"What I'm trying to say is this: Wouldn't a set-up similar to this space-eating drive also be capable of exerting mechanical attraction, thereby getting you a constantly increasing neutralizing force?" Steve thought that one over. "Not bad. Not bad at all!" Jimmy jumped to his feet. "It'll work, Steve. We'll have to induce the mechanogravitic force in a cupralum bar by secondary gravitic radiation, but it is a known phenomenon. Drakey, that's top!" "Except for one thing," said Larry. "We're fresh out of magnetogravitic generators. Aside from that, we can run this heap all the way to Sirius." Pete said: "Yeah, and if we did have one, we'd still be short a few thousand alphons. The alphatron won't carry another generator, nor will the little one upstairs." He grinned at Sandra. "We're not tossing cold water on your suggestion. It'll work--but not right now." "Then it was good?" asked Drake with the first question of honest awe she had used in years. "Perfect," said McBride, cheerfully. "But not quite complete. We won't censure you for that, however, since we know that you haven't been hanging around space-warp engineers for the last ten years. You couldn't have known that this mag-grav generator will do service on both ends. All we have to do is to direct the output on a two-lobe pattern instead of a single-lobe pattern, and set our induction bar up above in the field of the mechanogravitic we've already got there. Jimmy, change the output pattern of the mag-grav and we'll hike aloft with the cupralum bar." He bowed at Sandra. "Thanks to that one, we'll be moving right along!" * * * * * Pilot Drake sent the power lever home at thirty feet per, and watched the accelerator climb to exactly thirty, where it stopped and hung. Minutes passed, and the meter read constant. Steve Hammond smiled wider and wider as the minutes added into a quarter hour. "I think our cupralum hull is helping," he said. "How?" asked Pete. "Why, it is collecting enough leakage-warp to create a nice large warp of its own--in which we now travel, and in which the accelerometer reads only that factor 'R' of Mac's. That meter reads the rate of change of acceleration. Drake, step it up to sixty." Sandra advanced the drive, and the meter went up to sixty even. "We're on the ball," said Hammond. "We sure are," said McBride, passing a forefinger over his cheek. "It's hot in here." "I know. And you can call the Lens and tell the Doc we're on our way." "I tried that. The lines were busy, so I shot 'em a 'gram. They know now that we're coming." "I wonder if your math is correct," said Steve. "Why?" "If it is," explained Steve, "we'll be halfway to the Lens in three hours from start--no, wait a minute. We're running at sixty feet now. That means a little better than two hours! But if they are correct, we'll be hitting almost two times the speed of light. That is not possible."