He turned his head on the bunk and stared at the control panel. There was a confident hum from the auto-pilot, guiding the ship, carrying it into deep space with precision and infallible accuracy of timing. The control panel--_this was not the Space Queen II!_ He knew then. Incredibly, impossibly, he knew. He was in the _Viking_.... _The Viking!_ "No! No! It can't be--Jeff--what did you do--you made a mistake--this isn't the _Space Queen_--" He sobered quickly. For he knew that he didn't have much time. A few minutes--perhaps less ... the auto-pilot--he had set it--the unbalanced fuel mixture--Miles and Carol--they should be here! _What had gone wrong?_ He struggled with the straps. The hum of the auto-pilot. The precision hum, the hum of death--death he had arranged, planned.... In an agony of time he tore the straps loose. He rolled groggily from his grav bunk. He staggered to the control panel. Time, he must beat time. _How much time did he have left?_ He fumbled at the latch controls of the auto-pilot. A minute now was all he needed. One minute to divert eternity.... The panel opened, his fingers shook as he reached for the automatic setting. The hum grew, a click in the electronic mechanism. He knew then it was too late. He screamed. Once. Only once. That was all he had time for. A flash of light engulfed him. A roar he didn't hear. A roar that was swallowed by the vast hunger of empty space. The _Viking_ exploded into a myriad atomic particles. * * * * * "You get him off all right, Jeff?" Miles Berendt adjusted the video-screen as Jeff Morrow's face grinned back at him from the operations office on Earth. Beside Miles, Carol smiled at Jeff as she sat in the co-pilot's seat. "Soggy, but safe, Mr. Berendt. He'll have a pleasant surprise when he wakes up and finds himself in the _Viking_ instead of the _Space Queen II_." Miles nodded. "I know he wanted to make the trip in the _Viking_. Besides, Carol and I prefer the _Space Queen II_. Makes it sort of a sentimental journey." Carol laughed beside him. "Thanks for everything, Jeff. We'll bring you back a piece of wedding cake wrapped in a nice fat freight contract!" Miles broke contact then and turned to Carol. She reached out and squeezed his hand affectionately. "I'm glad everything turned out all right with Bert...." she said. He nodded. "Right, honey. But enough talk. Let's relax and enjoy the trip!" And they did.