Blow the Man Down
friend. We started pulling out of the orbits your blast tapes set about four months ago. If we hadn't, we wouldn't have come anywhere near Jupiter."

"You lie!" shouted Albrekt. "You lie, Carrel! You couldn't! There's no fuel!"

"I'm afraid we're going to have to keep you tied up to one of the bunks for the next few weeks, Albrekt," said Carrel. "You're too valuable a prisoner to take a chance on your doing away with yourself."

"There's no fuel," repeated Albrekt. He was almost whimpering.

"I'll relieve your mind on that score," said Carrel. "Have you ever seen a sailing ship on Earth?"

Albrekt stared at him, uncomprehending.

"A sailing ship doesn't need fuel because it gets its power from the wind," said Carrel. "Neither do we, now. I'm afraid that story I told you about dangerous radiation from Jupiter was made up of whole cloth, Albrekt. There isn't any.

"That lithium hemisphere we built isn't a shield. It's a sail."

"But there's no wind—there's no air—"

"The wind that blows between the worlds," said Carrel solemnly. "Solar radiation. Its pressure will move a ship if you provide a sail that's big enough and light enough—and that's what we did."

"It's impossible," muttered Albrekt, crouching back against the automatic pilot.

"Not impossible, just extremely unusual this far out," said Carrel. "If they ever let you out of prison, Albrekt, I think a trip to Venus would be worth your while. I think you'd find the annual space regatta particularly interesting."

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