She was hurtling through space on a trajectory that had sent her from Jupiter to Earth in a single week. The pod had launched itself off from orbit around Jupiter and achieved full acceleration within an hour. Pruit and Central had devised the vector so the pod would appear as a meteorite thrown off by Jupiter and traveling at a steady speed in the direction of Earth. The pod was oddly shaped. The bottom, or front, half of the ship was spherical. To this sphere was appended a cylinder on which were mounted the fusion propulsion jets. Pruit’s seat and control panels were inside the sphere. The space was just large enough for her to stand up, though there was nowhere to stand, for the chair took up almost all available space. If she stretched her arms out in either direction, the walls were just beyond her reach. The only light came from the screens, which gave off green and red glows. The pod had originally been fitted with two chairs that sat back to back. She had modified it, during her six months in orbit, to accommodate a single chair that rotated in a full circle and provided her access to all controls.
