Rocket engineers in developing machines for space travel had found speed the foremost bugaboo. It was the speed a rocket had to attain to leave terrestrial gravity that balked engineers. There also was man's instinctive fear of going fast, in spite of the assurances of science that speed, in itself, was harmless. It was acceleration and deceleration that killed people.
One might travel seven miles a second indefinitely and suffer no ill effects, once he got going that rate of speed. However, one might die quickly while attaining it. Drugs enabled spacemen to withstand several gravities of acceleration or deceleration without fatal effects and there were a few of these pills aboard. But any speed change greater than nine or ten gravities would be dangerous under any conditions.
The craft neared the earth. Already the travelers could make out the dim outlines of the continental areas.
The gravity gauge registered the earth's pull strongly and Captain Bonnet calculated that they were nearing the outer limits of the atmosphere. He twisted a valve a fraction of a turn.
From a steering jet, a tiny needle of flame shot into the ether. From another jet, a second flame glowed for an instant. The space ship turned, wheeling the onrushing earth out of line with the lifeboat's prow. Now the huge, radiant ball peeked into the craft through the glass window in the floor, but the ship's direction of travel continued toward it as before.
Captain Bonnet shut off the valves, conserving every ounce of rocket fuel that remained in the tanks. Lieutenant Riley started the cooling mechanism and for an instant the craft became uncomfortably cold.
This discomfort lasted only a few minutes, however, for the craft soon began to strike the first atoms of the atmosphere and its sides began to glow with heat. The space ship was fast becoming a meteor flashing into the atmosphere of the earth.
There was a sudden jerk. Once more Bonnet twisted the valve, nosing the streamlined craft downward slightly to allow these atoms of air to strike the sides less forcefully. There was danger of a blackout if the deceleration were too fast.
The ship dived forward and Bonnet used more precious fuel to turn it broadside again. The craft slowed, this time not so violently.