"I've taken care of that, Todd! Now, do as I say! Hurry, hurry!"
And--well, am I a fool? After all, Lancelot Biggs and I are old
buddies. Once we were bunkmates, even. There came back to me a measure
of the confidence I had once had in him. And I nodded to Todd.
"Try it, Dick. We've got nothing to lose and everything to gain. Give
the order."
He did. Chief Garrity must have been startled but he was too good a
spaceman to argue an order from the bridge. He said, succinctly, "Aye,
sirr!" And then--
I felt the rocking plunge. The moment of brief, incredible dizziness of
frightful speed being intensified to the limiting velocity of light.
My head whirled, but somehow I managed to turn, stare at that ominous
viewpane. And what I saw there brought a shocked cry from my lips!
White--white--dazzling white--then grayness! No other scene than dim
and vacant void, gray, infinite, impenetrable. A glimpse of the lost
universe--the matrix negative wherein are flung such mad things as
attain a speed beyond that of the limiting velocity.
Then crackling across the room agonizedly, "We're clear, Todd? We're
through?"