Strike turned to Ivy Hendricks. "Well, Captain Hendricks, this is some gadget you have dreamed up out of your Project Warp," he breathed shakily. "At least the fat's out of the fire for the time being...."

Ivy looked out of the port and back with a shudder. "I hope so, Strike. I hope so."

They fell silent, seeking comfort in each other's presence.

The second-order drive repaired, Old Aphrodisiac moved out through the alien space toward the spot where 40 Eridani C existed on the other side of the barrier.

The ship's tactical astrophysicist brought in some disturbing reports on the stars that shone brightly all around her. They fitted the accepted classifications in all particulars ... except one. And that one had the scientist tearing his hair. The mass of every observable body except the ship herself was practically non-existent. Even the two planetary systems discovered by the electron telescope flouted their impossible lack of mass.

Ivy suggested that since the Cleopatra and her crew were no part of this alien cosmos, no prime-space instruments could detect the errant mass. Like a microscopic bull in a gargantuan china shop, the Tellurian warship existed under a completely different set of physical laws than did the heavenly bodies of this strange space.

It was pure conjecture, but it seemed well supported by the observable facts. The hull continued to glow with its unnatural witchfire, and soon disturbing reports were coming in from the Damage Control section that the thickness of the outer hull was actually being reduced. The rate was slow, and there was no immediate danger, but it was nevertheless unnerving to realize that Lover-Girl was being dissolved by something. Also, the outside Geigs recorded a phenomenal amount of short radiation emanating from the ship herself. The insulation kept most of it from penetrating, but tests showed that the strange radiation's source was the glow that clung stubbornly to the spacer's skin.

A tense week passed and then the ship neared the spot where a change over to prime-space could be effected. According to Bayne's calculations, 40 Eridani C would be within 40,000,000 miles of them when the ship emerged from hyper space.

And then the Radar section picked up the planetoids. Millions of them, large and small, lay in a globular cluster dead ahead. They spread out in all directions for more than half a parsec ... dull, rocky little 

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