ghty shoulders for the load, prepared to hurl
the ship away from the planet. Hargraves could feel the vessel surge in
response to the speed. Then there was a distant thud, and he could feel
the surge no longer. The anti-accelerators had been cut in, neutralizing
the effect of inertia.

Shoving open a heavy door, Hargraves was in the control room. A glance
showed him Nielson on the bridge. Leaning over, his fingers on the bank
of buttons that controlled the ship, he was peering through the heavy
quartzite observation port at something approaching from the right.
Beside him, on his right, a man was standing ready at the radio panel.
And to the left of the bridge two men had already jerked the covers from
the negatron and were standing ready beside it.

* * * * *

Ron Val leaped past Hargraves, dived for a seat on the negatron. That
was his post. He had been chosen for it because of his familiarity with
optical instruments. Along the top of the negatron was a sighting
telescope. Ron Val looked once to see where the man on the bridge was
looking, then his fingers flew to the adjusting levers of the telescope.
The negatron swung around to the right, centered on something there.

"Ready," Ron Val said, not taking his eyes from the 'scope.

"Hold your fire," Hargraves ordered.

He was on the bridge, standing beside Red Nielson. Off to the right he
could see the enemy ship. Odd that he should think of it as an enemy. It
wasn't. It was merely a strange ship. But there were relics in his mind,
vague racial memories, of the days when stranger and enemy were
synonymous. The times when this was true were gone forever, but the
thoughts remained.

"Shall we run for it?" Nielson questioned, his hands on the controls
that would turn full power into the drivers.

"No. If we run, they will think we have some reason for running. That
might be all they would need to conclude we are up to no good. Is the
defense screen on full power?"

"Yes." Nielson pushed the lever again to be sure. "I'm giving it all it
will take."

Hargraves could barely see the screen out there a half mile from the
ship. It was twinkling dimly as it swept up cosmic dust.[1]

[Footnote 1: Originally devised as a protection against meteors, it was
a field of force that would disintegrate any solid particle that struck
it, always presuming it did not tangle with an asteroid or a meteor too
big for it to handle. A blood brother of