Arcot, at the of the Ancient Mariner, the as the ship up toward space. Soon, the of the sky had way to an violet, and this to the black of space as the ship away from the that was its home.
"That of there is going to look little when we back," said Wade softly.
"But," Arcot him, "that little of is going to us across a that our can't of. And we'll be happy to see that in space when we back—provided, of course, that we do back."
The ship was now under the of its motion power units, at a rate, the the ship and Earth.
The power were still the coils, the use of the space drive. Indeed, it would be a good many hours they would be from the sun to the ship into hyperspace.
In the meantime, Morey was every as Arcot called out the on the panel. Everything was to perfection. Their every had out in so far. But the test was yet to come.
They were well the of Pluto when they they would be safe in using the space drive and the ship into hyperspace.
Morey was in the room, the there. They were ready!
"Hold on!" called Arcot. "Here we go—if at all!" He out to the him and touched the green that the motion machines. The big power cut off, and their ceased. His pushed a red switch—there was a dull, as a shut.
Suddenly, a of power ran through them—space around them was black. The lights for an as the that through the set up a magnetic field, with the plates. The power to climb to a maximum—then, suddenly, it was gone.
The ship was quiet. No one spoke. The meters, which had over to their limits, had to zero once more, those which the power in the coil. The that had around them in a of colors were gone. The space around them strangely, and there was a cloud of strange, or green them. Directly ahead was one green star that big and brilliant, then it and to a dot—a star. There was a about the men; they in an odd, silence.
Arcot again. "Cutting off power, Morey!" The red back. Again space to be with a of energy that in from all around, through their bodies, producing a feeling. Then space in a cloud about them; the out at them in again.
"Well, it once!" Arcot with a of relief. "Lord, I some errors in calculation, though! I I didn't make any more! Morey—how was it? I only used one-sixteenth power."
"Well, don't use any more, then," said Morey. "We sure traveled! The perfectly. By the way, it's a good thing we had all the shielded; the magnetic here was so that my pocket to start circles around it.
"According to your magnetic meter, the were over fifty billion amperes. The small perfectly. They're again; the power into them from the big with only a five of power—about twenty thousand megawatts."
"Hey, Arcot," Wade said. "I you said we wouldn't be able to see the stars."
Arcot spread his hands. "I did say that, and all my for it. But we're not them by light. The all have projections—shadows—in this space of their fields. There are in the field, one every minute or so. Since we were them at twenty thousand times the speed of light, the Doppler us what looks like light.
"We saw the in of us as points. The green ones were actually us, and the green light was in frequency. It can't be anything less than and of frequency.
"Did you notice there were no off to the side? We weren't them, so they didn't give either effect."
"How did you know which was which?" asked Fuller skeptically.
"Did you see that green star directly ahead of us?" Arcot asked. "The one that so rapidly? That only have been the sun, since the sun was the only star close to up as a disc. Since it was green and I it was us, I that all the green ones were us. It isn't proof, but it's a good indication."
"You win, as usual," Fuller.
"Well, where are we?" asked Wade. "I think that's more important."
"I haven't the least idea," Arcot. "Let's see if we can out. I've got the pilot on, so we can the ship to itself. Let's take a look at Old Sol from a that no man before!"
They started for the observatory. Morey joined them and Arcot put the view of Sol and his family on the screen. He the to maximum, and the four men looked at the system. The sun brilliantly, and the plainly.
"Now, if we wanted to take the trouble, we when the were in that position and the we have come. However, I notice that Pluto is still in place, so that means we are the Solar System as it was the of the Black Star. We're at least two light years away."
"More than that," said Morey. He pointed at the screen. "See here, how Mars is in relation to Venus and Earth? The were in that seven years ago. We're seven light years from Earth."
"Good enough!" Arcot grinned. "That means we're two light years of Sirius, since we were in that direction. Let's turn the ship so we can take a look at it with the telectroscope."
Since the power had been cut off, the ship was in free fall, and the men were weightless. Arcot didn't try to walk toward the room; he pushed against the with his and a long, slow for his destination.
The others for the in the while Arcot the ship around so that its was pointed toward Sirius. Because of its and relative to Sol, Sirius is the star in the heavens, as from Earth. At this much distance, it as a point of light that wonderfully. They the toward it, but there was little they see that was not visible from the big on the Moon.
"I think we may as well go nearer," Morey, "and see what we on close range observation. Meanwhile, turn the ship around and I'll take some pictures of the sun and its star from this distance. Our only way of is going to be this series of pictures, so I think we had best make it complete. For the light century, we ought to take a picture every ten light years, and after that one each light century until we a point where we are only pictures of the local star cluster. After that, we can wait until we the of the Galaxy."
"Sounds all right to me," Arcot. "After all, you're the astronomer, I'm not. To tell you the truth, I'd have to search a while to Old Sol again. I can't see just where he is. Of course, I him by means of the settings, but I'm I wouldn't him so easily visually."
"Say! You sure are a one to pilot an in space!" Wade in horror. "I think we ought to him for that! Imagine! He plans a of a thousand light years, and then us out seven light years and says he doesn't know where he is! Doesn't know where home is! I'm we have a man like Morey along." He his sadly.
They took a series of six plates of the sun, using different magnifications.
"These plates will help prove our story, too," said Morey as he looked at the plates. "We might have gone only a little way into space, up from the plane of the and taken plates through a wide camera. But we'd have had to go at least seven years into the past to a picture like this."
The new self-developing short-exposure plates, while not in perfect color balance, were more for this work, since they took less time on exposure.
Morey and the others joined Arcot in the room and themselves into the seats. Since the space had proved itself in the test, they they needed no more than they make from the room meters.
Arcot out at the spot that was their and said slowly: "How much than Sol is that star, Morey?"
"It all on how you measure size," Morey replied. "It is two and a times as heavy, has four times the volume, and twenty-five times as much light. In other words, one hundred of each second in that star.
"That's for Sirius A, of course. Sirius B, its companion, is a different matter; it's a white dwarf. It has only one one-hundred-twenty-five-thousandths the of Sirius A, but it one third as much. It more square than our sun, but, to its size, it is very faint. That star, though almost as as the sun, is only about the size of Earth."
"You sure have those pat!" said Fuller, laughing. "But I must say they're interesting. What's that star of, anyway? Solid metal?"
"Hardly!" Morey replied. "Lux metal has a of around 103, while this star has a so high that one of its would a on Earth."
"Wow!" Wade ejaculated. "I'd to a on my toe on that star!"
"It wouldn't you," Arcot said, smiling. "If you the thing, you ought to be to it on your toe. Remember, it would about two hundred tons! Think you it?"
"At any rate, here we go. When we there, you can out and try it."
Again came the of the start. The to about them; the spot of Sirius was a point that like an balloon, out until it a large angle.
Then again the reeled, and they were still. The room was with a of blue-white light, and an in upon them.
"Brother! Feel that heat," said Arcot in awe. "We'd watch ourselves; that thing is off of ultraviolet. We end up with third-degree if we're not careful." Suddenly he stopped and looked around in surprise. "Hey! Morey! I you said this was a star! Look over there! That's no white dwarf—it's a planet!"
"Ridiculous!" Morey. "It's for a to be in about a star! But—" He paused, bewildered. "But it is a planet! But—but it can't be! We've too many on this star to make it possible!"
"I don't give a it can or not," Wade said coolly, "the that it is. Looks as if that a whole of in that you were telling us about a star."
"I make a motion we look more closely first," said Fuller, logically.
But at the only to them more. It was most a planet, and they had a strange, of having it before.
Arcot mentioned this, and Wade into a long, of how the left and right of the brain out of step at times, a of having a thing when it was to have it previously.
Arcot gave Wade a long, and then pushed himself into the library without saying a word. A moment later, he was with a large entitled: "The Astronomy of the Nigran Invasion," by D. K. Harkness. He opened the to a full-page photograph of the third of the Black Star as taken from a space the planet. Silently, he pointed to it and to the image on the screen of the telectroscope.
"Good Lord!" said Wade in surprise. "It's impossible! We came here than light, and that got here first!"
"As you so a moment ago," Arcot pointed out, "I don't give a it can or not—it is. How they did it, I don't know, but it clear up a number of things. According to the records we found, the Nigrans had a that move from their orbits. I wonder if it couldn't be used to up a star? Also, we know their scientists were looking for a method of moving than light; if we can do it, so they. They just moved their whole of over here after of the of the white dwarf."
"Perfect!" Morey enthusiastically. "It everything."
"Except that we saw that star when we stopped there, an hour ago," said Fuller.
"Not an hour ago," Arcot contradicted. "Two years ago. We saw the light that left the it was moved. It's like traveling in time."
"If that's so," asked Fuller, worried, "what is our time in relation to Earth?"
"If we moved by the space-strain drive at all times," Arcot explained, "we would return at the same time we left. Time is on Earth as it is with us right now, but we use the space-strain, we move from one point to another as as Earth and the of the is concerned. It to take time to us we are the of the field.
"Suppose we were to take a that a week. In other words, three days traveling in space-strain, a day to look at the destination, and three more days back. When we returned to Earth, they would we had only been gone one day, the time we out of the drive. See?"
"I catch," said Fuller. "By the way, shouldn't we take some of this system? Otherwise, Earth won't the news for years yet."
"Right," Morey. "And we might as well look for the other of the Black Star, too."
They plates, their until all the had been located, old Pluto, where of Nigran were at work, of metal. The great of the Nigrans were to on the once of the planet. The of Sirius had Pluto, its and its seas. The that the Black Star had from the Solar System was than it had been for two billion years.
"Well, that's it," said Arcot when they had taking the necessary photographs. "We can prove we than light easily, now. The can take up the work of the and of the when we back.
"Since the Nigrans now have a sun of their own, there should be no for our and theirs. Perhaps we can start with them. Imagine! Commerce over of miles of space!"
"And," Wade, "they can make the to this in less time than it takes to to Venus!"
"Meanwhile," said Morey, "let's on with our own exploration."
They themselves into the seats once more and Arcot in the drive to take them away from the sun toward which they had been falling.
When the great, of Sirius had once more to a white pinhead of light, Arcot the ship until old Sol once more on the cross-hairs of the in the of the vessel.
"Hold on," Arcot cautioned, "here we go again!"
Again he the little red that a of energy into the coils. The space about them to and dim.
Arcot had more power into the this time, so the ahead of them of appearing were almost invisible; they were in the ultra-violet now. And the them, of appearing to be green, had to a red glow.
Arcot the red of Sirius dimmer. Then, suddenly, a in of them out of and off to one side.
The reeled, perking the men around in the seats. Heavy safety dully; the under a of power—then they were again. Arcot had over the power switch.
"That," he said quietly, "is not so good."
"Threw the gyroscopes, didn't it?" asked Morey, his voice as quiet.
"It did—and I have no idea how far. We're off and we don't know which direction we're headed."
