Then, suddenly, the screens were filled with dancing
circles of flame. They blazed brightly, and thrust out little fiery arms
and took their neighbors' hands. They danced. They gleamed and glistened.
They became circles of flame. They grew toward each other and ran together
into little puddles of light.

"Ato. Hurry," Nea screamed. One of her instruments melted as she stared
into it and she jumped back, her hands to her eyes--

Then they were out of the cloud, and space lay empty and free before them,
with only one tiny sun in view.

* * * * *

Jack Odin twisted the controls to take a look at what was happening back
there in the cloud.

Just as he got it in view, the moiling space out there coalesced into one
smoldering ember. Crushed by the awful weight, that single giant of flame
suddenly burst into a thousand pieces. Comets streaked away. Dripping suns
streamed across the mad sky. Worlds spewed out--and moons dripped tears of
light as they followed after their mothers. They crashed and wheeled. They
merged in gigantic splashes of fire. Pinwheels rushed across the screen.
Rockets flashed. And fountains of flame spilled sun after sun into the
sparkling void. Odin stood transfixed by the sight.

Then, momentarily, the holocaust of flame was over. New suns and new
worlds drifted calmly, with only a few erratic meteors and some settling
dust-clouds left to tell of the explosion that had shaped them.

* * * * *

All was as bright and calm out there as the day after creation. But only
for a while. For a very short time the new suns sparkled clean and fresh.
Then one by one they guttered and winked out. They drew closer together as
though afraid of the dark. Then smoldered and flickered. Then they were
gone. And all that was left was one dark cloud that slowly drifted away.

"It was an artificial explosion," Nea murmured in a puzzled voice. "Grim
Hagen's ship and ours destroyed the balance and caused a premature burst.
There must be some law--some time and weight factor that governs these
things. I would judge that the explosion was not violent enough."

"Not violent enough," Odin exclaimed. "How violent can an explosion be?"

Her eyes were still wide and creamy with wonder when she replied. "I don't
know. Something went wrong. Relatively speaking, it may have been a mild
explosion. At any rate, that new galaxy was unstable. I wish we had time
to go bac