ything within, a system of accelerating a ship that
didn't affect the inhabitants of that ship, and a means of exceeding the
speed of light, all within a few months of each other, would you become
a pirate? I wouldn't, and I don't think any one else would. A pirate is
a man who seeks adventure and relief from work. Given a means of
exceeding the speed of light, I'd get all the adventure I wanted
investigating other planets. If I didn't have a cent before, I'd have
relief from work by selling it for a few hundred millions--and I'd sell
it mighty easily too, for an invention like that is worth an
incalculable sum. Tie to that the value of compensated acceleration, and
no man's going to turn pirate. He can make more millions selling his
inventions than he can make thousands turning pirate with them. So who'd
turn pirate?"

"Right." McLaurin nodded. "I see your point. Now before I'd accept your
statements _in re_ the 'speed of light' thing, I'd want opinions from
some IP physicists."

"Then let's have a conference, because something's got to be done soon.
I don't know why we haven't heard further from that fellow."

"Privately--we have," McLaurin said in a slightly worried tone. "He was
detected by the instruments of every IP observatory I suspect. We got
the reports but didn't know what to make of them. They indicated so many
funny things, they were sent in as accidental misreadings of the
instruments. But since _all_ the observatories reported them, similar
misreadings, at about the same times, that is with variations of only a
few hours, we thought something must have been up. The only thing was
the phenomena were reported progressively from Pluto to Neptune, clear
across the solar system, in a definite progression, but at a velocity of
crossing that didn't tie in with any conceivable force. They crossed
faster than the velocity of light. That ship must have spent about half
an hour off each planet before passing on to the next. And, accepting
your faster-than-light explanation, we can understand it."

"Then I think you have proof."

"If we have, what would you do about it?"

"Get to work on those 'misreadings' of the instruments for one thing,
and for a second, and more important, line every IP ship with paraffin
blocks six inches thick."

"Paraffin--why?"

"The easiest form of hydrogen to get. You can't use solid hydrogen,
because that melts too easily. Water can be turned into steam too
easily, and requires