y have been the sun, since
the sun was the only star close enough to show up as a disc. Since it
was green and I knew it was behind us, I decided that all the green ones
were behind us. It isn't proof, but it's a good indication."

"You win, as usual," admitted Fuller.

"Well, where are we?" asked Wade. "I think that's more important."

"I haven't the least idea," confessed Arcot. "Let's see if we can find
out. I've got the robot pilot on, so we can leave the ship to itself.
Let's take a look at Old Sol from a distance that no man ever reached
before!"

They started for the observatory. Morey joined them and Arcot put the
view of Sol and his family on the telectroscope screen. He increased the
magnification to maximum, and the four men looked eagerly at the system.
The sun glowed brilliantly, and the planets showed plainly.

"Now, if we wanted to take the trouble, we could calculate when the
planets were in that position and determine the distance we have come.
However, I notice that Pluto is still in place, so that means we are
seeing the Solar System as it was before the passing of the Black Star.
We're at least two light years away."

"More than that," said Morey. He pointed at the screen. "See here, how
Mars is placed in relation to Venus and Earth? The planets were in that
configuration seven years ago. We're seven light years from Earth."

"Good enough!" Arcot grinned. "That means we're within two light years
of Sirius, since we were headed in that direction. Let's turn the ship
so we can take a look at it with the telectroscope."

Since the power had been cut off, the ship was in free fall, and the men
were weightless. Arcot didn't try to walk toward the control room; he
simply pushed against the wall with his feet and made a long, slow dive
for his destination.

The others reached for the handgrips in the walls while Arcot swung the
ship gently around so that its stern was pointed toward Sirius. Because
of its brilliance and relative proximity to Sol, Sirius is the brightest
star in the heavens, as seen from Earth. At this much lesser distance,
it shone as a brilliant point of light that blazed wonderfully. They
turned the telectroscope toward it, but there was little they could see
that was not visible from the big observatory on the Moon.

"I think we may as well go nearer," suggested Morey, "and see what we
find on close range observation. Meanwhile, turn the ship back around
and I'll take some pic