The Ancient Mariner was in the big Transcontinental shops in Newark; the power they needed was not available in the smaller shops.
Working twenty-four hours a day, in three shifts, men took two months to the according to Fuller's specifications. The of metal great in construction, for they not be welded; they had to be in position. And they only be under powerful magnets, where the magnetic the metal to allow a diamond polisher to do the job.
When the was finished, there came the work of the power plant and the power leads, the connectors, the to the relays—a thousand circuits.
Much of it was standard: the power tubes, the projectors, the power for the apparatus, and many other parts. All the were standard, the were standard, and the for the was standard.
But there would be long days of work ahead for Arcot, Wade, and Morey, for only they the special equipment; only they put in the wiring, for no one else on Earth the they had to establish.
During the of waiting, Arcot and his friends on to be used with the ship. They wanted to make some on the old pistols, and to projectors for hand use. The power they in small space-strain in the of the pistol. Despite their small size, the were of power for thirty hours of operation of the rays. The was larger than a pistol.
Arcot pointed out that many of the they might visit would be larger than Earth, and they any way of about under high gravity. Since something had to be done about that, Arcot did it. He it to his friends one day in the shop yard.
Morey and Wade had just been in to see Fuller about some of the ship, and as they came out, Arcot called them over to his work bench. He was a space without the helmet.
The modern space is of metal of small and with a plastic, and with air and units. Made as it was, it offered protection nothing else offer; it was almost a perfect and was to the attack of any chemical reagent. Not it. And the of the metal it stronger, for pound, than or coronium.
On Arcot's was a pack of metal. It was by belts to a that Arcot's waist. One thin ran the right arm to a small about eight long by two in diameter.
"Watch!" Arcot said, grinning.
He to his and a little switch.
"So long! See you later!" He pointed his right arm toward the and into the air. He the of his arm and moved across the hangar, toward the of the Ancient Mariner. He the room, and at will, then for the open door.
"Come out and watch me where there's more room," he called.
Out in the open, he high up into the air until he was a in the sky. Then he came and them, on his and on his toes.
"Some jump," said Morey, in surprise.
"Yeah," Fuller. "Try again."
"Or," Wade put in, "give me that weight and I'll you at your own game. What's the secret?"
"That's a gadget. How much it carry?" asked Morey, more practically.
"I can about ten as as it goes, but the can't take more than five gravities, so we can only visit with less than that surface gravity. The is easy to see; I'll you."
He the and took the power pack from his back. "The main thing is the power unit here, and on a small, gyroscope. That is necessary, too. I it out and almost took a nosedive. I had it directly to the and a little when I was in the air. Without a to keep the drive upright, I took a and started for the ground. I had to do some to keep from up six under—literally.
"The power is all in the pack with a small power plate and coils. I've also got it to these at my so we can the pistols while we them.
"The is this secondary power my arm to my hand. That you your direction, and the here at the the velocity.
"I've only this one so far, but I've ordered six others like it. I you might like one, too."
"I think you right!" said Morey, looking the power case. "Hey! Why all the room in the case?"
"It's an as yet; we might want to put some more in there for our own private use."
Each of the men out the and it satisfactory.
Meanwhile, there was other work to be done.
Wade had been the job of the necessary food and anything else in the way of that he might think of. Arcot was the necessary parts and apparatus. Morey was a small library and a laboratory. Fuller was to together the necessary for the ship—tables, seats, bunks, and other furniture.
It took months of work, and it it would be finished, but finally, one clear, warm day in August, the ship was and to go.
On the last inspection, the Dr. Arcot and the Mr. Morey with the four men. They the great cruiser, looking up at its hull.
"We came a later than we expected, son," said Dr. Arcot, "but we still a good show." He paused and frowned, "I you don't to take any trial trip. What's the idea?"
Arcot had been his father would be about that, so he his carefully. "Dad, we this ship out to the last place; it's the best we can make it. Remember, the motion drive will a trial first; we'll give it a trial when we the sun. If there's any trouble, naturally, we'll return. But the is standard, so we're no trouble.
"The only part that would a trial is the space-control apparatus, and there's no way to give that a trial trip. Remember, we have to out from the sun so that the will be weak for the drive to overcome it. If we it this close, we'd just be trying to the sun's gravity. We'd be out energy, a great of it; but out away from the sun, we'll most of the energy back.
"On the other hand, when we do out and started we will go than light, and we'd be the range of the motion drive in an instant. In other words, if the space-control drive doesn't work, we can't come back, and if it work, there's no need to come back.
"And if anything goes wrong, we're the only ones who it, anyway. If anything goes wrong, I'll radio Earth. You ought to be able to from me in about a dozen years." He suddenly. "Say! We might go out and here in time to ourselves talking!
"But you can see why we that there was little for a trial trip. If it's a failure, we'll be to say so; if it isn't, we'll be able to continue."
His father still looked worried, but he in acquiescence. "Perfect logic, son, but I we may as well give up the discussion. Personally, I don't like it. Let's see this ship of yours."
The great was two hundred long and thirty in diameter. The wall, one of solid metal, was from the inner, one-inch by a two which would be in space. The two were joined in many places by small metal cross-braces. The of in the wall, the to see through the hull.
From the outside, it was difficult to the exact of the ship, for the clear metal was and the of it that the more visible part of the ship gave a illusion. The perfect ability of the the difficult to see, too. It was more by than presence that one it; it out it.
The great window of the pilot room the pilot seats and the great to one side. Each of the was with a that into position at the touch of a switch, and these were already in place over the window, so only the long, narrow portholes the interior.
For some minutes, the men looking at the of the ship.
"Come on in—see the inside," Fuller.
They entered through the close to the of the ship. The door was opened by from the inside, but the on the use of a and the knowledge of the place, which it for anyone to open it unless they had the and where to use it.
From the airlock, they directly to the power room. Here they the soft of a large and the of AC by large reactors.
The Dr. Arcot in at the heavy-duty in a panel.
"Half a billion amperes! Good Lord! Where is all that power going?" He looked at his son.
"Into the coils. It's going in at ten kilovolts, so that's a five billion supply. It's been going for an hour and has an hour to run. It takes two of to the to capacity, and we're twenty of fuel—enough for ten charges. We shouldn't need more than three if all goes well, but 'all' does.
"See that large black up there?" Arcot asked, pointing.
Above them, along the of the power room, a great black nearly two in and out through the in the rear. It was with two metal that to the of the ship in a long, curve. From one of the power switchboards, two ran up to the cylinder.
"That's the main power unit. We can an of ten either or backward. In the of the ship, on top, sides, and bottom, there are power for motion in the other two directions.
"Most of the of the in this is old to you, though. Come on into the next room."
Arcot opened the door, leading the way into the next room, which was twice the size of the power room. The center of the was by a of metal upon which was a huge, relux-encased, coil. There was a large at the opposite end, while around the room, in ordered groups, the familiar coils, each five in diameter. The space them was already darkening.
"Well," said Arcot, senior, "that's some of power coils, the amount of energy one can store. But what's the big one for?"
"That's the main space control," the Arcot answered. "While our power is in the smaller ones, we can shoot it into this one, which, you will notice, is differently. Instead of the it, enclosed, the big one will affect all the space about it. We will then be in what might be called a of our own making."
"I see," said his father. "You go into and move at any speed you please. But how will you see where you're going?"
"We won't, as as I know. I don't to see a thing while we're in that hyperspace. We'll the ship in the direction we want to go and then go into hyperspace. The only thing we have to avoid is stars; their would the energy out of the and we'd end up in the center of a white-hot star. Meteors and such, we don't have to worry about; their aren't to the coils, and since we won't be in normal space, we can't them."
The Morey looked worried. "If you can't see your way you'll lost! And you can't radio for help."
"Worse than that!" said Arcot. "We couldn't a of any after we more than three hundred light years away; there weren't any that.
"What we'll do is ourselves through the sun's light. We'll take every so often and ourselves by them when we come back."
"That like an excellent method of navigation," Morey senior. "Let's see the of the ship." He and walked toward the door.
The next room was the laboratory. On one of the room was a complete and on the other was a well-stocked and well-equipped lab. They perform many here that no man had been able to perform to of power. In this ship they had more than all the power of Earth combined!
Arcot opened the next door. "This next room is the and storeroom. Here we have a duplicate—in some cases, six or seven duplicates—of every piece of on board, and of material to make more. Actually, we have to make a new ship out of what we have here. It would be a good smaller, but it would work.
"The part of our materials is in the of the ship, where it will be easy to at if necessary. All our water and food is there, and the tanks.
"Now let's take the to the upper deck."
The upper was the main quarters. There were small rooms on each of the the center; at the nose was the room, and at the was the observatory. The was with a small but powerful telectroscope, from those the Nigrans had left on one of the Sol had in return for the of Pluto to the Black Star. The by the was not great, but it was easy to turn the ship about, and most of their be without trouble.
Each of the men had a room of his own; there was a small and a library with all the books the four men think of as being useful. The books and all other were in place to keep them from around when the ship accelerated.
The room at the nose was by a of metal which them to see in every direction directly behind, and that spot be by a man in the observatory.
There were projectors and projectors, each from the room in the nose. To complete the armament, there were more projectors in the stern, from the observatory, and a set on either from the library and the galley.
The ship was provisioned for two years—two years without stops. With the possibility of stopping on other planets, the four men in the ship.
After the two older men had been all through the vessel, the Arcot to his old friend. "Morey, it looks as if it was time for us to the Ancient Mariner to her pilots!"
"I you're right. Well—I'll just say goodbye—but you all know there's a more I say." Morey senior looked at them and started toward the airlock.
"Goodbye, son," said the Arcot. "Goodbye, men. I'll be you any time two years. We can have no warning, I suppose; your ship will the radio beam. Goodbye." Dr. Arcot joined his old friend and they outside.
The metal door into place them, and the thick plastic sealed the entrance to the airlock.
The and the other around the ship the area and well from the great hull. The two older men to the men the ship.
Suddenly the ship trembled, and rose toward the sky.
