Forty hours later, Arcot was running the ship smoothly at top speed once
again. The four men had gone to bed after more than thirty hours of hard
work. That, coupled with the exhaustion of working under four gravities,
as they had while the ship was going through the storm, was enough to
make them sleep soundly.
Arcot had awakened before the others and had turned on the drive after
resetting their course.
After that was done, there was little to do, and time began to hang
heavily on Arcot's hands. He decided to make a thorough inspection of
the hull when the others awoke. The terrific strain might have opened
cracks in the lux metal hull that would not be detectable from the
inside because the inner wall was separated from the outer envelope.
Accordingly, he got out the spacesuits, making sure the oxygen tanks
were full and all was ready. Then he went into the library, got out some
books, and set about some calculations he had in mind.
When Morey woke, some hours later, he found Arcot still at work on his
calculations.
"Hey!" he said, swinging himself into the chair beside Arcot, "I thought
you'd be on the lookout for more cosmic rays!"
"Curious delusion, wasn't it?" asked Arcot blandly. "As a matter of
fact, I've been busy doing some figuring. I think our chance of meeting
another such region is about one in a million million million million.
Considering those chances, I don't think we need to worry. I don't see
how we ever met _one_--but the chances of hitting one are better than
hitting two."
Just then Fuller stuck his head in the door.
"Oh," he said, "so you're at it already? Well, I wonder if one of you
could tell me just what it was we hit? I've been so busy I haven't had a
chance to think."
"Don't take the chance now, then," grinned Morey. "You might strain your
brain."
"_Please_!" Fuller pleaded, wincing. "Not before breakfast. Just explain
what that storm was."
"We simply came to a region in space where cosmic rays are created,"
explained Arcot.