"Let's keep our fingers crossed."

* * * * *

The ship was coasting evenly, in the hands of its invisible pilot. Far
down inside the ship, carefully armoured and protected, a soft human
brain lay in a tank of liquid, a thousand minute electric charges
playing over its surface. As the charges rose they were picked up and
amplified, fed into relay systems, advanced, carried on through the
entire ship--

Gross wiped his forehead nervously. "So _he_ is running it, now. I
hope he knows what he's doing."

Kramer nodded enigmatically. "I think he does."

"What do you mean?"

"Nothing." Kramer walked to the port. "I see we're still moving in a
straight line." He picked up the microphone. "We can instruct the
brain orally, through this." He blew against the microphone
experimentally.

"Go on," Winter said.

"Bring the ship around half-right," Kramer said. "Decrease speed."

They waited. Time passed. Gross looked at Kramer. "No change.
Nothing."

"Wait."

Slowly, the ship was beginning to turn. The turbines missed, reducing
their steady beat. The ship was taking up its new course, adjusting
itself. Nearby some space debris rushed past, incinerating in the
blasts of the turbine jets.

"So far so good," Gross said.

They began to breathe more easily. The invisible pilot had taken
control smoothly, calmly. The ship was in good hands. Kramer spoke a
few more words into the microphone, and they swung again. Now they
were moving back the way they had come, toward the moon.

"Let's see what he does when we enter the moon's pull," Kramer said.
"He was a good mathematician, the old man. He could handle any kind of
problem."

The ship veered, turning away from the moon. The great eaten-away
globe fell behind them.

Gross breathed a sigh of relief. "That's that."

"One more thing." Kramer picked up the microphone. "Return to the moon
and land the ship at the first space field," he said into it.

"Good Lord," Winter murmured. "Why are you--"

"Be quiet." Kramer stood, listening. The turbines gasped and roared as
the ship swung full around, gaining speed. They were moving back, back
toward the moon again. The ship dipped down, heading toward the great
globe below.

"We're going a little fast," the Pilot said. "I don't see how he can
put down at this velocity."

* * * * *

The port filled up, as the globe swelled rapidly. The Pilot hurried
toward the