ped into the enveloping
grayness almost at once. The acceleration was less, and the time of
burning was less. Had he not been put through the torture of first-stage
acceleration he could have taken the second stage without more than
great discomfort. But now he had little resistance left.

He came back to consciousness again as the second stage cut off. In the
welcome silence he found time to be thankful he was still alive, even
though it might be a temporary thing. He looked up at Prince Machiavelli
through bloodshot eyes and couldn't see the little monk. For a terrible
instant he thought he was blind, then he saw a glimmer of light through
the port. It was the sun. The rocket was in the wrong position to catch
it directly, however, and the atmosphere was far too thin to scatter
light.

He heard the second stage explode off and tried to brace himself for the
final acceleration. He made himself think. He was in a spot, a very bad
spot. The Earthman had sabotaged the flight. But how? The first two
stages had worked. Even if the third-stage motor never fired, the rocket
was high enough to prove out the project objective.

There was only one answer. Even to his fogged brain it was clear that
the drone control had been sabotaged by the Earthman. Otherwise cutting
the signal wire would have kept the board from showing green. Somehow,
the signal wire had been bypassed, to keep the operators from knowing
the drone control was inoperative.

The final stage fired and acceleration began once more. Rick fought it.
He tried to ignore the pain of the crushing, distorting weight and tried
to keep his mind on the problem. He failed.

Pegasus was no longer traveling straight out from earth now. The
gimbaled rocket motor swung slightly to one side and the rocket's
trajectory flattened. As it swung on the new course, sunlight glanced in
through the open port and into Rick's open, sightless eyes.

It was raw sunlight, unfiltered by the atmosphere. It was sunlight no
human had ever seen before. Even in his semiconscious state Rick
realized the danger and managed to shut his eyes. The sunlight seemed to
burn through the lids, to scorch the insides of his head. Then the
rocket moved along its new trajectory slightly and the merciless beam
shifted, blazed on the sketch of a knight in armor impaling Pegasus with
his lance.

Rick realized dimly that the terrible light was gone. He opened his eyes
and saw the spacemonk. It was as though