either.”
“That’s why I killed the field,” Arpe explained. “I couldn’t
know what you would do under the circumstances, but I was
pretty sure that the ship would resume its normal mass when
the field went down. A mass that size, of course, can’t exist
in the microcosm, so the ship had to snap back. And in the
macrocosm it isn’t possible for a body to be in two places at
the same time. So here we are, gentlemenreunited.”
“Very good, sir,” Stauffer said; but the second officer’s
voice seemed to be a little deficient in hero worship. “But
where is here?”
“Eh? Excuse me, Mr. Stauffer, but don’t you know?”
“No, sir,” Stauffer said. “All I can tell you is that we’re
nowhere near home, and nowhere near the Centauri stars,
either. We appear to be lost, sir.”
His glance flicked over to the Bourdon gages.
“Also,” he added quietly, “we’re still losing air.”
The general alarm had alarmed nobody but the crew, who
alone knew how rarely it was sounded. As for the bubble
gang, the passengers who knew what that meant mercifully
kept their mouths shutperhaps Hammersmith had blustered
them into silenceand the rest, reassured at seeing the stars
again, were only amused to watch full-grown, grim-looking
men stalking the corridors blowing soap bubbles into the air.
After a while, the bubble gang vanished; they were working
between the hulls.
Arpe was baffled and restive. “Look here,” he said sud-
denly. “This surgical emergency of Hoyle’sI’d forgotten
about it, but it seems to have some bearing on this air situa-
tion. Let’s”
“He’s on his way, sir,” Oestreicher said. “I put a call on