the conditions as reported in the
new system. Then it stopped abruptly. An electric motor just above
Gresth Gkae's head suddenly hummed into action without reason or power
connection. Almost simultaneously he heard the shouts of startled men as
the great lock doors began to open into space of their own accord,
bulkhead doors slipped shut as the roar of escaping air echoed in the
ship.

Then it was all over. Gresth Gkae ran to the control room. The Mirans
there looked up at him with drawn faces.

"The instruments--Gresth Gkae--the instruments. The instruments read
impossible things, the motors worked without reason, the fields
fluctuated--the atomic engines stopped and the magnetic shield broke
down and gripped part of the ship instead!" reported the bewildered
pilot.

"I do not know--some strange weapon of--" began the old scientist.
Something luminous and huge twisted suddenly through space toward them,
a bomb of "Uncertainty of the First Degree." It wrapped the ship
silently--and again strange things happened. Abruptly the ship started
whirling violently, yet without centrifugal force. The heavens wheeled
crazily, and turned about three axes simultaneously. There was no
gyroscopic effect to hold them!

Gradually the thing died out. Then a great field seemed to catch the
ship, and hurl it away from its companions. Abruptly the pilot applied
all his power to pull free. In vain.

Gresth Gkae shook his head slowly, and raised the pilot's hands from the
board. "Let them do as they will. I think they mean us no real harm,
Thart Kralt. They can, we know, destroy us in an instant. Perhaps he
wants us to go somewhere with him"--Gresth Gkae smiled sadly--"and
anyway, we can do nothing."

For nearly a billion miles the great ship was hurled through space at
tremendous normal-space velocity. Then abruptly it was halted, without a
sign of strain or hurt. The great twenty-foot UV beam on the nose of the
"S Doradus" broke into glowing gentle red light. It flashed twice. There
was a pause. Then it flashed four times. A long wait. Then three times,
a pause and nine times. A wait. Four times, a pause, sixteen times. Then
it stopped.

A slow smile of ineffable joy spread over Gresth Gkae's face. "Jarth Be
Praised. He can destroy, but does not wish to. Ah, Thart Kralt, turn
your spotlight toward him, and flash it twenty-five times, for he is
trying to start communications with us. Jarth is wise beyond all
understanding. They w