Islands of Space

hostile movement. There was a long, tense moment, then somet

into sudde

hing so hard it was almost impossible to underst

Helplessly, Wade and Fuller looked at them, then at each other. Then, suddenly,

ew it had something to do with the mysterious ships, so he looked closely at them in hopes that he would get the point, t

explained, wiping his eyes. "Four big, bra

hundreds of millions of years to travel all the way around the Universe and return to its point of origin. Theoretically, it would be possible to pho

s a fraction of a second for light to make the trip. It has

lly done ourselves in! The ray beam wo

those ghosts all the way? There goes the spirit 'nine fathoms deep' which moves t

rs with exasperating slowness. The six hours that were to elapse before the first stop seemed as many days. They had thought of this trip as a wonderful adventure in itself, but

s not going to be good for his little crew an

oratory and looked for

! Come on down here! I've

one of the flying suits he had designed. He had taken the lux me

But I wonder if we might install protection against mechanical injury-with intent to damage aforethought! In other words, why

e, "provided you can f

hing but a few tuning devices, really, and

e replaced some of the old induction coils with one of his ne

ly, it was so

ad almost elapsed before they realized it. In a very short time,

controlled the titanic energies of the huge co

away from them at terrific speed as the space in which the ship was enclosed opened

flying about in the atmosphere of the ship, Arcot cut the

the observatory and look

shining disc made up of myriads of glowing points. And it didn't seem to be a huge thin

a tiny thing that floated close behind them, unwavering, shining with a faint light, a heatless illumination that made everything in the darkened observatory glow very faintly.

utiful thing, that tiny

o the cameras and be

r, "but that would require a direct shot through the reflector tele

s three quintillion miles away. We're not moving fast enough to cause any measurable contraction in a time exposure. As

r measurements from the individual stars. This he found impossible. Although he could spot Betelgeuse and Antares be

S Doradus in the Lesser Magellanic Cloud, one of the two clo

se to calculate the distance. The distances checked. Th

re made, they swung the ship on its axi

nearer than the rest. It seemed to be a young Island Universe, for there was still a vast cloud of gas and dust from which stars

sked Arcot at last, as More

s any-there are more stars the

hen, her

e Morey shut off the telectroscope and

energy-another-the ship leaped forward at tremendous speed-still greater-then they w

room just as Arcot, Wade, and Fuller w

out five days away. I suggest we stop at the end of four day

there will be three of us awake at all times. I'll turn in

eantime the three on duty w

the end of ten hours, much to his disappointment. He tested it, then cast about

ished his, which took another quarter

wn below. Fuller had come up, looking for something to

he Ancient Mariner gave a violent leap, and the men, not expectin

the blow. Wade, asleep in bed, was awakened violently by the shoc

urled violently about; the air was shot through with great burning sparks; the snapping hiss of electricity was everywhere, and every pointed metal object

now above, now below, and now to one side of him as the wildly variable acceleration shook th

m, the relays were cras

d himself into the control chair and strapped himself dow

rcot yelled. "HI

shot the heavy relux screens

ant, the flames of the burning sparks flared up and died. The ship cavorted madly, shaking mightily in th

ined; the circuit was broken. He shifted in the molecular drive, push

s. They lived only because the forces did not try to turn the ship more violently, not b

y one not twisted far out of its original position; w

strength-sapping strain of working under four gravities of acceleration, they managed to get the auxiliary power unit into opera

d, and Wade checked the relays to m

r room carrying three space-suits. He had stopped in the lab to get the power belts

bucking ship forced its way thr

hen the ship was moving more smoothly, and

pace-strain drive yet?" Arco

Morey crie

The ship was suddenly supercharged with energy. It jarred suddenly-then was quiet. He allow

ot, things are really busted up down here!

y instrument on the ship

maller relays had burned out completely, and several of the power

nergy at a terrific rate; without further

"Well, boys, we'd better get to work. We're st