coils of darkness threaded through it. It loomed larger and larger until it
filled the screen.

"Ragnarok," Gunnar growled in his throat. He adjusted the shoulder strap
that harnessed his broadsword to his back and looked at Odin curiously.

"You should have rest, Nors-King. You look gaunt and tired--but stronger
too. I wonder if I have changed as much as you since we started this trip.
Eh, Nors-King," he chuckled, "if you had but one eye, I would swear that
you were old Odin himself, rushing out to the edge of space to start that
last bonfire of suns."

"Quiet," Nea pleaded as she worked with the calculator. "So far this has
defied computation. It's unstable, Ato. Before I can identify it, a factor
is added or taken away."

"Grim Hagen went in there," Ato replied as he studied his instruments. "If
he can, we can."

"Perhaps," she answered. "But space out there is curdling in his wake." She
shivered. Nea's shoulders were beautifully shaped, and Odin found himself
thinking that they were made for a man's arms instead of bending over
calculators and machines.

"Oh, well!" he thought. "They are not for my arms, but why doesn't Ato wake
up and claim her? Then there wouldn't be distractions like this--"

With one warning blare, The Nebula plunged into the fringe of the
dust-cloud.

The boat rocked. A spattering sound like the falling of heavy sleet filled
the control room. Needles jumped and wheeled. Dials turned madly, spun back
and forth, and jammed.

The lights flickered on and off. For a time they were in darkness. Then the
lights came back, but continued their flickering. The screens were dark.

Nea worked with the instruments. When power enough was available she began
probing the dust-cloud as though nothing had happened. Then she fed more
figures into the calculator and handed the result to Ato.

"Try this," she said in a tremulous voice. "It may work."

Ato took the tape from her hands and set the controls accordingly.

The lights dimmed again--came on--and remained steady. The expanses of dim
yellow light through which coils and ellipses of darkness crawled like
black worms.

Odin knew that such a feeling was impossible out here, but it seemed to him
that The Nebula leaped forward.

Ato cried out in triumph. "I've got another fix on Grim Hagen. He's much
nearer now."

"Hurry, Ato. Hurry," Nea was pleading.

They drove on and on. The screens remained as before. Yellow light and
crawling shadows.