"No. Been all alone."
"A Neptunian attacked me back in the bushes. Look," he showed Thurner
the frost-bitten bruises on his throat. "Whoever set the Neptunian
on me came this way ... _fast_!" He moved forward, seized Thurner by
the shoulder, and laid his hand on the pilot's heavily-muscled chest.
If Thurner had been the man, speedy running would have resulted in
irregular breathing and heart-action. But the pilot's breathing was
calm and normal. With an angry snarl he seized Timmy's wrist and flung
him backward.
"Keep your hands to yourself, Gordon!" Thurner hissed.
"Sorry." Timmy's eyes squinted into slits, "I was just proving you
innocent ... to my own satisfaction." He turned, climbed out of the
ship, and hurriedly called the Director to report what had occurred.
"Shall I stay on," he asked, "and help investigate?"
"No. We'll clean up the mess. Blast off as soon as possible, and get
back here sooner!"
"QX, sir," said Tim, and hoisted himself aboard ship. "All set?"
"Been ready for twenty minutes."
"Yowsah, boss!" chimed Johnny Damokles.
* * * * *
There was utter silence, but in the midst of it, Callisto vanished.
Seconds later Jupiter's bulk faded redly from the sky to become a dot
silhouetted sunward. And all in silence.
"Lord, man!" Thurner looked at Timmy with a hint of surprise veiling
his usual antagonism. "How in hell does this thing work?"
"Search me," shrugged Timmy. "I worked it out on a sensitizing
principle. My impervium hull was supposed to reject light as a mirror
would, and so throw itself forward like a beam of light. The thing
works, too."
"She sure do," chuckled the delighted Greek. He looked through the
sunward port and watched Jupiter diminishing. "Great Scotts!" he
yelled. "This ships are fast like Greek god, Mercury!"
"And just as inexplicable."
"Why, man?" asked Thurner, "You've told us how she worked."
"You mean ... how I _thought_ she would work. Unfortunately, I tried
the same principle on more impervium ... and not another ship has flown
like this one. My math was wrong, but my mechanics worked. Just once."
"So I'm supposed to operate a fluke to Neptune?"
"Don't worry about it, Thurner. She's dependable and her controls are
exactly like those in an ordinary planetary-liner. Watch." Timmy threw
the wheel down, and the _Solabor_ tipped into a wide curve. Jupiter
vanished. Dotted pinpoints of stars prickled the black of inter-world
space.
"Looks easy," grunted the pilot. He slipped over into the wheelman's
chair, and fiddled experimentally with gadgets. "Okay," he said, "after
four or five minutes I'll be able to handle her."
"QX," said Timmy. "There's a copy of Maconachy's book on Supra-solar
Navigation behind you. Great book, Maconachy, wouldn't want to be in
space without it to lean on." Thurner grunted again.
"Yeah. Good stuff for you practical astrogators. Put it over there in
reach. And listen...." Thurner's voice lost some of its begrudging
tone. "We're on this trip together. Let's make it peaceable." He
stretched out a broad paw, and Timmy shook. Thurner, for all his
slyness and for all the ease with which Tim had knocked him down back
there in the Space Bar, was a powerful man. Tim wondered why he hadn't
fought back.
"All right!" he said, "We're together ... for the duration."
"It's a bargain. Now ... tell me more about how she operates. This
ship's _actually faster_ than light?"
"Yep! Warps across a light beam just the way a sailboat can exceed the
speed of wind on a certain tacks. Look back at the sun."