* * * * * In the intense, brilliant region under the vault of heaven the two great creatures, their golden coruscating substance flung across the white space, sensed their coming. My-Ky-El limned the ship with a golden halo and knew the creatures within. He linked with Ra-Fa-El and they communed in soaring crystal carillions of thought. --they are come from the Black Space Hell. The brood of Satan has broken its bonds and penetrated the barrier! --how is it so? the Fallen were shrivelled of substance and energy; shorn of motion and thrust down into the Black Space with no memory of their origin.... --nevertheless they are here in a devious shape and White Space is once again threatened.... --they must be annulled NOW! * * * * * !!!A-ROORRR-UH!!!A-ROORRR-UH!!! The Klaxon howled out the alarm. The control board erupted into a swiftly spreading plague of red warning lights, indicating the Korenyik Matrix Units were being subjected to incredible strain. Roberto punched a row of screen tabs. The normal-space view screens showed nothing. He punched in the E-screens. He gasped at the sight, struck with an awful dread. Great golden mists were clustering, bursting, swirling and spiralling in the blinding whiteness. They wreathed the ship, and the KM units sobbed as they strained against the rending golden energies. Roberto fought against odd, thick fear that tried to prostrate him on the deck and make him grovel in utter, abject terror. _This icy dread that freezes my blood is not of my making_, Roberto thought. With a desperate effort of will he hurled his leaden fingers at the keys and punched in the Omega beams. Eyes burning, he saw ashen whorls spin through the golden mists and crystal screams seemed to splinter in his mind. For a fragment of time the KM units ceased their belabored sobbing and the fear drained from Roberto. In the instant he slammed the jump bar and they were in their own Black Space. "We'll never get home this way," the navigator said. He was trembling with shock. Roberto struggled to keep his own body from quivering. "I will take us home. We will dodge in and out of the two spaces. The danger seems unable to follow. Can you navigate such a course?" * * * * * The navigator was trembling violently and he began to sob. "What were they? So ma--magnificent ... and ... terrifying ... like great golden angels...." "SHUT UP! SHUT UP!" Roberto screamed, his control shattering. He leaned to the limit of his pad straps and struck once and again at the navigator. Roberto pulled his hands back and crowded his anger and fear to the back of his mind. "Can you skip us home?" he again demanded of the navigator. The man's voice was steadier. "I'll need three minutes in black each time to compute position and plot the next jump. But, yes, I can do it."