ractically weightless, though it would fall slowly if left to itself,
for the mass of the _Ancient Mariner_ and the front end of the Thessian
ship made a considerable attractive field. But it was clumsy, and needed
guiding here in the ship.

Wade took it into the airlock, and a moment later into space with him.
His hand molecular-driving unit pulling him, he towed the machine into
place, and with some difficulty got it practically motionless with
respect of the two bodies, which were now lying against each other.

"Turn it a bit, Wade, so that the _Ancient Mariner_ is just in its
range," came Arcot's thoughts. Wade did so. "Come on back and watch the
fun."

Wade returned. Arcot and the others were busy placing a heavy emergency
lead from the storeroom in the place of one of the broken leads. In five
minutes they had it fixed where they wanted it.

Into the control room went Arcot, and started the power-room teleview
plate. Connected into the system of view plates, the scene was visible
now on all the plates in the ship. Well off to one side of the room,
prepared for such emergencies, and equipped with individual power
storage coils that would run it for several days, the view plate
functioned smoothly.

"Now, we are ready," said Arcot. The Talsonian proved he understood
Arcot's intentions by preceding him to the laboratory.

Arcot had two viewplates operating here. One was covering the scene as
shown by the machine outside, and the other showed the power room.

Arcot stepped over to the artificial-matter machine, and worked swiftly
on it. In a moment the power from the storage coils of the ship was
flowing through the new cable, and into the machine. A huge ring
appeared about the nose of the Thessian ship, fitting snugly over it. A
terrific wrench--and it was free of the _Ancient Mariner_. The ring
contracted and formed a chunk of the stuff free of the broken nose of
the ship.

It was carried over to the wall of the _Ancient Mariner_, a smaller
piece snipped off as before, and carried inside. A piece of perhaps half
a ton mass. "I hope they use good stuff," grinned Arcot. The piece was
deposited on the floor of the ship, and a disc formed of artificial
matter plugged the hole in its side. Another took a piece of the relux
from the broken Thessian ship, pushed it into the hole on the ship. The
space about the scene of operation was a crackling inferno of energy
breaking down into heat and light. Arcot demateria