mie ship. The life
went out of it. It ceased to accelerate or decelerate. It ceased to
steer. It began to turn slowly on an axis somewhere amidships. Its nose
swung to one side, with no change in the direction of its motion. It
floated onward. It was broadside to its line of travel. It continued to
turn. It hurtled stern-first toward the _Niccola_. It did not swerve. It
did not dance. It was a lifeless hulk: a derelict in space.

And it would hit the _Niccola_ amidships with no possible result but
destruction for both vessels.

* * * * *

The _Niccola's_ skipper bellowed orders, as if shouting would somehow
give them more effect. The magnetronic drive roared. He'd demanded a
miracle of it, and he almost got one. The drive strained its
thrust-members. It hopelessly overloaded its coils. The _Niccola's_
cobalt-steel hull became more than saturated with the drive-field, and it
leaped madly upon an evasion course--

And it very nearly got away. It was swinging clear when the Plumie ship
drifted within fathoms. It was turning aside when the Plumie ship was
within yards. And it was almost safe when the golden hull of the
Plumie--shadowed now by the _Niccola_ itself--barely scraped a side-keel.

There was a touch, seemingly deliberate and gentle. But the _Niccola_
shuddered horribly. Then the vision screens flared from such a light as
might herald the crack of doom. There was a brightness greater than the
brilliance of the sun. And then there was a wrenching, heaving shock.
Then there was blackness. Baird was flung across the radar room, and
Diane cried out, and he careened against a wall and heard glass shatter.
He called:

"Diane!"

He clutched crazily at anything, and called her name again. The
_Niccola's_ internal gravity was cut off, and his head spun, and he heard
collision-doors closing everywhere, but before they closed completely he
heard the rasping sound of giant arcs leaping in the engine room. Then
there was silence.

"Diane!" cried Baird fiercely. "Diane!"

"I'm ... here," she panted. "I'm dizzy, but I ... think I'm all right--"

The battery-powered emergency light came on. It was faint, but he saw her
clinging to a bank of instruments where she'd been thrown by the
collision. He moved to go to her, and found himself floating in midair.
But he drifted to a side wall and worked his way to her.

She clung to him, shivering.

"I ... think," she said unsteadily, "that we'