t the area
completely around it seemed to blacken out. Then it started glowing,
increasing in intensity, expanding, throwing fiery arms wildly
outward. It became a nova of fury. The scope had it centered
beautifully. Even the coolest molten blobs could be seen being pushed
from the mass until the inner hell caught up with them and turned them
into vapor.

A quick-thinking engineer must have thrown a filter somewhere in the
scope's innards, for the scene became sort of an X-ray one in which
the glare of the light no longer impeded vision. The heart of the fury
could easily be seen as it expanded itself, feeding and growing on the
solid matter within its reach. The central fury overtook the lagging
perimeter forces, engulfed them, then blossomed out, thinned, and
became a diaphanous curtain rippling and shimmering in an uncertainty
of direction. It waned, leaving a residual flicker that might have
been only a product of imagination.

The entire magnificent show lasted ten minutes. For each second of
each minute of that time, I'll swear I held my breath! And everyone
else in the station at that time would say the same about himself. It
was that striking, that breath-taking.

Some seconds after the spectacle was over, there was a near-silence.
Then cheers broke loose. Such a confined din I hope never to hear
again. The dramatic suspense had been so effectively communicated for
so many hours, the miraculous sudden release seemed to demand an
over-compensating effect. Everyone seemed suddenly to believe it an
excellent reason to celebrate--and they certainly did!

* * * * *

Speculation as to what caused the explosion ran riot. But to me it was
plainly Willy's influence reaching out to a company ship's crew and
Mars personnel. It might seem that I had gambled a little too much on
Willy's influence, but not really. I had observed and recorded that
particular synergism and had every confidence in the results. Willy's
Rube Goldberg had a combination of built-in errors which produced a
series of compensating course alterations that made the asteroid
de-energize and materialize right smack in normal space where the
freighter was--after the crew escaped.

The blackness that had been noticeable for an instant was, of course,
the asteroid coming out of sub-space. And with the runaway trying to
co-exist right in the middle of the asteroid, naturally everything
vaporized. Mars was saved.

So was