"In the first place," began Astro, "hyperdrive was developed by Joan
Dale back at the Academy. And it's so blasted simple, I get mad at
myself for not thinking of it first!"
"Uhhh," snorted Alfie. "I respect your great talent on the power deck,
Astro, but I would hardly compare myself with Dale!"
"Shut up!" barked Astro. "You'll see how simple it is! Hyperdrive is
based on the idea that the thrust of the rockets acts in the exact same
way on _all_ the atoms inside the spaceship. So you can have as much
thrust as you want and no one will feel a thing. Even if the ship were
to accelerate a million times faster than the gravity of the Earth you
wouldn't feel a thing, because all the atoms inside would be pushed
along at the same time!" Astro sat back triumphantly.
"Ummmmh," commented Alfie. "That sounds all right as a principle, but
will it work out in space?"
"Listen, you--you--" snorted Astro.
"Sure it will, Alfie," said Tom. "It's been tested before."
"Still room for improvement, though," commented Alfie.
"I'll improve your head," barked Astro, "if you don't close that big
mouth! How do you like that, Tom? We get rid of one space-gassing Romeo
and now we get one even worse!"
Astro's reference to Roger made Tom draw a quick breath.
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