suddenly find yourself sitting in the pilot's chair at seven thousand gravities."

Sandra shuddered.

"Oh, and look, since you've got the compensator. You'll find a static-charge meter handy, perhaps. If there are planets around Sirius, who knows what their intrinsic charge is. We'll loan you one so that you can make planet without making a corona at the same time. Rarefied air makes pretty lights when it comes under a few trillion volts—and being a cathode is no worse than being an anode when your voltage is running up into a bushel of zeroes—either is equally disconcerting. How do you intend to spot any planets?"

"I've got a pair of hemisphere lenses. I'll sail through the Sirian sky at about forty thousand miles per second and expose for ten minutes. The stars will still appear as spots, but anything close enough to be planet-wise will make streaks unless it is dead ahead.

"In which case you'll see it personally," grinned McBride. "That's the best stunt I've heard of yet to find planets."

"It isn't new. They used it to see if there were any planets outside of Pluto several years ago, though they exposed for several hours while running at ten or fifteen thousand. Steve has a pair of hemis with him, too."

Al came trudging in with a roll of alphon cable over his shoulder and dropped it on the floor. "She's in—my end, anyway."

"Running already?"

"On test power. Drake had the bi-lobar field almost on the ball. Westy found about the same thing. I think another couple of days and Drake wouldn't have needed help."

"I couldn't make it work," complained Sandra.

"Well, you missed a few minor points," said Al. "Never, never run alphon lines anywhere near a relay rack. It induces crosscurrents in the windings and either makes 'em more sensitive or almost dead, depending on the polarity. It won't hurt AC relays, but they aren't used too much on a space-ship, so it's best to play safe."

"I'll remember that, too," Sandra promised him.

"O.K."

And so an hour passed, and another one added to it before the Lady Luck was fitted for super drive. It was finished, then, and Sandra Drake was more than voluble in her 

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