r. "You say we're beyond the magnification
range of the telectroscope. Then why would half a million light years
out of ten million make that much difference?"

"Because of the limit of amplification in the tubes," Arcot replied.
"You can only have so many stages of amplification; after that, you're
amplifying noise. The whole principle of the vacuum tube depends on
electronic emission; if you get _too much_ amplification, you can hear
every single electron striking the plate of the first tube by the time
the thing reaches the last amplifying stage! In other words, if your
incoming signal is weaker than the minimum noise level on the first
amplifying stage, no amount of amplification will give you anything but
more noise.

"The same is true of the telectroscope image. At this distance, the
light signal from those galaxies is weaker than the noise level. We'd
only get a flickering, blurred image. But if we go on another half
million light years, the light signal from the nearer nebulae will be
_stronger_ than the base noise level, and full amplification will give
us a good image on the screen."

Fuller nodded. "Okay, then let's go that additional half million light
years. I want to take a look at another galaxy."

"Right." Arcot turned to the intercom. "Ready, Morey?"

"Anytime you are."

"Here goes!" said Arcot. He pushed over the little red control.

At full power, the air filled with the strain of flowing energy and
actually broke down in spots with the terrific electrical energy of the
charge. There were little snapping sparks in the air, which, though
harmless electrically, were hot enough to give slight burns, as Wade
found to his sorrow.

"Yike! Say, why didn't you tell us to bring lightning rods?" he asked
indignantly as a small spark snapped its way over his hand.

"Sorry," grinned Arcot, "but most people know enough to stay out of the
way of those things. Seriously, though, I didn't think the electrostatic
curvature would be so slow to adjust. You see, when we build up our
light-rate distortion field, other curvatures are affected. We get some
gravity, some magnetic, and some electrostatic field distortion, too.
You can see what happens when they don't leak their energy back into the
coil.

"But we're busy with the instruments; leave the motorman alone!"

Morey was calling loudly for tests. Although the ship seemed to be
behaving perfectly, he wanted check tests to make sure the relays were
not be