Through the windows, the ship seemed enveloped by a halo of dim light, the force-screens that repelled radiations of heat.

But when Carlin stumbled with Jonny into the pilot room, they were half blinded even through the screens by the fierce, blazing glare from ahead.

Half the sky ahead was Sun, a gigantic abyss of roaring flame that crushed the mind by its magnitude. All directions of space seemed canceled, and they were falling, falling, into an inferno of fire.

Harb turned a sweating face. "We'll cut off to orbit in less than an hour," he informed.

Ross Floring spoke from the chair in which he was tied, and in which he had come back into consciousness.

"Jonny, I've been waiting for you! Harb wouldn't listen to me. You've got to turn back!"

Jonny shook his head. "No use, Ross, I know you're only doing your duty. And I'm sorry to drag you into this danger. But we're not stopping now."

"But you'll never get there!" Floring exclaimed. "Control cruisers must already be after you. They'll have found out where I am by now."

"Empty threats!" Harb jeered. "They can't know where he is."

"Jonny, look at my badge!" cried Floring. "See the tiny radio bulb in the back of it? It's a 'finder' by which any Control officer can be located at any distance. When I didn't report back, they'd use it to spot me out here."

"If that's true," said Jonny Land, his thin face suddenly haggard, "they'll be after us by now. Harb, cut the communic back in!"

Harb obeyed. Roar of static from the gigantic orb ahead was a dull background to the sharp voice that came from the instrument.

"Control Operations squadron four hundred thirty-three nine calling 'Phoenix!' Last warning! We are overhauling you and will shell you unless you turn and surrender."

Startled, Harb Land jabbed a button and twisted the knob of the visor-screen. The far-seeing eye quartered space behind them, and then the black space scene held steady. There against the stars came a little pattern of four tiny triangles of light. Triangles—galaxy-wide sign of Control.

"By heaven, they actually have come after us!" cried Harb. "Jonny, they're only minutes behind us and pulling up fast!"

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