t the end of it,
its driving power, its motor, was a great cylindrical case, into which
led a single quartz bar ten inches thick. This bar was alive with
pulsing, glowing fires, that changed and maneuvered and died out over
all its surface and through all its volume. The motor was but five feet
in diameter and a scant seven feet long, yet obviously it was driving
the great machine, for there came from it a constant low hum, a deep
pitched song of awful power. And the huge quartz rod that led from the
titanic coil-cylinder was alive with the same glowing fires that played
through the motor rod. From one side of the generator, ran two objects
that were familiar, copper bus bars. But even these were _three feet
thick_!

The scores of quartz tubes that come down from the floor above joined,
coalesced, and ran down to the great generator, and into it.

They descended to another level. Here were other quartz tubes, but these
led down still further, for this floor contained individual sleeping
bunks, most of them unoccupied, unready for occupancy, though some were
made up.

Down another level; again the bunks, the little individual rooms.

At last they reached the bottom level, and here the great quartz tubes
terminated in a hundred smaller ones, each of these leading into some
strange mechanism. There were sighting devices on it, and there were
ports that opened in the floor. This was evidently the bombing room.

With an occasional hushed word, the Terrestrians walked through what
seemed to be a vast city of the dead, passing sleeping officers, and
crewmen by the hundreds. On the third level they came at last to the
control room. Here were switchboards, control panels, and dozens of
officers, sleeping now, beside their instruments. A sudden dull thudding
sound spun Arcot and Wade around, nerves taut. They relaxed and
exchanged apologetic smiles. An automatic relay had adjusted some
mechanism.

They noted one man stationed apart from the rest. He sat at the very
bow, protected behind eight-inch coronium plates in which were set
masses of fused quartz that were nearly as strong as the metal itself.
These gave him a view in every direction except directly behind him.
Obviously, here was the pilot.

Returning to the top level, they entered the long passages that led out
into the titanic wings. Here, as elsewhere, the ship was brightly
lighted. They came to a small room, another bunk room. There were great
numbers of thes