ill go if I ever get my hands on him," Gunnar promised.

"But Maya is awake now," Ato explained. "We had time on our side before.
Now, if he gets away from us he can live out his days on some obscure
planet. The years will pass like a whirlwind--while we go dashing this
way and that, and in a surprisingly short time our willing and unwilling
fugitives will have lived out their lives. They have the vagaries of time,
space, and speed upon their side."

Nea laughed. "Even as I said before." She gave Jack Odin a searching look,
but Odin avoided her gaze--

"Then, what have you done?" Odin asked.

"All that I could do under the circumstances. I have a fix upon him. We
sapped all the energy from Aldebaran that we could. We have power enough,
but there are no stars nearby. As I said before, he is heading for a
dust-cloud. There, both ships can replenish their energy. After that we
will have to stick close by him and see what happens. After all, we are
behind him. By the old Airmen's rule of thumb, a ship with another upon
its tail is a hundred percent loss."

"Only at that moment," Odin corrected. "If not destroyed, it has a chance
to improve its percentage when the pursuer has made its pass."

"True enough," Ato admitted. "That is why I propose to stay close behind
it. I can't seem to find that dust cloud on any map. It must be far, far
away."

Nea laughed again. "What is far? What is near? You do not even have
catch-words for Trans-Space. You are looking into the books of the
advanced classes, and you have not yet opened the primers of space."

Ato flushed in anger. "Nea, I was my father's helper for years and years.
I know as much about space as any man."

She shrugged. "Oh, you can cover blackboards with formulas, and I don't
doubt that they will be right. But living things and living emotions demand
something to cling to. A measuring stick. Grim Hagen tried to give them
something substantial back there: A system of brutality and graft that
worked for the last-minute Caesars. He even threw in a goddess. Did he
succeed?"

She paused to caress the two things she held in her arms. "My pets know
more about time and space and energy than all of you, don't you, dears?"
She kissed one of them and gave Odin a mysterious smile.

The Kalis began purring contentedly, as though space were no more than a
huge living room, and they were beside a comfortable fireplace, looking up
at their all-powerful mistress.

CHAPT