."

"You've learned a lot, Doc, and we haven't learned much of anything."
Deston grinned ruefully. "That makes you the director. You'll have to
tell us, in general terms, what to do."

"Oh? I can offer a few suggestions. It is virtually certain: One, that
no subspace equipment will function. Two, that all normal-space
equipment, except for some items you know about, will function normally.
Three, that we can't do anything about subspace without landing on a
planet. Four, that such landing will require extreme--I might almost say
fantastic--precautions."

Although both officers thought that they understood Item Four, neither
of them had any inkling as to what Adams really meant. They did
understand thoroughly, however, Items One, Two, and Three.

"Hell's jets!" Deston exclaimed. "Do you mean we'll have to blast
_normal_ to a system?"

"It isn't as bad as you think, Babe," Jones said. "Stars are much
thicker here--we're in the center somewhere--than around Sol. The
probability is point nine plus that any emergence would put us less than
point four light-years away from a star. A couple of them show disks. I
haven't measured any yet; have you, Doc?"

"Yes. Point two two, approximately, to the closest."

"So what?" Deston demanded. "What's the chance of it having an
Earth-type planet?"

"Any solid planet will do," Adams said. "Just so it has plenty of mass."

"That's still quite a trip." Deston was coming around. "Especially since
we can't use more than one point----"

"One point _zero_ gravities," Jones put in.

"Over the long pull--and the women--you're right," Deston agreed, and
took out his slide rule. "Let's see ... one gravity, plus and minus ...
velocity ... time ... it'll take about eleven months?"

"Just about," Jones agreed, and Adams nodded.

"Well, if that's what the cards say, there's no use yowling about it,"
and all nine survivors went to work.

Deston, besides working, directed the activities of all the others
except Adams; who worked harder and longer than did anyone else. He
barely took time out to eat and to sleep. Nor did either Deston or Jones
ask him what he was doing. Both knew that it would take five years of
advanced study before either of them could understand the simplest
material on the doctor's tapes.

III.

The tremendous engines of the _Procyon_ were again putting out their
wonted torrents of power. The starship, now a mere spaceship, was on
course at one gravity. The li