torch n.

The Mayflower was top shaped. The point of the top was her jet—Chief Engineer Ortega, who showed us around, called it her ‘torch’.

The conversion chamber of a torch was a tiny sun; particles expelled from it approached the speed of light.

The idea that anyone but a torcher could work a torch ballistic did not sink in.

From the air the Lewis and Clark looked like a basket-ball floating in water; you could not see that it was really shaped like a turnip. It floated with the torch down; the hemispherical upper part was all that showed.

Gentlemen, it’s a job for torch pilots. I must ask for volunteers.

They transferred cargo to a spidery tachyon-torch shuttle, then zipped to the moon, setting down at Grimaldi base.

The first scoutship is launched by the Trek. Crewed by five volunteers, it is powered by a full-sized fusion torch though its mass is only one-tenth that of a conventional torchship.

The Belt is huge, but the high-burn torch I'd turned loose back there was orders of magnitude more luminous than an ordinary fusion jet.

It was the chief use they had for torches, to have them look at an unborn baby just at the birthing time.

When it was safely away, robots went outside. Flitting around the hull, they deployed the latticework of ramscoop and fire chamber. By this time, low boost under torch drive had built up a considerable speed.

Ubu looked at the radar and transponder displays. No ships nearby, no one within range to be cooked by the particle torch. ‘Ten seconds to torch ignition. Mark.’

The Pasadena’s flight clocks had to be in sync with each other as well as with the outside, but not just for timing torch bursts for sublight navigation. Navigation past light speed was impossible. To change direction, they would have to drop down to sublight, change the ship’s flight angle and jump again.

The ship read her fingerprints and sent its signal down to the engine compartment. ‘Torch lit,’ she reported, just before a low rumble that echoed all the way up the drop shaft confirmed her call.

‘No, it’s easy,’ Chase said, laying his cup on the table and leaning forward. ‘I’ll take the parasols with me when I torch for the Moon and drop them off along the way.’