ons in the K-ring, and six in the next,
has had that outer six knocked off, and then has been hurled violently
into free air.

"All by themselves, those sextuply ionized oxygen atoms would have a
good bit to say, but they don't really begin to talk till they start
roaring for those electrons I'm feeding them. At the meeting point, they
grab up all they can get--probably about five--before the competition
and the fierce release of energy drives them out, part-satisfied. I lose
a little energy there, but not a real fraction. It's the howl they put
up for the first four that counts. The electron-feed is necessary,
because otherwise they'd smash on and ruin that mirror. They work
practically in a perfect vacuum. That beam smashes the air out of the
way. Of course, in space it would work better."

"How could it?" asked Faragaut, faintly.

"Kendall," asked McLaurin, "can we install that in the IP ships?"

"You can start." Kendall shrugged. "There isn't a lot of apparatus. I'm
going to install them in my ships, and in the--bank. I suspect--we
haven't a lot of time left."

"How near ready are those ships?"

"About. That's all I can say. They've been torn up a bit for
installation of the atostor apparatus. Now they'll have to be changed
again."

"Anything more coming?"

Buck smiled slowly. He turned directly to McLaurin and replied:
"Yes--the Strangers. As to developments--I can't tell, naturally. But if
they do, it will be something entirely unexpected now. You see, given
one new discovery, a half-dozen will follow immediately from it. When we
announced that atostor, look what happened. Renwright must have thought
it was God's gift to suffering physicists. He stuck some oxygen in the
thing, added some of his own stuff--and behold. The magnetic apparatus
gave us directly the shield, and indirectly this mirror. Now, I seem to
have reached the end for the time. I'm still trying to get that
space-release for high speed--speed greater than light, that is. So
far," he added bitterly, "all I've gotten as an answer is a single
expression that simply means practical zero--Heisenberg's Uncertainty
Expression."

"I'm uncertain as to your meaning"--McLaurin smiled--"but I take it
that's nothing new."

"No. Nearly four centuries old--twentieth century physics. I'll have to
try some other line of attack, I guess, but that did seem so darned
right. It just sounded right. Something ought to happen--and it just
keeps saying 'nothi