thing in the vault. The
real brain around here was the janandra ... and it was a real brain.
With a little luck it would have had the ship."

Kerim smiled briefly. "You handled that big brain rather well, I think."

"I was the one who got lucky," Gefty said. "Anyway, where Maulbow came
from, it's the janandra's kind that gives the orders. And the thing is,
Maulbow liked it that way. He didn't want it to be different. When the
light hit us, it killed the janandra on the outside of the ship. Maulbow
felt it happen and it cracked him up. He wanted to kill us for it. But
since he was helpless, he killed himself. He didn't want to be
healed--not by us. At least, that's what it looks like."

He shrugged, checked his watch, climbed out of the chair. "Well," he
said, "the ten minutes I gave the _Queen_ to turn the power back on are
up. Looks like the old girl couldn't do it. So I'll--"

The indirect lighting system in the instrument room went on silently.
The emergency light flickered and went out. Gefty's head came around.

Kerim was staring past him at the screens, her face radiant.

"Oh, Gefty!" she cried softly. "Oh, Gefty! Our stars!"

* * * * *

"Green dot here is us," Gefty explained, somewhat hoarsely. He cleared
his throat, went on, "Our true ship position, that is--" He stopped,
realizing he was talking too much, almost babbling, in an attempt to
take some of the tension out of the moment. The next few seconds might
not tell them where they were, but it would show whether they had been
carried beyond the regions of space charted by Federation instruments.
Which would mean the difference between having a chance--whether a good
chance or a bad one--of getting home eventually, and the alternative of
being hopelessly lost.

There had been nothing recognizably familiar about the brilliantly dense
star patterns in the viewscreens, but he gave no further thought to
that. Unless the ship's exact position was known or one was on an
established route, it was a waste of time looking for landmarks in a
sizable cluster.

He turned on the basic star chart. Within the locator plate the green
pinpoint of light reappeared, red-ringed and suspended now against the
three-dimensional immensities of the Milky Way. It stayed still a
moment, began a smooth drift towards Galactic East. Gefty let his breath
out carefully. He sensed Kerim's eyes on him but kept his gaze fixed on
the locator plate.

T