ccess to the data.

It seemed there was an ancient regulation that said any member of a
starship's crew was entitled by law to examine his ship's registered
route, if he wanted to. The rule was intended to apply to starmen who
distrusted their captains and were fearful of being shipped off to some
impossibly distant point; it said nothing at all about starmen who had
been left behind and were planning to overtake their ships. But nothing
prohibited Alan from getting the coordinates, and so they gave them to
him.

The _Cavour_ was ready for the departure. Alan elbowed his way through
the crowd of curious onlookers and clambered into the redesigned control
chamber.

He paused a moment, running his fingers over the shiny instrument panel
with its new dials, strange levers, unfamiliar instruments. Overdrive
Compensator. Fuel Transmuter. Distortion Guide. Bender Index. Strange
new names, but Alan realized they would be part of the vocabulary of all
future spacemen.

He began to work with the new controls, plotting his coordinates with
extreme care and checking them through six or seven times. At last he
was satisfied; he had computed a hyperdrive course that would loop him
through space and bring him out in only a few days' time in the general
vicinity of the _Valhalla_, which was buzzing serenely along at near the
speed of light.

That was practically a snail's pace, compared with hyperdrive.

The time for the test had come. He spoke briefly with his friends and
assistants in the control tower; then he checked his figures through one
last time and requested blastoff clearance.

A moment later the count-down began, and he began setting up for
departure.

A tremor of anticipation shot through him as he prepared to blast off on
the first hyperdrive voyage ever made. He was stepping out into the
unknown, making the first use ever of a strange, perhaps dangerous means
of travel. The drive would loop him out of the space-time continuum,
into--_where?_--and back again.

He hoped.

He punched down the keys, and sat back to wait for the automatic pilot
to carry him out from Earth.

Somewhere past the orbit of the moon, a gong told him that the Cavour
drive was about to come into play. He held his breath. He felt a
twisting sensation. He stared at the viewscreen.

The stars had vanished. Earth, with all its memories of the last nine
years, was gone, taking with it Hawkes, Jesperson, York City, the
Enclaves--everythin