It passes but half a ship length from the quarry's nose.
The controllable reversible pitch propeller allowed them to stop in less than two ship lengths from full speed.
It has good maneuverability and can come to a full stop in only one ship length from top speed.
The frigate had come to a stop a ship length in front of them.
It allows full turns at high speed with a radius of less than a ship length.
Two grapnel-shaped destroyers dogged it no more than four ship lengths behind.
A few ship lengths ahead was a pool of burning oil and debris.
Every bridge crew member had turned to the viewscreen, peering at the lovely hemisphere nucleus now only about a dozen ship lengths away.
They had come to only a dozen ship lengths away from it.
The starship's motion had stopped, but they were a ship length or more away from the nucleus.