d out. There was that ghastly feeling of lunging
forward to weightlessness. One instant, Joe's body weighed half a ton.
The next instant, it weighed less than a dust grain. His head throbbed
twice as if his skull were about to split open and let his brains run
out. But these things he had experienced before.

There were pantings in the cabin about him. The ship fell. It happened
to be going up, but the sensation and the fact was free fall. Joe had
been through this before, too. He gasped for breath and croaked,
"Drones?"

"Right," said Haney.

Mike panted anxiously, "Four's off course. I'll fix it."

The Chief grunted guttural Mohawk. His hands stirred on the panel for
remote control of the drones he had to handle.

"Crazy!" he growled. "Got it now, Joe. Fire when ready."

"Okay, Mike?"

A half-second pause.

"Okay!"

Joe pressed the firing-button for the take-off rockets. And he was
slammed back into his acceleration chair again. But this was three
gravities only. Pressed heavily against the acceleration cushions, he
could perform the navigation for the fleet. He did. The mother-ship had
to steer a true course, regardless of the vagaries of its rockets. The
drones had simply to be kept in formation with it. The second task was
simpler. But Joe was relieved, this time, of the need to report back
instrument-readings. A telemetering device took care of that.

The take-off rockets blasted and blasted and blasted. The mere matter of
staying alive grew very tedious. The ordeal seemed to last for
centuries. Actually it could be measured only in minutes. But it seemed
millennia before the headphones said, staccato fashion: "_You are on
course and will reach speed in fourteen seconds. I will count for you._"

"Relays for rocket release," panted Joe. "Throw 'em over!"

Three hands moved to obey. Joe could release the drive rockets on all
seven ships at will.

The voice counted:

"_Ten ... nine ... eight ... seven ... six ... five ... four ... three
... two ... one ... cut!_"

Joe pressed the master-key. The remnants of the solid-fuel take-off
rockets let go. They flashed off into nothingness at unbelievable speed,
consuming themselves as they went.

There was again no weight.

This time there was no resting. No eager gazing out the cabin ports. Now
they weren't curious. They'd had over a month in space, and something
like sixteen days back on Earth, and now they were back in space again.

Mike and Haney a