We have not yet completed all our
calculations, but preliminary studies indicate that if this type of
solar interference is not stopped, it may cause our Sun to nova in
somewhere between two and three years time."

He stopped, but the thirty-year-old prodigy, Russell Clyde, took up the
story. "By nova, we mean that the Sun will literally explode. It will
flame up, burst to many times its present size. Such an explosion will
burn Earth to cinders, render all the planets inside the orbit of
Jupiter uninhabitable, scorch their atmospheres, dissolve their waters
into steam, and make them lifeless flaming deserts. We have seen other
stars turn nova. We have measured their explosions. We know just about
what age and stability inside a sun is necessary to cause this. And we
fear that the danger of our own Sun doing so is great--if the
Sun-tapping is not stopped."

Everyone at the table was silent. Burl was stunned. Finally he caught
his breath. "But how can we stop it? We can't get to all the planets in
time. Our rockets are not ready--and rocketships would be too slow. Why
it would take two years for rocketships to reach Mars, if the expedition
were ready now ... and I understand that it will be another ten years
before Operation Mars is even attempted."

General Shrove nodded. "That is correct. Our rocket engineering is not
yet advanced enough to allow us to take such emergency action. We are
still only just over the doorstep of interplanetary flight--and our
enemies, whoever they may be, are obviously far advanced. But, as you
will see, we are not entirely without hope. Colonel Lockhart, will you
tell them about Project A-G?"

All eyes turned to Lockhart, who was a short, stocky man in civilian
clothes. Burl realized that this man had been a colonel at one time, but
remembered now that he had taken a post with one of the largest aviation
companies after leaving the service. Lockhart turned cold gray eyes
directly to Burl.

"We have in my company's experimental grounds one virtually untested
vessel which may be able to make a flight to Mars, or any other planet,
in the time allowed. This is the craft we refer to as A-G 17, the
seventeenth such experiment, and the first to succeed. It is powered by
an entirely new method of flight, the force of anti-gravity."

Burl hung breathlessly on his next words. "You probably know that work
on the scientific negation of gravity has been going on since the early
1950's. It was kno