At any rate she would have flashed by New Caird too quickly even to be seen, her relative velocity faster than that of a rifle bullet, had New Caird not just matched her velocity by making a long, precisely timed burn of her main engine. The four members of the crew were still recovering from this. The vehicle’s main engine was oversized—the kit of MIV parts from which she’d been built only had so many options—and so the gee forces had been impressive at the beginning of the burn and brutal toward the end, as the lavish expenditure of propellant had made her lighter and lighter compared to the engine’s formidable thrust. If Dinah had blacked out for a few seconds, why, maybe that was just as well, given that they had aimed themselves almost squarely at the Earth and then launched themselves at it as if on a suicide run. This was necessary in order to go where Ymir was going, but added up to maybe a little more excitement than she really was in the mood for at this moment in her life.