The Jovian nodded gravely. "You shall have it. The requisite apparatus shall be installed in your spaceship immediately. But you must help us. Tell us your destination, that we may calculate the co-ordinates, and bring you to your objective." "We must go," said Gary, "to the galaxy of the star known as Sirius." "Sirius! Outside our solar system?" The Councillor frowned. "That is difficult and perilous. There are dangers even to our method." "We must risk them. As it is, we have no way of telling if we are going to the proper place. Nor, indeed, whether when we get there we will find ways to do that which we must. "Tell me, what is the limiting velocity of this new method you have devised? How fast will we be able to travel?" The Jovian smiled faintly. "Upon that score, Earthman, you need have no apprehension. You will reach your destination in plenty of time--if you reach there at all. Because, you see, there is _no_ limiting velocity to our method." "No limiting--?" "None at all. Your translation from one spot to another will be practically instantaneous." "Instantaneous!" cried Dr. Anjers. "But that is impossible. Only by warping space itself could an object be transferred instantaneously from one spot to another!" "And that," acknowledged the Jovian, "is identically the principle upon which our secret is based. Our instruments do not enable an object to _move_ at a speed greater than that of the limiting velocity of light. Such a thing is, by definition and natural law, quite impossible. No, the principle we employ is utterly different. The object itself does not move at all. It merely stands still ... for a brief time cast into a state of infinite entropy...." "And then--?" asked Dr. Bryant. "Space warps itself about the object, unfolding to place it in an entirely new sector. Thus, you see, our speed-heightening device does not depend upon velocity at all, but on the unchangeable mechanics of Space and Time. It is, in brief, a method of flight through the Fourth Dimension!" CHAPTER XII Betrayed The worst enemies make the staunchest allies. That old truism never proved itself more surely than to Gary Lane and his comrades in the ensuing days. Those same Jovians who, considering them enemies, had been swift to condemn them to death with but a travesty of trial now, allied to their cause, proved themselves most eager of aides. While technicians hastened to equip the _Liberty_ with that secret device which would enable the ship to project itself through quadridimensional space to the ulterior universe, other craftsmen labored diligently to refurbish the ship, check its armaments, and render it in all ways completely shipshape for the journey to follow.