oor.

Burl steadied himself, keeping a wary eye on the captain. Boulton sat up
slowly, putting a hand to his head. "Boy, that was some kickback," he
muttered. He looked at Burl. "Give me a hand up. We've got to get back
to the jeep and scram out of here fast. The A-bomb's already set."

Burl was startled. He realized in a moment, though, that Boulton
recalled nothing of the past few days--his last memory seemed to be of
the blast in the Martian basement. But now, the captain was apparently
himself again.

Boulton got shakily to his feet. He seemed confused. "How'd I get here,
son?" he asked in surprise.

Burl gave a sigh of relief. "I guess you're all right now. But let's get
the trap door to the control room open. Clyde and Caton have got to get
the ship back on course. There'll be time to explain afterward."

Half an hour later, when Lockhart had recovered and resumed command, the
ship was restored to its proper course. Russ filled Boulton in on what
had happened and ventured a guess as to why.

"You must have been given some sort of charge by that globe in the Mars
Sun-tap station," Russ said. "It turned you into a sort of robot--a
human body running on a charge of alien energy that responded to the
commands of the Sun-tap outfit. Apparently, it took a long time before
the charge had complete control of your body. Obviously, it then could
act only in some general way--telling you to wreck the ship.

"Now, Burl, your body received a charge a long time ago. Whatever its
nature, it counteracted or shorted Boulton's when you came into
contact."

Both Boulton and Burl thought that made sense. "But," Burl conjectured,
"isn't it possible that the charge in my own body has also been
shorted?"

Russ shrugged. "Maybe. We'll find out at the next stop. And,
incidentally, that's not going to be on Jupiter itself, but on its moon
Callisto. We've traced the line of distortions."

"That's good news," said Burl. "I had the feeling you were worried about
Jupiter. The planet's so huge it would have meant real trouble trying to
land. The books say its atmosphere is thick, unbreathable, and moves in
gale velocity around it."

Russ nodded. "With Jupiter almost 89,000 miles in diameter, it would
have been a tough problem to maneuver outside this ship ... in fact,
impossible, not to mention the fact that the atmosphere, mostly ammonia
and other frigid gases, moves in several independent belts. However,
Callisto should be okay.