Carl smiled and replied, ” I’d have said the same thing if one of you had come up with this crazy proposal. I understand completely. Just so we’re clear on what will happen. If and when we blow the tank, some time in the next forty-eight hours, Mission Support will be expecting us to fire the trans-Earth thrusters, right around twenty-four hours after that. This is all based on my calculations concerning the amount of fuel we will have supposedly lost. There’s no ifs, ands, or buts about that. In reality, we’ll still have only about seventy-two hours to make the decision about whether to land or not.”
“Then we’d better marshal the troops and produce a consensus,” Brandon resolved. Carl turned back to the console. Considering Carl’s plan, Brandon smiled and thought, ‘Carl’s really come a long way, and not just in astronomical mileage. This kid’s gonna do all right.’