Bridan III who'd trade anything for some photos of this. Get me
some photo equipment, will you?"

Captain Fromer ran his hands through what was left of his hair. "Get him
some photo equipment," he said to no one in particular, "and somebody make
a truce with that idiot doctor long enough to get me a sedative." About
this time the ship turned upsidedown.

"But there's no reason for it!" the chief engineer said, running
alongside Hansen and Candle. "The ship can't turn upsidedown. Everything
is functioning perfectly!"

"Really not interested," said Candle, running down the corridor's mile-long
ceiling. "Figure something out for yourself for a change."

"But what I can't understand," said Hansen, dutifully trotting alongside,
"is how you knew with such certainty how the door mechanism was made. Even
if submarines _were_ built like that, you'd have no way of knowing. There
haven't been any submarines in centuries."

"The hell you say," said Candle, increasing his pace, "I built one five
years ago."

"Built one! What for?"

"For the hell of it, and it was a damned good outfit, too. I found plans in
an old museum, and had the good sense not to improve on 'em. Always
remember, boy, that something that really works can't be improved. That's
why the submarine mechanism was adopted--not adapted--for space. The
so-called 'better way' they're building 'em today is simply a disguise for
the fact that most of the gas is gone from our technology."

"What happened to the submarine?"

"Oh, I traded it to a friend for some falcons. You interested in falconry
by any chance?"

"Er, no. Can't say that I am."

"You will be," Candle said prophetically, "you'll succumb to every
enthusiasm man has ever been deviled with. You're the type. It's a
disease, boy, and the big symptom isn't just curiosity, but the kind
of intense curiosity that turns you inside out, devours you and ruins
you for orthodoxy."

* * * * *

Hansen had stopped listening. He was absorbed in trying to recall the
pattern he had pressed on his radio belt--a pattern never taught to
him--when the ship had suddenly turned upsidedown. Hesitantly, he played
with the notion that he had been _thinking_ of the ship traveling
upsidedown at the time he impressed the novel pattern on the belt. Now,
could that have possibly ... ?

The man and the boy disappeared down the ceiling, running at top speed
to catch up as the rapidly vanishing for