t."

"Certainly. I'm not criticizing you. But there's one thing we hadn't
counted on. Chief Thayer says Pile Ten took lifeboat C along with it."

"But how could that happen?"

"Boat C was just above, you remember. The heat triggered the release
mechanism, and the boat launched itself into space."

Jasperson interrupted, trying to speak calmly. "What's happened? Tell me
what's wrong?"

"We've hit the imaginary Thakura Ripples," Evans said savagely, "and
they're tearing us apart!"

The plump soft body of Burl Jasperson seemed to deflate. The truculence
drained from his face, leaving his skin a dirty white as he whispered,
"Then the Thakura Ripples _are_ real? And we're in danger?"

The Captain's laugh was bitter. "What do _you_ think? Don't you want to
give me the benefit of your advice now?"

Again the door burst open, and a crewman ran in.

"Captain Evans, sir. Piles Fourteen and Fifteen have started to heat.
They're already at critical level."

"Dump them!"

The phone buzzed, and Evans listened with a face which was turning a
graveyard gray.

"If you can hold them down, keep them. If they pass the critical point,
shoot them away." Turning, he looked straight into the dilated eyes of
Jasperson, and spoke as if every word were a knife thrusting into the
pudgy body.

"Every one of the Piles is starting to heat. Every last one. One life
boat is lost. That means fifteen hundred people to be crowded into five
little boats!"

"What are you going to do?" croaked the little man.

"I've already reduced speed. I've sent out and am still sending out
calls for help, over phase wave. We'll shift to normal space, and we'll
launch the lifeboats as soon as they can be provisioned and loaded. And
then we'll pray. And now, Burl Jasperson, how do you like the Thakura
Ripples?"

Bracing himself against the desk, Burl tried to smile. "If there's any
way I can help, of course, just let me know." With a feeble attempt at
jauntiness, he staggered out of the cabin.

* * * * *

Opening the long-closed shutter of the observation port, Captain Evans
could see the suns of normal space glittering in the blackness about the
ship, unfamiliar and alien. Before the shift to normal space he had
sent out SOS calls throughout the galaxy, but he had not waited for any
replies before shifting. He could not know whether the calls had been
heard, or even whether there were any ships close enough to send he