He came through the airlock, discarded his
helmet, and hurried to the small group that was waiting for him.
"We have restored power," said Madera.
"So I see!" said Gene with a great smile. "That's terrific! Do you want
me to pilot the asteroid away from Earth?"
"That's exactly what I want you to do. Let's go."
The three men made their way along the corridors, hastened past open
doorways, and took the elevator up one flight to the control center.
They passed dozens of SE men and members of Space Command. Captain Mary
Marks-Owens was supervising their work.
Once in the control center, Gene took his seat at the main console,
glanced at the Starman and the other men in the large room, then stared
at the screen before him. He scratched his head, then placed his hands
on the keyboard and activated it.
"Whew!" he exclaimed a moment later. "Well over 290,000 miles per hour!
It would be better to turn this asteroid aside and pass by the Earth
rather than try to bring it into orbit, as Zimbardo had planned at
first. We're going too fast for that!"
"My thoughts exactly," said Madera, seating himself on a stool next to
Gene. "Let's see how you do it."
Gene plotted coordinates and tracked the trajectory of the runaway
asteroid, then calculated the amount of thrust needed to pass the Earth
at a safe distance.
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