a short letter from home, ten seconds per man as the station fades." Croker frowned and added, "If Captain had cottoned to my idea, two of us at any rate could have got off this express train at Uranus." "Tell me how," Ness asked drily. "How? Why, one of the ship's launches. Replace the fusion-head with the cabin. Put all the chem fuel in the tanks instead of divvying it between the ship and the launch." "I haven't got the brain for math Copperhead has, but I can subtract," Ness said, referring to _Prospero's_ piloting robot. "Fully fueled, one of the launches has a max velocity change in free-fall of 30 miles per second. Use it all in braking and you've only taken 30 from 100. The launch is still going past Uranus and out of the system at 70 miles a second." "You didn't hear all my idea," Croker said. "You put piggyback tanks on your launch and top them off with the fuel from the other four launches. Then you've 100 miles of braking _and_ a maneuvering reserve. You only need to shed 90 miles, anyway. Ten miles a second's the close circum-Uranian velocity. Go into circum-Uranian orbit and wait for Titania to send their jeep to pick you up. Have to start the maneuver four hours this side of Uranus, though. Take that long at 1 G to shed it." "Cute," Ness conceded. "Especially the jeep. But I'm glad just the same we've got 70 per cent of our chem fuel in our ships' tanks instead of the launches. We're on such a bull's eye course for Uranus--Copperhead really pulled a miracle plotting our orbit--that we may need a sidewise shove to miss her. If we slapped into that cold hydrogen soup at our 100 mps--" Croker shrugged. "We still could have dropped a couple of us," he said. * * * * * "Captain's got to look after the whole fleet," Ness said. "You're beginning to agitate, Croker, like you was Grunfeld--or the captain himself." "But if Titania Station's alive, a couple of men dropped off would do the fleet some good. Stir Titania up to punch a message through to Earth and get a really high-speed retrieve-and-rescue ship started out after us. _If_ we've won the War."