Then at once, the Martians were through, passed, and inert. They sped on at zero drive, and their courses diverged. "After 'em!" grunted Maynard. "Get 'em on detectors!" The Martians went out of sight. The contact-detectors stretched as the two opposing velocities caused the separation to add into the unthinkable miles. Days passed before the velocity of Guy's fleet dropped to turn-back velocity, and more days passed before Guy's ships were within sight of their quarry. By then, no ship was within detector range of its fellow; the sky was clear save for the inert Martian and the pursuing ship. Slowly, the _Leoniad_ crept up beside the Martian ship. And then as the velocity of _Leoniad_ approached zero relative to the Martian, there was motion in the sky, the detectors flared bright, and the alarm bells rang with ear-splitting loudness. The detector showed a Martian sub-ship at pointer range. Its barrier had been blasted open by the huge vortex that crept and rolled towards the _Leoniad_. "Pilot! Vortex at fourteen--seven ten!" _Leoniad_ creaked. Ponderously, it swapped ends. A seam split, and the intercom became hoarse with the shrill of escaping air and the cries of the repair crew. An alarm rang loud, which stopped when the split seam was plastered. Acceleration took hold, and the men were nailed to their places. The generator alarm pealed, indicating dangerous overload. More plates creaked as the drivers took the power and strained against the mass and inertia of the _Leoniad_. "Not enough!" The turrets of the _Leoniad_ whipped around and the sub-ship was blasted in a vast, expanding flare. But its work was done. Though the drivers, straining their best, were fighting the _Leoniad_ into velocity, there was too little time. The vortex caught up with the _Leoniad_, passed upward from base to top, and went on to die in the remoteness of space. The breakers blew, the fuses sputtered, and _Leoniad_ went inert. She coasted away from the Martian at much less than one mile per second. * * * * * Maynard bumped gently into the wall of his scanning room and the pain wakened him. Dazedly, he passed a hand over his face, and the movement turned him over in midair. He clutched foolishly at the wall, and then waited until he found a handhold. He handed himself to the floor of the room, and sought the desk. Forcing himself into the seat, Guy snapped the safety belt and then reached for the communicator. "Pilot! Technician! Navigator! Isn't there anybody alive on this crate!" He sat and thought. Something had happened that was not in the books. He'd hit a vortex and had awakened without help. The others--what had happened to them? The communicator spoke tinnily: "Is there anybody else on this space can?" "Maynard--who's speaking?" "You and I are all?" came the return. "This is Hume, the assistant calculator." "Might as well get together," said Maynard. "Come on in."