Part 4 (2/2)

General Hotchkiss, ”What's he saying, Melrose?”

Melrose, ”Doesn't answer.”

General Eaton, ”Try again.”

Melrose, ”Yes sir.”

General Hotchkiss, ”What's he saying, Melrose?”

General Eaton, ”Still nothing?”

Melrose, ”Nothing.”

General Hotchkiss, ”Dammit, you've still got him on radar, haven't you?”

Melrose, ”Yes sir.”

General Hotchkiss, ”Well, dammit, what's he doing?”

Melrose, ”Still going up, sir.”

General Eaton, ”How far up?”

Melrose, ”Signal takes sixty seconds to get back, sir.”

General Hotchkiss, ”G.o.d in heaven! One hundred and twenty thousand miles out! Halfway to the moon. How much more fuel has he?”

Melrose, ”Five seconds, sir. Then the auto-switch cuts in. Power will go off until he nears atmosphere again. After that, if he isn't conscious--well, I'm awfully afraid we've lost another s.h.i.+p.”

General Eaton, ”Cold blooded--”

The purple drapes before my eyes were wavering. Hung like rippled steel pieces of a caisson suspended by a perilously thin whisper of thread, they swayed, hesitated, shuddered their entire length, then began to bend in the middle from the combined weights of thirteen galaxies. The bend became a cracking bulge that in another second would explode destruction directly into my face. I screamed.

”Is--is that you, Anders?”

I screamed good this time.

”An--Anders! You all right? What happened? I couldn't get through to you?”

I took my hand from the accelerator control and stared numbly at it.

The mark of it was deep in the skin. I sucked in oxygen.

”_Anders!_ Your power is off. When you hear the signal you've got just three more seconds. You know what to do then. You've been out of the envelope, Anders! You broke through the atmosphere!”

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