ference because the force follows wherever it goes.
See? The speed increases until the opposing forces are equal, when
deceleration commences and we gradually slow down until within ten
thousand miles of the body, when the _Nomad_ automatically stops.
Doesn't move either, until we awaken to take the controls. How's that
for simple?"

"Good enough. But suppose a wandering meteor or a tiny asteroid gets
in the way? At our speed it wouldn't have to be as big as your fist to
go through us like a shot."

"All taken care of, my dear Carr. I told you Thrygis was a wiz. Such a
happenstance would disturb the delicate balance of the energy
compensators and the course of the _Nomad_ would instantly alter to
dodge the foreign object. Once passed by, the course would again be
resumed."

"Some ship, the _Nomad_!" Carr was delighted with the explanations.
"I'm sold on her and on the trip. Where are we now and where bound?"

* * * * *

Mado glanced at the instrument board. "Nearly a million miles out and
headed for that Sargasso Sea I told you about," he said. "It isn't
visible in the telescope, but I've got it marked by the stars. Out
between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, a quarter of a billion miles
away. But we'll average better than a thousand miles a second. Be
there in three days of your time."

"How can there be a sea out there in space?"

"Oh, that's just my name for it. Most peculiar thing, though. There's
a vast, billowy sort of a cloud. Twists and weaves around as if alive.
Looks like seaweed or something; and Carr, I swear there are things
floating around in it. Wrecks. Something damn peculiar, anyway. I vow
I saw a signal. People marooned there or something. Sorta scared me
and I didn't stay around for long as there was an awful pull from the
mass. Had to use full reversal of the gravity force to get away."

"Now why didn't you tell me that before? That's something to think
about. Like the ancient days of ocean-going ships on Earth."

"Tell you? How could I tell you? You've been questioning me ever since
I first saw you and I've been busy every minute answering you."

Carr laughed and slid from his seat to the floor. He felt curiously
light and loose-jointed. A single step carried him to one of the
stanchions of the control cabin and he clung to it for a moment to
regain his equilibrium.

"What's wrong?" he demanded. "No internal gravity mechanism on the
_Nomad_?"

"Sure is.