pinned
down on a gaunt planet while a triumphant Grim Hagen went back and forth
from the Old Ship to the violet dome. Welcomed like a conqueror, and
holding every card, Grim Hagen was the man of the hour.

Yes, it was certainly Grim Hagen's day.

Night fell quite suddenly. But the sky above them turned to the faintest
mauve, and there was still a pale ghost of a light hovering over the plain.
There were no stars. No moon. Jack Odin learned later that the people of
this planet had fed their moon to the dying sun long before.

* * * * *

They ate supper--as Gunnar called it--and then Ato and Odin studied some
photo-maps which they had taken just before they landed. Meanwhile, Gunnar
busied himself with the sword. And Nea, who stayed in her lab most of the
day, brought in a few calculations on the barrier that prisoned them.

"It's an old idea," she told them quietly. "It can be broken by a steadily
increasing force. Twenty days, perhaps, after I rig up the machine--"

Odin groaned. "In twenty days Grim Hagen will be back among the stars--"

She smiled quietly. And now he saw how tired her face and eyes were. Like
the face of a child that has worked too hard. "I think not," she answered
him simply. "Gunnar is always talking about fate. I do not believe in such.
But all day I have felt that the end is drawing near. Remember, I still
have my Kalis. With them I could have been a huntress on some greener
planet--another Diana, perhaps. Oh!" She stamped her foot in worriment. "We
held creation in our grasp out here. We could have forced the last secrets
from her. Yes, I will say it! We could have been as gods. And where is it
ending? A mad chase after a madman. And for all the years and all the lives
that have been spent on these two ships, time and space are the only
winners."

* * * * *

Nea went back to the lab. Odin and Ato continued their study of the maps.
Gunnar was putting a fine edge to his broadsword.

Then the warning buzzer sounded its alarm. Odin dived for the screen and
turned on the controls.

A long procession of mauve shadows was approaching. Already inside the
barrier, they came single-file and slowly circled The Nebula.

Even in the pale weird light, they certainly seemed to be men.

Ato ordered "Battle-Stations" and sirens sounded all over the ship.

* * * * *

But the circling host made no offer to