Noise was a thundering roar in his ears. His whole body felt as if it was about to shake to pieces. The passage was narrow. It had never been intended for humans. Moving upward, Zen found it was too narrow. He got stuck. No matter how hard he tried he could not move an inch forward. The control panel was so close he could spit on it but it could not have been farther out of his reach if it had been on the other side of the Moon. Air was getting short. He twisted and squirmed, fighting like the devil, but his body was wedged into the narrow passage in such a way that he could not move. Something pulled at his arms. Nedra was directly ahead of him. She was trying to pull him forward along the passage. "You?" he whispered. "Who has a better right than I?" she answered. Sweat grimed her face. Her hair was awry. Fiercely she pulled at him. The rocket yawed, beginning its turn in space. He forced himself forward. And came free. Somehow he found the strength to pull himself up in front of the control panel. He was running on nervous energy now and he knew it. No strength was left in his body beyond what he was forcing into it. "Send it out to space!" he muttered. "Send it out there!" He tried to wave his arm in an outward gesture and bumped his hand on the steel hull. Light came through a circular port. He had a glimpse of the Earth down below. The planet was very far away. Blue seas and green land, the planet was also very beautiful. He fumbled his way over the controls, trying to understand them. Somewhere stabilizing gyroscopes were running smoothly. He could hear them. The controls were simple. He decided which way was up, and jammed home the controls. Nothing happened. In the confined quarters his laughter had madness in it. Nedra stared at him. "What happened?" "Nothing. Nothing happened. They're locked in place." His eyes grew very wide. "These controls are only for establishing the flight course. Once that is established and the rocket launched, they automatically lock in place." "Then we can't change the course?" "No." Her face puckered and she looked like a small girl about to cry. Another panel to the left caught his attention. It had a red button on it. He studied the wiring on it. "By thunder!" the words burst involuntarily from his lips. "What is it, Kurt?" "They put a manual control on the warhead. It's got to be that. It can't be anything else." He pointed to the red button. "Why do you suppose they did that?" "Test purposes, probably, to check the firing mechanism before the warhead was installed. What difference does it make?" Nedra's voice was listless. "Maybe we can go to heaven." "What do you mean?" He explained very carefully what he meant. "Explode the rocket here in space?" "Sure," he said. His tone of voice said this was nothing, that anybody could do it. West's voice clamored in his mind again. He ignored it. His hand moved toward the red button.