He grinned sardonically. The fool Earthmen would have a devil of a time doing anything now! The next thing was to switch off his invisibility belt. It was difficult to do delicate work if you couldn't see your own arms and fingers, and punching co-ordinates into a computer was a delicate job. He turned toward the inner door--and, at that moment, the door opened! An Earthman stepped out, an engineer named Harris who had apparently been making some last-minute adjustments on the ship. "Oh, hello, Blaine," Harris said. "I--" Without a word, the Valdorian leaped forward, taking the Earthman by surprise. He slammed his fist into Harris' abdomen, and he doubled up in pain. Torlyn Khy jumped back as the Earthman's foot suddenly sliced toward him. The toe of the engineer's foot hit him stingingly alongside the jaw, but the Valdorian managed to grasp the foot and twist. Then he bent and picked Harris up, and knocked him down again with a crashing blow to the chin. He left the unconscious Earthman on the floor, locking him inside the airlock. He would be no trouble there. The real trouble was that the fight had delayed his timing; it must have taken all of a minute, and in a split-second operation such as this an interval of a minute could be fatal. Without wasting any more time, he got moving. His jaw hurt where the Earthman had slugged him, and his fingers felt stiff. He ran down the corridor to the control room. The big automatic computer was ready to go. Torlyn Khy switched it on, waited for a moment, and then hastily began punching co-ordinates into the computer. He had to hurry; the Earthmen might blast their way into the ship at any moment. Still, he dared not make an error; if he did, the ship might end up a thousand light-years from where it was supposed to materialize--perhaps in the heart of a sun. There was perspiration dripping from his brow by the time he was finished. He turned on the hyperkinetic generator and waited for it to warm up. Still there was no sound from the airlock. A red indicator light on the control panel came on, telling him that the generator was ready. With a triumphant smile, Torlyn Khy reached out and pressed the activator stud. * * * * * Outside the ship, the guards watched the airlock door. "I wonder why Dr. Harris did that?" said a lieutenant. "Who knows?" a sergeant replied. They had seen the airlock open and close, but knowing that Harris was still inside, they had thought little of it. Still, it was odd. The airlock door swung open again. Harris stepped out, looking dazed. The lieutenant ran toward him, and quickly the engineer explained what had happened. "You mean he's inside there? We've got to stop him!" "It's too late," Harris said. "He didn't know that I was doing some adjusting inside there. Go ahead and look." The lieutenant went to the inner door of the airlock and peered in. The whole inside of the ship was gone, vanished as though it had never been.