tempted
to cut them, and put them back in sections. Our finest saws and machines
did not nick them. Their weight was unbelievable, and yet we finally
succeeded in lifting the things into the wall of the ship. The actual
missing material did not represent more than a tiny cut, perhaps as wide
as one of your credit-discs. You could slip the thin piece of metal in
between them, but not so much as your finger.

"Those slots we welded tight with our best steel, letting a flap hang
over on each side of the cut, and as the hot metal cooled, it was drawn
against the shining walls with terrific force. The joints were perfectly
airtight.

"The machines proper were repaired to the greatest possible extent. It
was a heartbreaking task, for we must only guess at what machines should
be connected together. Much damage had been done by the rushing air as
it left, for it filled the machines, too, and they were not designed to
resist the terrific air pressure that was on them when the pressure in
the ship escaped. Many of the machines had been burst open, and these we
could repair when we had the necessary elements and knew their
construction from the remnants, or could find unbroken duplicates in the
stock rooms.

"Once we connected the wrong things. This will show you what we dealt
with. They were the wrong poles--two generators, connected together in
the wrong way. There was a terrific crash when the switch was thrown,
and huge sheets of electric flame leaped from one of them. Two men were
killed, incinerated in an instant, even the odors one might expect were
killed in that flash of heat. Everything save the shining metal and
clear glass within ten feet of it was instantly wiped out. And there was
a fuse link that gave. The generator was ruined. One was left, and
several small auxiliary generators.

"Eventually, we did the job. We made the machine work. And we are here.

"We have come to warn you, and to ask aid. Your system also has a large
planet, slightly smaller than the largest of our system, but yet
attractive. There are approximately 50,000 planetary systems in this
universe, according to the records of the Invaders. Their world is not
of this system. It is the World Thett, sun Antseck, Universe Venone.
Where that is, or even what it means, we do not know. Perhaps you
understand.

"But they investigated your world, and its address, according to their
records, was World 3769-8482730-3. This, I believe, means, Universe