"What's the matter?" asked Fuller anxiously.
Arcot pointed out the window at a red star that in the distance. "We got too near the of of that and he us for a loss. We out three-fourths of the energy from our and our in the bargain. The the and the ship out of line, so we no longer know where the sun is.
"Well, come on, Morey; all we can do is start a search. At this distance, we'd best go by Sirius; it's and nearer." He looked at the panel. "I was using the next power and I still couldn't avoid that monster. This ship is just a little too to handle."
Their position was anything but pleasant. They must out from the star them the one star that was home, not where it was. But they had one help—the of the star around Sol that they had taken at the last stop. All they had to do was search for an area that matched their photographs.
They the sun at last, after they had Sirius, but they had had to the ship through nearly twenty-five to do it. After their bearings, they took new for their files.
Meanwhile, Wade had been the coils. When he was finished, he reported the to Arcot.
"Fine," Arcot said. "And from now on, I'm going to use the least possible amount of power. It isn't safe to use more."
They started for the room, much relieved. Arcot first, with Wade directly him. Wade to go into his room and stopped himself by a handhold. Morey, close behind, into him and was to rest, while Wade was pushed into his room.
But Fuller, last, into Morey, who moved with new toward the room, Fuller at in the middle of the corridor.
"Hey, Morey!" he laughed. "Send me a skyhook! I'm caught!" Isolated as he was in the middle of the corridor, he couldn't push on anything and stranded.
"Go to sleep!" Morey. "It's the most you'll find!"
Wade looked out of his room just then. "Well, if it isn't old Weakmuscles Fuller! Weighs nothing and is still so weak he can't push himself around."
"Come on, though, Morey—give me a hand—I got you off center." Fuller his hand helplessly.
"Use your brains, if you have any," said Morey, "and see what you can do. Come on, Wade—we're going."
Since they were going to use the space control, they would in free fall, and Fuller would in mid-air.
The air of the ship with energy as the space around them gray; then the were all them. The ship was moving again.
"Well, old pals," said Fuller, "at least I have traffic well if I like it, so you'd have to help me. However—" He as he one of his foam-rubber space-boots, "—my tell me that action is equal and opposite to reaction!" And he the with all possible toward Morey!
The of the motion him slowly but surely to a in the wall.
In the meantime, the Morey in the with a smack! as he to avoid it. Handicapped by the of friction, his arms were not powerful to move his as as his might have done, for his was as great as ever, so he didn't succeed in ducking.
"Round one!" called Arcot, laughing. "Won by Kid Fuller on a TKO! It he has and how to use them!"
"You win," laughed Morey. "I the battle!"
Arcot had cut off the space-strain drive by the time Fuller the room, and the men set about making more observations. They took additional and on the drive again.
Time passed after they had a stars. There was little difference; each was but a of matter. There was little in this work, and, as Fuller remarked, this was to be a of exploration, not observation. They weren't astronomers; they were on a vacation. Why all the hard work? They couldn't do as good a job as an astronomer, so they to limit their to those necessary to their path to Earth.
"But we want to for to land on, don't we?" asked Morey.
"Sure," Fuller. "But do we have to at for them? Can't we look for like our own sun? Won't they be more to have like Sol's?"
"It's an idea," Morey.
"Well, why not try it then?" Fuller logically. "Let's out a G-0 type sun and for it."
They were now well out toward the of the Galaxy, some thirty thousand light years from home. Since they had originally out along the narrow of the lens-shaped of that our Island Universe, they would the soon.
"We won't have much of a G-0 this out," Arcot pointed out. "We're about out of stars. We've left most of the Galaxy us."
"Then let's go on to another of the nebulae," said Morey, looking out into the almost night of space. Only here and there they see a star, from its nearest neighbor by thousands of light years of empty space.
"You know," said Wade slowly, "I've been about the progress along scientific lines that a out here might make. I mean, that one of those had planets, and life on one of those planets. I think their progress would be much slower."
"I see what you mean," Arcot said. "To us, of Earth, the are a light years away. They're of nature, with reading attached, in the sky for us to watch. We have learned more about space from the than all the of the physicists of Earth for us. It was in the of the that we the of of the about their nuclei."
"Couldn't they have their own sun?" Fuller asked.
"Sure, but what they it with? They couldn't see a white from here. They couldn't measure the parallax to the nearest star, so they would have no idea of distances. They wouldn't know how S Doradus was. Or how Van Maanen's star was."
"Then," Fuller said speculatively, "they'd have to wait until one of their scientists the telectroscope."
Arcot his head. "Without a knowledge of physics, the of the is impossible. The of opportunity to watch the that might teach them something would their knowledge of structure. They might learn a great about and Newtonian physics, and go a with math, but there they would be handicapped. Morey, for instance, would have the calculus, to say nothing of and calculus, which were two hundred years ago, without the knowledge of the problems of space to the need. I'm such a would be a us in science.
"Suppose, on the other hand, we visit a that's ahead of us. We'd not there long; think what they might do to us. They might decide our ship was too and us out. Or they might be so that we would nothing to them at all—like or little babies." Arcot laughed at the thought.
"That isn't a very picture," Fuller. "With the we've made, there just isn't that much left to be able to say we're so little."
"Fuller, I'm at you!" Arcot said. "Today, we are only opening our on the world of science. Our has only a thousand years it and hundreds of millions yet to come. How can any man of today, with his freshly-opened of science, take in the of knowledge that will be up in those long, long years of the future? It's too to grasp; we can't the that the ever-expanding mind of man will discover."
Arcot's voice slowed, and a far-off look came in his eyes.
"You might say there can be no energy than that of annihilation. I that. I have of something new—an energy so vast—so tremendous—that it me. The of all the of all the galaxies—of the whole cosmos—in the hand of man! The energy of a billion billion billion suns! And every sun out its energy at the of of every instant!
"But it's too great for man to have—I am going to it, man be by his own might."
Arcot's speech told of his thought—of a of such as man had conceived. His looked at the black of space with its few, stars.
"But we're here to decide which way to go," he added with a as he his shoulders. "Every now and then, I a new idea and I—I of dream. That's when I'm most likely to see the solution. I think I know the now, but unless the need arises, I'm going to use it. It's too a toy."
There was for a moment, then Morey said, quietly:
"I've got a plotted for us. We'll this Galaxy at a angle—about forty-five from the Galactic plane—to give us a good view of our own Galaxy. And we can for one of the in that area. What do you say?"
"I say," Fuller, "that some of the great without to have into my own self. It's been thirty thousand years since I am going to have a this morning—whatever it is I mean—and I want another." He looked at Wade, the official cook of the expedition.
Arcot out laughing. "So that's what I've been wanting!" It had been ten hours since they had eaten, but since they had been light, they were now thirty thousand years in Earth's past.
The of free makes it difficult to familiar sensations, and the of is one of them. There was little work to be done, so there was no great need for nourishment, but the ordinary of is not by of nourishment, but an empty stomach.
Sleep was another problem. A will not permit a brain to sleep, and though they had done a great of hard work, the of physical sleep difficult. The "day" in space was hours, with thirty-hour and ten hours of sleep.
"Let's eat, then," Arcot decided. "Afterwards, we'll take a and then this ship into high and make time."
Two hours later, they were again seated at the board. Arcot out and the red switch. "I'm going to give her power for ten seconds." The air about them with power—then it was gone as the charged.
"Lucky we those relays," Arcot muttered. The of set up a magnetic that and and, as Wade to his disgust, stopped that were not shielded.
Space was black about them now; there wasn't the hint of light. The ten that Arcot had allowed slowly. Then at last came the of the relays; the into the coils, and space normal again. They were alone in the blackness.
Morey for the observatory. Before them, there was little to see; the of millions of light years away was visible to the eye, despite the of space.
Behind them, like a horizon, they saw the of the Galaxy for the time as free observers.
Morey to make calculations of the they had come by the in of the Galaxy.
Arcot into the room after him and as Morey his and to work with pencil and paper. "What do you make?" Arcot asked.
"Mmmmm. Let's see." Morey a moment with his rule. "We good time! Twenty-nine light years in ten seconds! You had it on at power—the goes up as the of the power—doubling the power, then, us eight times the velocity—Hmmmmmm." He the and the over a bit. "We can make ten light years in a little less than five days at full power.
"But I we make another stop in six hours. That will put us about five radii, or a light years from the Galaxy. We'll need to take some more to help us our steps to Earth."
"All right, Morey," Arcot agreed. "It's up to you. Get your photos here and we'll go on. By the way, I think you ought to watch the in the power room; this will be our test at full power. We we'd make twenty light years second, and it looks as if it's going to be closer to twenty-four."
A minutes later, Arcot seated himself at the and on the to the power room. "All ready, Morey? I just to think—it might be a good idea to out our now and start toward it."
"Let's wait," Morey. "We can't make a very choice at this distance, anyway; we're the power range of the here. In another light years, we'll have a much view, and that won't take us much out of our way."
"Wait a minute," said Fuller. "You say we're the range of the telectroscope. Then why would a light years out of ten make that much difference?"
"Because of the limit of in the tubes," Arcot replied. "You can only have so many of amplification; after that, you're noise. The whole of the on emission; if you too much amplification, you can every single the plate of the by the time the thing the last stage! In other words, if your is than the minimum noise level on the stage, no amount of will give you anything but more noise.
"The same is true of the image. At this distance, the light from those is than the noise level. We'd only a flickering, image. But if we go on another light years, the light from the nearer will be than the noise level, and full will give us a good image on the screen."
Fuller nodded. "Okay, then let's go that additional light years. I want to take a look at another galaxy."
"Right." Arcot to the intercom. "Ready, Morey?"
"Anytime you are."
"Here goes!" said Arcot. He pushed over the little red control.
At full power, the air with the of energy and actually in with the energy of the charge. There were little in the air, which, though electrically, were to give burns, as Wade to his sorrow.
"Yike! Say, why didn't you tell us to rods?" he asked as a small its way over his hand.
"Sorry," Arcot, "but most people know to out of the way of those things. Seriously, though, I didn't think the would be so slow to adjust. You see, when we up our light-rate field, other are affected. We some gravity, some magnetic, and some distortion, too. You can see what when they don't their energy into the coil.
"But we're with the instruments; the alone!"
Morey was calling for tests. Although the ship to be perfectly, he wanted check to make sure the were not being burned, which would keep them from properly. By the around each relay, Arcot them one by one.
It was just as they had the last one that Fuller yelled.
"Hey! Look!" He pointed out the in the of the ship.
Far off to their left and to their right, they saw two ships paralleling their course. They were shining, ships, their long, with white light. They to be moving at the same speed, to the of the Ancient Mariner. They the ship like an official guard, despite the of the Earthmen's ship.
Arcot in amazement, his in wonder. Morey, who had come up from the power room, in equal wonder.
Quickly, Wade and Fuller into the seats. Their long with the had them shots, and they had been long as the ship's official operators.
"Lord," Morey as he looked at the ships, "where can they have come from?"