on
it fast. But ... but what's a _skyscraper_ skeleton doing out here in
interstellar space?"

As they closed up, everyone could see that the thing did indeed look
like the metallic skeleton of a great building. It was a huge cube,
measuring well over a hundred yards along each edge. And it was empty.

"_That's_ one for the book," Sawtelle said.

"And how!" Hilton agreed. "I'll take a boat ... no, suits would be
better. Karns, Yarborough, get Techs Leeds and Miller and suit up."

"You'll need a boat escort," Sawtelle said. "Mr. Ashley, execute escort
Landing Craft One, Two, and Three."

The three landing craft approached that enigmatic lattice-work of
structural steel and stopped. Five grotesquely armored figures wafted
themselves forward on pencils of force. Their leader, whose suit bore
the number "14", reached a mammoth girder and worked his way along it up
to a peculiar-looking bulge. The whole immense structure vanished,
leaving men and boats in empty space.

Sawtelle gasped. "Snowden! Are you holding 'em?"

"No, sir. Faster than light; hyperspace, sir."

"Mr. Ashby, did you have your interspace rigs set?"

"No, sir. I didn't think of it, sir."

"Doctor Cummings, why weren't yours out?"

"I didn't think of such a thing, either--any more than you did," Sandra
said.

Ashby, the Communications Officer, had been working the radio. "No reply
from anyone, sir," he reported.

"Oh, no!" Sandra exclaimed. Then, "But look! They're firing
pistols--especially the one wearing number fourteen--but _pistols_?"

"Recoil pistols--sixty-threes--for emergency use in case of power
failure," Ashby explained. "That's it ... but I can't see why _all_
their power went out at once. But Fourteen--that's Hilton--is really
doing a job with that sixty-three. He'll be here in a couple of
minutes."

And he was. "Every power unit out there--suits and boats both--drained,"
Hilton reported. "_Completely_ drained. Get some help out there fast!"

* * * * *

In an enormous structure deep below the surface of a far-distant world a
group of technicians clustered together in front of one section of a
two-miles long control board. They were staring at a light that had just
appeared where no light should have been.

"Someone's brain-pan will be burned out for this," one of the group
radiated harshly. "That unit was inactivated long ago and it has not
been reactivated."

"Someone committed an error, Yo