Lesbee stirred hopefully, and when he felt himself move, realized what had happened. The artificial gravity had been shut off. Simultaneously, the ship had made a half turn within its outer shell. The drive power was now coming from below, a constant one gravity thrust. At this late, late moment, he plunged his hand into the pocket which held the remote control for the pilotless landing mechanism--and activated it. "That ought to turn on his thoughts," he told himself savagely. But if Dzing was telepathing to his masters, it was no longer on the human thought level. So Lesbee concluded unhappily. The ether was silent. He now grew aware of something more. The ship smelled different: better, cleaner, purer. Lesbee's gaze snapped over to the speed dials on the control board. The figures registering there were unbelievable. They indicated that the spaceship was traveling at a solid fraction of the speed of light. Lesbee stared at the numbers incredulously. "We didn't have time!" he thought. "How could we go so fast so quickly--in hours only to near the speed of light!" Sitting there, breathing hard, fighting to recover from the effects of that prolonged speed-up, he felt the fantastic reality of the universe. During all this slow century of flight through space, the _Hope of Man_ had had the potential for this vastly greater velocity. He visualized the acceleration series so expertly programmed by Dzing as having achieved a shift to a new state of matter in motion. The "light speed effect," the Karn robot had called it. "And Tellier missed it," he thought. All those experiments the physicist had performed so painstakingly, and left a record of, had missed the great discovery. Missed it! And so a shipload of human beings had wandered for generations through the black deeps of interstellar space. * * * * * Across the room Browne was climbing groggily to his feet. He muttered, "... Better get back to ... control chair." He had taken only a few uncertain steps when a realization seemed to strike him. He looked up then, and stared wildly at Lesbee. "Oh!" he said. The sound came from the gut level, a gasp of horrified understanding. As he slapped a complex of tractor beams on Browne, Lesbee said, "That's right, you're looking at your enemy. Better start talking. We haven't much time." Browne was pale now. But his mouth had been left free and so he was able to say huskily, "I did what any lawful government does in an emergency. I dealt with treason summarily, taking time only to find out what it consisted of." Lesbee had had another thought, this time about Miller on the bridge. Hastily, he swung Browne over in front of him. "Hand me your blaster," he said. "Stock first." He freed the other's arm, so that he could reach into the holster and take it out.