Project Daedalus

PROLOGUE

_

Thursday 8:40 A.M.

_G-load is now eight point five. Pilot must acknowledge for power-up sequence to continue.

_The cockpit computer was speaking in a simulated female voice, Russian with the Moscow accent heard on the evening TV newscast _Vremya_. The Soviet technicians all called her Petra, after that program's famous co-anchor.

Yuri Andreevi...