CHAPTER IV Danger Ahead I looked at Bert Donovan and he looked at me. Judging by the faces of our two screwball intellectuals, there was something smelly on the _Saturn_. But it was all a deep and dark mystery to me. I said, "Hank, for old times' sake, would you brush that off again lightly for me? In words of one syllable, what has the little letter _i_ got to do with space flight, gray skies and time-travel?" But Hank ignored me. On the right track at last, he was developing his arguments. "Reckon you know more 'bout energy-mass relationships than I do, Lanse. 'Spect you'll remember, then, the transformations cooked up by a guy from our time, feller by the name o' Lorentz? Him an' a couple other guys named Einstein an' Planck fiddled around with hyper-spatial mechanics an' discovered some interestin' things. Includin' the fact that mass is altered when it travels at high velocities. "Whut I figger musta happened is this. The gadget you invented worked even better'n you expected. It worked so durn well that it give the _Saturn_ one whale of a kick in the pants. Made it accelerate at a speed _greater than that of light_! "So then what? Why, then the _plus_ universe warn't big enough to hold the _Saturn_ any more! That wild minute or two you talked about was when you exceeded the limitin' velocity. An' then here you was in the minus universe! Which is, so to speak, the negative matrix of the normal _plus_ universe we ordinarily live in." It didn't make sense to me, but apparently it did to Lieutenant Biggs. He passed a damp palm across a sweating forehead. "You're right, Cleaver! You must be right, because your argument agrees with all the known theories and observed facts. The incredible readings on our instruments, the weird surroundings in which we find ourselves--" He stared at my friend sombrely. "But what are we going to do? How shall we get out of here?" Hank said, "Same way we come in. We blast out." "But I've tried that, Hank," Biggs defended. "Before I realized the full extent of our situation. And nothing happened. There's something strange in the response of the motors. Don't ask me what. It's hard to say, when the _Saturn_ is plunging into beaconless, starless nothing. But stepped-up acceleration is just a waste of fuel." "Yeah?" mused Hank. "That's queer. Now, I wonder why--" At that instant came a most unexpected interruption. Todd, who had been quietly tending his controls, suddenly came to life with a startled cry. "Well, I'll be--Biggs! Captain Hanson!" "Yes?" Both men answered at once. "There--there's a large body before us!" * * * * *