"E. E. Doc Smith - Spacehounds Of IPC" - читать интересную книгу автора (Smith E. E. Doc)

six-
tenths percent. For a few moments there had been uneasy stomachs among the
passengersтАФperhaps a few of the first-trippers had been made illтАФbut it was
not much
worse than riding in a highspeed elevator, particularly since there was no
change from
positive to negative acceleration such as is experienced in express elevators.
The computer, his calculations complete, watched the pilot with interest,
for,
accustomed as he was to traversing the depths of space, there was a never-
failing thrill
to his scientific mind in the delicacy and precision of the work which
Breckenridge was
doingтАФwork which could be done only by a man having had long training in the
profession and possessed of almost instantaneous nervous reactions and of the
highest
degree of manual dexterity and control. Under his right and left hands were
the double-
series potentiometers actuating the variable-speed drives of -the flight-angle
directors in
the hour and declination ranges; before his eyes was the finely-marked
micrometer
screen upon which the goniometer threw its needle-point of light; powerful
optical
systems of prisms and lenses revealed to his sight the director-angles, down
to
fractional seconds of arc. It was the task of the chief pilot to hold the
screened image of
the cross hairs of the two directors in such position relative to the ever-
moving point of
light as to hold the mighty vessel , precisely upon its course, in spite of
the complex
system of forces acting upon it.
For almost an hour Breckenridge sat motionless, his eyes flashing from,
micrometer screen to signal panel, his sensitive fingers moving the
potentiometers
through minute arcs because of what he saw upon the screen and in response to
the
flashing, multicolored lights and tinkling signals of his board. Finally, far
from Earth, the
moon's attraction and other perturbing forces comparatively slight, the
signals no longer
sounded and the point of light ceased its irregular motion, becoming almost
stationary.
The chief pilot brought both cross-hairs directly upon the brilliant point
which for some
time they had been approaching more and more nearly, adjusted the photo-cells
and
amplifiers which would hold them immovably upon it, and at the calculated
second of