must be in disorder. He lifted his head before turning back to go on deck and give the necessary orders, heard the yaw of the ship beneath him as it swung a few degrees to get back in position. He smiled, issuing a self-reprimand for taking it upon himself even in thought, to correct the proper captain of the ship. An admiral, after all, was merely a guest on the flagship.

Lightning played through the clouds above him and he watched it, listening for the rumble of thunder that would inevitably follow. It sounded like the man-made thunder that was sure to roar and rumble on the morrow. Even the gods....

Suddenly, the whole sky seemed to light up in a blinding, terrifying glare. He thought it must have struck the ship, as his frail body was picked up and tossed through the air like a wisp of straw. And then his senses failed him and he no longer saw anything at all....

When he recovered consciousness he was lying in a corridor so strange that it might well have been heaven or hell. It was definitely not of any world he knew.

It was shining white and utterly bare of decoration. Light came from curious glowing rods set at intervals where wall and ceiling met. The floor, of some curious composition substance, was hard beneath his sorely bruised body.

Silently he cursed to himself, aware only with the ingrained habit of years of stern discipline, that he was not on his ship when he was needed most. Not until he had managed to stand upright by supporting himself against the wall did he reflect that he might no longer have a ship or a fleet to be needed upon.

He was surely the victim of some inexplicable catastrophe. Standing unaided, he rubbed his aching forehead.

Then, because to stand still was not in his nature, he began to walk along the corridor. He ignored the round-cornered doors, painted white like the walls, that appeared at intervals. At the end of the passage was a companionway and its steps offered escape, or at least observation.

Slowly he climbed it and then another stairway and nowhere did man appear to stop his progress or to offer information as to his whereabouts. Beneath the white paint the wall was hard, unyielding, metallic to the touch of his left hand. He climbed still another companionway, came to an open door and entered it.

He was in a medium-sized, square chamber, furnished with strange chairs and tables of 

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