resi, in an extremely controlled tone, "that we all
sit down and think over the whole thing very carefully."

Hoskins had been staring hypnotically at the broken shaft deep in the
wall. "I wonder," he said at length, "which way Johnny turned that
wheel."

"Counter-clockwise," said Ives. "You saw him."

"I know that," said Hoskins. "I mean, which way: the right way, or the
wrong way?"

"Oh." There was a short silence. Then Ives said, "I guess we'll never
know, now."

"Not until we get back to Earth," said Paresi quickly.

"You say 'until', or 'unless'?" Ives demanded.

"I said 'until', Ives," said Paresi levelly, "and watch your mouth."

"Sometimes," said the fat man with a dangerous joviality, "you pick the
wrong way to say the right thing, Nick." Then he clapped the slender
doctor on the back. "But I'll be good. We sow no panic seed, do we?"

"Much better not to," said the Captain. "It's being done efficiently
enough from outside."

"You are convinced it's being done from outside?" asked Hoskins, peering
at him owlishly.

"I'm ... convinced of very little," said the Captain heavily. He went to
the acceleration couch and sat down. "I want out," he said. He waved
away the professional comment he could see forming on Paresi's lips and
went on, "Not claustrophobia, Nick. Getting out of the ship's more
important than just relieving our feelings. If the trouble with the port
is being caused by some fantastic _something_ outside this ship, we'll
achieve a powerful victory over it, purely by ignoring it."

"It broke off," murmured Johnny.

"Ignore _that_," snorted Ives.

"You keep talking about this thing being caused by something outside,"
said Paresi. His tone was almost complaining.

"Got a better hypothesis?" asked Hoskins.

"Hoskins," said the Captain, "isn't there some way we can get out? What
about the tubes?"

"Take a shipyard to move those power-plants," said Hoskins, "and even if
it could be done, those radioactive tubes would fry you before you
crawled a third of the way."

"We should have a lifeboat," said Ives to no one in particular.

"What in time does a ship like the _Ambassador_ need with a lifeboat?"
asked Hoskins in genuine amazement.

The Captain frowned. "What about the ventilators?"

"Take us days to remove all the screens and purifiers," said Hoskins,
"and then we'd be up against the intake ports. You could stroll out
through any of them about as far as your forearm. And af