as normal light--shielded, tremendously shielded by the
atmosphere, but the enormous amplification of the eyes made up for it.

The remaining Thessians seemed to get the idea simultaneously, and
started for Arcot in his own time field. The Thessian ship appeared to
be actually leaping at him. Suddenly, his speed increased inconceivably.
Simultaneously, Arcot's hand, already started toward the space-control
switch, reached it, and pushed it to the point that threw the ship into
artificial Space. The last glimmer of light died suddenly, as the
Thessian ship's bow loomed huge beside the _Ancient Mariner_.

There was a terrific shock that hurled the ship violently to one side,
threw the men about inside the ship. Simultaneously the lights blinked
out.

Light returned as the automatic emergency incandescent lights in the
room, fed from an energy store coil, flashed on abruptly. The men were
white-faced, tense in their positions. Swiftly Morey was looking over
the indicators on his remote-reading panel, while Arcot stared at the
few dials before the actual control board.

"_There's an air pressure outside the ship!_" he cried out in surprise.
"High oxygen, very little nitrogen, breathable apparently, provided
there are no poisons. Temperature ten below zero C."

"Lights are off because relays opened when the crash short circuited
them." Morey and the entire group were suddenly shaking.

"Nervous shock," commented Zezdon Afthen. "It will be an hour or more
before we will be in condition to work."

"Can't wait," replied Arcot testily, his nerves on edge, too.

"Morey, make some good strong coffee if you can, and we'll waste a
little air on some smokes."

Morey rose and went to the door that led through the main passage to the
galley. "Heck of a job--no weight at all," he muttered. "There is air in
the passage, anyway." He opened the door, and the air rushed from the
control room to the passage till the pressure was equalized. The door to
the power room was shut, but it was bulged, despite its two-inch lux
metal, and through its clear material he could see the wreckage of the
power room.

"Arcot," he called. "Come here and look at the power room. Quintillions
of miles from home, we can't shut off this field now."

Arcot was with him in a moment. The tremendous mass of the nose of the
Thessian ship had caught them full amid-ship, and the powerful ram had
driven through the room. Their lux walls had not been touched;