ilot as a flaring purple light sprang into
being upon his board, and the assistants came to attention at their
stations. "Seconds! Four! Three! Two! One! LIFT!" He touched a
button and a set of plunger switches drove home, releasing into the
forty-five enormous driving projectors the equilibrium power--the
fifteen-thousand-and-odd kilofranks of energy that exactly
counterbalanced the pull of gravity upon the mass of the cruiser.
Simultaneously there was added from the potentiometer, already set
to the exact figure given by the computer, the _plus_-equilibrium
power--which would not be changed throughout the journey if the ideal
acceleration curve were to be registered upon the recorders--and the
immense mass of the cruiser of the void wafted vertically upward at a
low and constant velocity. The bellowing, shrieking siren had cleared
the air magically of the swarm of aircraft in her path, and quietly,
calmly, majestically, the _Arcturus_ floated upward.

* * * * *

Breckenridge, sixty seconds after the initial lift, actuated the system
of magnetic relays which would gradually cut in the precisely measured
"starting power," which it would be necessary to employ for sixty-nine
minutes--for, without the acceleration given by this additional power,
they would lose many precious hours of time in covering merely the
few thousands of miles during which Earth's attraction would operate
powerfully against their progress.

Faster and faster the great cruiser shot upward as more and more of the
starting power was released, and heavier and heavier the passengers
felt themselves become. Soon the full calculated power was on and the
acceleration became constant. Weight no longer increased, but remained
constant at a value of plus twenty three and six-tenths percent. For a
few moments there had been uneasy stomachs among the passengers--perhaps
a few of the first-trippers had been made ill--but it was not much worse
than riding in a high-speed elevator, particularly since there was no
change from positive to negative acceleration such as is experienced in
express elevators.

The computer, his calculations complete, watched the pilot with
interest, for, accustomed as he was to traversing the depths of space,
there was a never-failing thrill to his scientific mind in the delicacy
and precision of the work which Breckenridge was doing--work which could
be done only by a man who had had long training in t