lights, every color of the spectrum,
flashed over all the city from small machines in the air, on the ground,
in windows, their great metal walls glistening with a riot of flowing
color. Then there was a trembling through all the frame of the mighty
ship. In a moment it was gone, and the titanic mass of glistening metal
rose smoothly, quickly to the great roof of their world above them. On
an even keel it climbed straight up, then suddenly it leaped forward
like some great bird of prey sighting its victim. The ground beneath
sped swiftly away, and behind it there came a long line of ships,
quickly finding their position in the formation. They were heading
toward the giant airlock that would let them out into space. There was
but one lock large enough to permit so huge a ship to pass out, and they
must circle half their world to reach it.

On three other worlds there were other giant ships racing thus to meet
beyond their solar system. There were fifty ships coming from each
planet; two hundred mighty ships in all made up this Armada of Space,
two hundred gargantuan interstellar cruisers.

One by one the giant ships passed through the airlock and out into
space. Here they quickly reformed as they moved off together, each ship
falling into its place in the mighty cone formation, with the flagship
of Taj Lamor at the head. On they rushed through space, their speed ever
mounting. Suddenly there seemed to leap out of nowhere another mass of
shining machines that flew swiftly beside them. Like some strange,
shining ghosts, these ships seemed to materialize instantly beside and
behind their fleet. They fell in quickly in their allotted position
behind the Flagship's squadron. One--two more fleets appeared thus
suddenly in the dark, and together the ships were flashing on through
space to their goal of glowing fire ahead!

Hour after hour, day after day the ships flashed on through the awful
void, the utter silence relieved by the communications between
themselves and the slowly weakening communications from the far-off home
planets.

But as those signals from home grew steadily weaker, the sun before them
grew steadily larger. At last the men began to feel the heat of those
rays, to realize the energy that that mighty sea of flame poured forth
into space, and steadily they watched it grow nearer.

Then came a day when they could make out clearly the dim bulk of a
planet before them, and for long hours they slowed down th