--but the flaming disk of VanMaanen's Star was gone.
Something had failed, but it hadn't been the equipment.
Something had failed, but it hadn't been the star.
And the station and the control room was drifting aimlessly in space.
Inspection showed that no star was close enough to be VanMaanen's Star.
There were no stars within a couple of light-years from them. Above
their heads, the projectors were idling in their slack gimbals, the
tie-beams were off. The solar intake beams were taking in no power. The
lake of helium, a twenty-foot open bath on the roof of the housing, was
lying quiescent.
The entire assembly and assemblage was as it had been before the
initial surge of power, excepting that Brimstone and his bright primary
were nowhere to be seen.