LITMIR.BIZ

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      There had been a day when men had maintained one couldn’t go faster than light. Also, men had claimed that it would be impossible to force nature to give up the secret of material energy. But here they were, speeding along faster than light, their engines roaring with the power of material energy.

      They were plowing a new space road, staking out a new path across the deserts of space, pioneering far beyond the ‘last frontier.’

      Greg’s steps sounded across the room. “We’ve gone a long way, Russ. Maybe we better begin to slow down a bit.”

      “Yes,” agreed Russ. He leaned forward and grasped the controls. “We’ll slow down now,” he said.

      Sudden silence smote the ship. Their ears, accustomed for days to the throaty roarings of the engines, rang with the torture of no sound.

      Long minutes and then new sounds began to be heard ... the soft humming of the single engine that provided power for the interior apparatus and the maintenance of the outer screens.

      “Soon as we slow down below the speed of light,” said Greg, “we’ll throw the televisor on Craven’s ship and learn what we can about his apparatus. No use trying it now, for we couldn’t use it, because we’re in the same space condition it uses in normal operation.”

      “In fact,” laughed Russ, “we can’t do much of anything except move. Energies simply can’t pass through this space we’re in. We’re marooned.”

      Greg sat down in a chair, gazed solemnly at Russ.

      “Just what was our top speed?” he demanded.

      Russ grinned. “Ten thousand times the speed of light,” he said.

      Greg whistled soundlessly. “A long way from home.”

      *

      Far away, the stars were tiny pinpoints, like little crystals shining by the reflection of a light. Pinpoints of light and shimmering masses of lacy silver ... star dust that seemed ghostly and strange, but was in reality the massing of many million mighty stars. And great empty black spaces where there was not a single light, where the dark went on and on and did not stop.

      Greg exhaled his breath softly. “Well, we’re here.”

      “Wherever that might be,” amended Russ.

      There were no familiar constellations, not a single familiar star. Every sign post of the space they had known was wiped out.

      “There really aren’t any brilliant stars,” said Russ. “None at all. We must be in a sort of hole in space, a place that’s relatively empty of any stars.”

      Greg nodded soberly. “Good thing we have those mechanical shadows. Without them we’d never find our way back home. But we have several that will lead us back.”

      Outside the vision panel, they could see Craven’s ship. Freed now of the space field, it was floating slowly, still under the grip of the momentum they had built up in their dash across space. It was so close that they could see the lettering across its bow.

      “So they call it the Interplanetarian,” said Russ.

      Greg nodded. “Guess it’s about time we talk to them. I’m afraid they’re getting pretty nervous.”

      *

      “Do you have any idea where we are?” demanded Ludwig Stutsman.

      Craven shook his head. “No more idea than you have. Manning snaked us across billions of miles, clear out of the Solar System into interstellar space. Take a look at those stars and you get some idea.”

      Spencer Chambers stroked his gray mustache, asked calmly: “What do you figure our chances are of getting back?”

      “That’s something we’ll know more about later,” said Craven. “Doesn’t look too bright right now. I’m not worrying about that. What I’m wondering about is what Manning and Page are going to do now that they have us out here.”

      “I thought you’d be,” said a voice that came out of clear air.

      They stared at the place from which the voice had seemed to come. There was a slight refraction in the air; then, swiftly, a man took shape. It was Manning. He stood before them, smiling.

      “Hello, Manning,” said Craven. “I figured you’d pay us a call when you got around to it.”

      “Look here,” snarled Stutsman, but he stopped when Chambers’ hand fell upon his shoulder, gripped it hard.

      “Got plenty of air?” asked Greg.

      “Air? Sure. Atmosphere machines working perfectly,” Craven replied.

      “Fine,” said Greg. “How about food and water? Plenty of both?”

      “Plenty,” said Craven.

      “Look here, Manning,” broke in Chambers, “where’s all this questioning leading? What have you got up your sleeve?”

      “Just wanted to be sure,” Greg told him. “Would hate to have you fellows starve on me, or go thirsty. Wouldn’t want to come back and find you all dead.”

      “Come back?” asked Chambers wonderingly. “I’m afraid I don’t understand. Is this a joke of some sort?”

      “No joke,” said Greg grimly. “I thought you might have guessed. I’m going to leave you here.”

      “Leave us here?” roared Stutsman.

      “Keep your shirt on,” snapped Greg. “Just for a while, until we can go back to the Solar System and finish a little job we’re doing. Then we’ll come back and get you.”

      Craven grimaced. “I thought it would be something like that.” He squinted at Manning through the thick lenses. “You never miss a bet, do you?”

      Greg laughed. “I try not to.”

      A little silence fell upon the three men and Manning’s image.

      Greg broke it. “How about your energy collector?” he asked Craven. “Will it maintain the ship out here? You get cosmic rays. Not too much else, I’m afraid.”

      Craven grinned wryly. “You’re right, but we can get along. The accumulators are practically drained, though, and we won’t be able to store anything. Would you mind shooting us over just a little power? Enough to charge the accumulators a little for emergency use.”

      He looked over his shoulder, almost apprehensively.

      “There might be an emergency out here, you know. Nobody knows anything about this place.”

      “I’ll give you a little power,” Greg agreed.

      “Thank you very much,” said Craven, half in mockery. “No doubt you think yourself quite smart, Manning, getting us out here. You know you have us stranded, that we can’t collect more than enough power to live on.”

      “That’s why I did it,” Greg said, and vanished.

      Chapter Nineteen

      Craven watched the Invincible gather speed and tear swiftly through the black, saw it grow tiny and then disappear entirely, either swallowed by the distance or snapping into the strange super-space that existed beyond the speed of light.

      He turned from the window, chuckling.

      Stutsman snarled at him: “What’s so funny?”

      The scientist glared at the wolfish face and without speaking, walked to the desk and sat down. He reached for pencil and paper.

      Chambers walked over to watch him.

      “You’ve found something, Doctor,” he said quietly.

      Craven laughed, throatily. “Yes,

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