other words, it leaves a white dwarf." He paused and looked at
Arcot. "I wonder if that star did have any planets?"

They all knew what he meant. What was the probable fate of beings whose
sun had suddenly collapsed to a tiny, relatively cold point in the sky?

Suddenly, there loomed before them the dim bulk of the star, a disc
already, and Arcot snapped the ship over to the molecular motion drive
at once. He knew they must be close. Before them was the angry disc of
the flaming white star.

Arcot swung the ship a bit to one side, running in close to the flaming
star. It was not exceedingly hot, despite the high temperature and
intense radiation, for the radiating surface was too small.

They swung about the star in a parabolic orbit, for, at their velocity,
the sun could not hold them in a planetary orbit.

"Our velocity, relative to this star, is pretty high," Arcot announced.
"I'm swinging in close so that I can use the star's attraction as a
brake. At this distance, it will be about six gravities, and we can add
to that a molecular drive braking of four gravities.

"Suppose you look around and see if there are any planets. We can break
free and head for another star if there aren't."

Even at ten gravities of deceleration, it took several hours to reduce
their speed to a point which would make it possible to head for any
planet of the tiny sun.

Morey went to the observatory and swept the sky with the telectroscope.

It was difficult to find planets because the reflected light from the
weak star was so dim, but he finally found one. He took angular readings
on it and on the central sun. A little later, he took more readings.
Because of the changing velocity of the ship, the readings were not too
accurate, but his calculations showed it to be several hundred million
miles out.

They were decelerating rapidly, and soon their momentum had been reduced
to less than four miles a second. When they reached the planet, Arcot
threw the ship into an orbit around it and began to spiral down.

Through the clear lux windows of the control room, the men looked down
upon a bleak, frozen world.

IX

Below the ship lay the unfamiliar panorama of an unknown world that
circled, frozen, around a dim, unknown sun, far out in space. Cold and
bleak, the low, rolling hills below were black, bare rock, coated in
spots with a white sheen of what appeared to be snow, though each of the
men realized it must be frozen ai