Part 14 (1/2)

Wade took it into the airlock, and a moment later into s.p.a.ce with him.

His hand molecular-driving unit pulling him, he towed the machine into place, and with some difficulty got it practically motionless with respect of the two bodies, which were now lying against each other.

”Turn it a bit, Wade, so that the _Ancient Mariner_ is just in its range,” came Arcot's thoughts. Wade did so. ”Come on back and watch the fun.”

Wade returned. Arcot and the others were busy placing a heavy emergency lead from the storeroom in the place of one of the broken leads. In five minutes they had it fixed where they wanted it.

Into the control room went Arcot, and started the power-room teleview plate. Connected into the system of view plates, the scene was visible now on all the plates in the s.h.i.+p. Well off to one side of the room, prepared for such emergencies, and equipped with individual power storage coils that would run it for several days, the view plate functioned smoothly.

”Now, we are ready,” said Arcot. The Talsonian proved he understood Arcot's intentions by preceding him to the laboratory.

Arcot had two viewplates operating here. One was covering the scene as shown by the machine outside, and the other showed the power room.

Arcot stepped over to the artificial-matter machine, and worked swiftly on it. In a moment the power from the storage coils of the s.h.i.+p was flowing through the new cable, and into the machine. A huge ring appeared about the nose of the Thessian s.h.i.+p, fitting snugly over it. A terrific wrench--and it was free of the _Ancient Mariner_. The ring contracted and formed a chunk of the stuff free of the broken nose of the s.h.i.+p.

It was carried over to the wall of the _Ancient Mariner_, a smaller piece snipped off as before, and carried inside. A piece of perhaps half a ton ma.s.s. ”I hope they use good stuff,” grinned Arcot. The piece was deposited on the floor of the s.h.i.+p, and a disc formed of artificial matter plugged the hole in its side. Another took a piece of the relux from the broken Thessian s.h.i.+p, pushed it into the hole on the s.h.i.+p. The s.p.a.ce about the scene of operation was a crackling inferno of energy breaking down into heat and light. Arcot dematerialized his tremendous tools, and the wall of the _Ancient Mariner_ was neatly patched with relux smoothed over as perfectly as before. A second time, using some of the relux he had brought within the s.h.i.+p, and the inner wall was rebuilt. The job was absolutely perfect, save that now, where there had been lux, there was an outer wall of relux.

The main generator was crumpled up, and torn out. The auxiliary generators would have to carry the load. The great cables were swiftly repaired in the same manner, a perfect cylinder forming about them, and a piece of relux from the store Arcot had sliced from the enemy s.h.i.+p, welding them perfectly under enormous pressure, pressure that made them flow perfectly into one another as heat alone could not.

In less than half an hour the s.h.i.+p was patched up, the power room generally repaired, save for a few minor things that had to be replaced from the stores. The main generator was gone, but that was not an essential. The door was straightened and the job done.

In an hour they were ready to proceed.

Chapter XIV

INTERGALACTIC s.p.a.cE

”Well, Sirius has retreated a bit,” observed Arcot. The star was indeed several trillions of miles away. Evidently they had not been motionless as they had thought, but the interference of the Thessian s.h.i.+p had thrown their machine off.

”Shall we go back, or go on?” asked Morey.

”The s.h.i.+p works. Why return?” asked Wade. ”I vote we go on.”

”Seconded,” added Arcot.

”If they who know most of the s.h.i.+p vote for a continuance of the journey, then a.s.suredly we who know so little can only abide by their judgment. Let us continue,” said Zezdon Afthen gravely.

s.p.a.ce was suddenly black about them. Sirius was gone, all the jewels of the heavens were gone in the black of swift flight. Ten seconds later Arcot lowered the s.p.a.ce-control. Black behind them the night of s.p.a.ce was p.r.i.c.ked by points of light, the infinite mult.i.tude of the stars.

Before them lay--nothing. The utter emptiness of s.p.a.ce between the galaxies.

”Thlek Styrs! What happened?” asked Morey in amazement, his pet Venerian phrase rolling out in his astonishment.

”Tried an experiment, and it was overly successful,” replied Arcot, a worried look on his face. ”I tried combining the Thessian high speed _time_ distortion with our high _speed_ s.p.a.ce distortion--both on low power. 'There ain't no sich animals,' as the old agriculturist remarked of the giraffe. G.o.d knows what speed we hit, but it was plenty. We must be ten thousand light years beyond the galaxy.”

”That's a fine way to start the trip. You have the old star maps to get back however, have you not?” asked Wade.

”Yes, the maps we made on our first trip out this way are in the cabinet. Look 'em up, will you, and see how far we have to go before we reach the cosmic fields?”

Arcot was busy with his instruments, making a more accurate determination of their distance from the ”edge” of the galaxy. He adopted the figure of twelve thousand five hundred light years as the probable best result. Wade was back in a moment with the information that the fields lay about sixteen thousand light years out. Arcot went on, at a rate that would reach the fields in two hours.