wed through more
than one meteor, more than one dark star, and more than one small sun.

"But this is the secret: the ship attains the speed only by going out of
space. _Nothing in space can attain the speed of light, save radiation._
Nothing in normal space. But, we alter space, make space along patterns
we choose, and so distort it that the natural speed of radiation is
enormously greater. In fact, we so change space that nothing can go
_slower_ than a speed we fix.

"Morey--show Afthen the coils, and explain it all to him. I've got to
stay here."

Morey rose, and diving through the weightless ship, went down to the
power room, Zezdon Afthen following. Here, giant pots five feet high
were in close packed rows. The "pots" contained specially designed coils
storing tremendous energy, the energy of four tons of disintegrated
lead, in the only form that energy may be stored, as a strain, or
distortion in space. These charged coils distorted only the space within
themselves, making a closed field entirely within themselves. But in the
exact gravitational center of the quarter of a million ton ship was a
single high coil of different design that distorted space around it as
well as the space within it. This, as Morey explained, was the control
that altered the constants of space to suit. The coils were charged, and
the energy stored. Their energy could be pumped into the big coil, and
then, when the ship slowed to normal space, could be pumped back to
them. The pumping energy, as well as any further energy needed for
recharging the coils could be supplied by three huge power generators.

"These energy-producers," Morey explained, "work on a principle known
for hundreds of years on Earth. Lead, when reduced to a temperature
approaching absolute zero as closely as, for instance, liquid helium,
has _no_ electrical resistance. In other words, no matter how great a
current is sent through it, there is no resistance, and no heat is
produced to raise the temperature. What we do is to send a powerful
current through a lead wire. The wire has a current density so huge that
the atoms are destroyed, and the protons and electrons coalesce into
pure radiant energy. Relux, under the influence of a magnetic field,
converts this directly into electrical potential. Electricity we can
convert to the spatial strain in the power coils, and thus the ship is
driven." Morey pointed out the huge molecular power cylinder overhead,
where the mai