"Pretty well," said Doc. "There's as pretty an assortment of fractured limbs, broken ribs, cracked clavicles, and scars, mars, and abrasions as you ever saw. There are a number dead, worse luck, but we can't do a thing about them. We can hold on for a week as far as food and water goes. Everyone is now interested in the manner of our rescue rather than worrying about it." He turned to Channing. "The words Channing and Venus Equilateral have wonderful healing powers," he said. "They all think your gang are part magician and part sorcerer." "Why, for goodness' sake?" "I didn't ask. Once I told 'em you had a scheme to contact the relay station, they were all satisfied that things would happen for the better." "Anything we can do to help you out?" "I think not," answered Doc. "What I said before still goes. Your job is to bring aid--and that's the sum total of your job. Every effort must be expended on that and that alone. You've got too many whole people depending on you to spend one second on the hurt. That's my job." "O.K.," said Channing. "But it's going to be a long wait." "We can afford it." "I hope we're not complicating the job of finding us by this quartering deceleration," said Captain Johannson. "We're not. We're making a sort of vector from our course, but the deviation is very small. As long as the fellows follow our radiation, we'll be found," Channing said with a smile. "The thing that is tough is the fact that all the floors seem to lean over." "Not much, though." "They wouldn't lean at all if we were running with the whole set of equipment," said Darlange. "We run a complete turnover without spilling a drop from the swimming pool." "Or even making the passengers aware of it unless they're looking at the sky." "Stop worrying about it," said Doc. "I'm the only guy who has to worry about it and as long as the floor is still a floor, I can stand sliding into the corner once in a while." "We might tinker with the turnover drivers," offered Don. "We can bring 'em down to a place where the velocity-deceleration vectors are perpendicular to the floor upon which we stand while our ship is sluing. We've got a lot of time on our hands, and I, for one, feel a lot happier when I'm doing something." "It's a thought," said Hadley. "Wanna try it?" "Let's go." * * * * * Thirty hours after the _Relay Girl_ left the station, Walt and Franklen held a council of war, in which Chuck Thomas was the prime factor. "We've come about two hundred million miles, and our present velocity is something like four thousand miles per second," said Walt. "We're going out toward Mars on a slightly-off radial course, to the north of the ecliptic. That means we're a little over a quarter of a billion miles from Sol, or about to hit the Asteroid Belt. Thinking it over a little, I think we should continue our acceleration for another thirty hours. What say?"