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but perhaps it is invisibility.’
    ‘What?’ Maddox shook his head. ‘Invisible or not substance still has mass. It has temperature. It radiates energy. It can be spotted on instruments.’
    ‘Not if it rested in a spherical field,’ Manton insisted. ‘A bubble of force which rotates all received energy through a half-circle of 180 degrees. It is a mathematical concept, Carl, which we used to play with at university. How to become invisible. You can’t do it by becoming transparent because any touch of dust or dirt will reveal you as it would a building made of glass. But if light could be rotated so that you saw not the object before you but the light it received from behind —’
    ‘Then you wouldn’t see it at all!’ Maddox punched his right fist into his left hand. ‘Of course. All light and so all visibility would be curved in a half-circle so that you would look around the object and not at it. The same would apply to all bands of the electro-magnetic spectrum. Our instruments are registering the energies received from beyond the area, the stars we see are really occluded but we can’t tell that and so, for us, space ahead is empty. But how, Eric? Magnetic fields?’
    ‘If so they must be of incredible density.’ Manton was dubious. ‘It’s possible, but I’m inclined to think a spatial warp of some kind could be responsible.’
    Lifting the communicator from his belt Maddox snapped, ‘Mission Control…Saha? Have the computer check on all stellar observations. I want special reference paid to any variation in apparent brightness or shift of position no matter how minute. Full scan in direction ahead and for 180 degrees to either side. Top priority. Rose?’
    He waited until her face replaced Saha’s on the tiny screen.
    ‘Correlate all instrument readings for the past month against those presently received. I want detailed comparisons as to temperature and radiation fluctuations. In all future scans include Doppler compensations based on spectrum shift.’
    Light had mass, it could be bent by gravitational or magnetic fields, but unless those fields were perfect there would be minor variations. If spotted they could plot the extent of the bubble before them. Light was similar to sound; advancing it rose in pitch, retreating it lowered. A shift to the red meant that a light source was retreating, towards the blue that it was advancing towards them. Again they could only hope for minor alterations, but any information would be of value.
    But none would solve the main question.
    ‘What’s in there?’ Maddox voiced his main worry. ‘Eric, what are we heading into?’
    ‘I don’t know, Carl.’ Manton was coldly precise. ‘Only time will answer that. But there is another question which should be asked.’
    ‘How can we defend ourselves?’ Maddox looked at the other, his face grim. ‘I know, Eric. Any suggestions?’
    *
    He was aching and sore but alive and all in one piece and, for that, Douglas West was grateful. Cautiously he stretched, feeling the nag of bruises.
    Watching him Claire said, ‘Take things easy for a while, Douglas. Some heat and massage will help.’
    ‘Ivan?’
    He too was all in one piece and still alive but, watching him through the transparent partition, West would have wished that, if he had been in the same condition, the instruments registering his physical condition would have dropped to zero. No man, while living, should adopt the appearance of a corpse. No pilot should be staring with dull eyes at the ceiling, his hands limply folded in his lap. No human should lie like a vegetable unable to even smile.
    Without turning his head West asked, ‘How long?’
    ‘Since the trouble.’
    ‘When the Pinnace went haywire?
    ‘There was nothing wrong with the Pinnace, Douglas. The fault was entirely human. Don’t you remember?’
    He frowned, remembering only Ivan’s sudden madness, his own confusion.
    ‘Frank was monitoring,’ she explained. There was no need to