chestra wailed and zinged behind him.
The lights had been dimmed to a purple midnight, and shadowy couples
flitted about the room, swaying, humming, laughing. Horned devils danced
with angels, pirates and Roman senators guided in their arms lovely
Cleopatras and sinuous mermaids. Hunched over the little tables,
clinking glasses, grotesque silhouettes of Martians, Venusians, and
Apollonians whispered intimately.

The walls of the room displayed the evening stars of late summer, and,
special event for a gala evening, a fat yellow half moon sailed lazily
in the sky.

The _Star Lord_ shuddered, briefly. Briefly the crooner's voice wavered,
the notes of the violins hesitated, but no one noticed. A second quiver
of the ship, and the dancers paused to look at one another
questioningly, then laughed and danced on.

Jasperson had been sitting beside the wall, vainly searching among the
dancers for Tanya. He stood up, his forehead suddenly wet with sweat.
Plowing through the dancers and out of the door, in the corridor he ran
into Steward Davis, gliding along on silent, slippered feet.

"What was that, Davis?"

"Don't know, sir. Nothing serious, or the alarm lights would be on."

"Come with me."

He flung open the door of the Captain's cabin. It was empty. Stacey was
not in the anteroom, and the inner cabin was silent. The water carafe
had been turned over on the desk, and a few papers lay scattered on the
floor.

"They might be in Operations, sir."

"Show me the way!" They raced down the corridors, past the open door of
the room where dancers still swayed and the orchestra still played.
Through a hall, down an escalator, down, down, to the center of the
ship.

Jasperson paused. "You needn't wait, Davis. But I may want you again.
I'll let you know."

Pushing aside the crewmen who stood guard at the door, he rushed into
the room.

"Josiah! What was that shock? I demand to know what's happened!"

Evans threw him a glance of pure, intense hatred, and then resumed his
questioning of Chief Wyman.

"You say Number Ten just let go?"

"Not exactly, sir. For a couple of hours or so after we resumed speed,
it stayed steady. All of a sudden, it started to climb. They called me,
but by the time I got there it was already at critical level. We put in
more dampers, but it kept going up and up, and I thought it might
vaporize any minute. I hadn't any choice, sir. There wasn't time to call
you and get orders. I had to drop i