The _Invincible_ was exceeding the speed of light, was enveloped in the
mysterious darkness that characterized the speed. They could see nothing
outside the ship, for there was nothing to see. But the tiny mechanical
shadow, occupying a place of honor on the navigation board, kept them
informed of the position and the distance of the _Interplanetarian_.
Greg lolled in his chair, watching Russ.
"I don't think we need to worry about him throwing the entire load of
the accumulators at us," he said. "He wouldn't dare load those
accumulators to peak capacity. He's got to leave enough carrying
capacity in the cells to handle any jolts we send him and he knows we
can send him plenty. He has to keep that handling margin at all times,
over and above what he takes in for power, because his absorption screen
is also a defensive screen. And he has to use some power to keep our
television apparatus out."