Jay Star touched a switch, and his small oval space-pod, named Quest, came to a stop close to the dusty side of the large globe shaped spaceship, which had been placed in orbit around his planet, Gobar, by four space tugs after it had been found drifting through this solar system. The alien sphere, which was about 5 miles in diameter, looked like a cratered moon that had been drifting through space for quite some time.

Jay touched another switch, and a rod, which had a magnet at its end, reached out from the side of the Quest to clang silently against the metal side of the spaceship. The dust on the metal surface rippled in small waves out away from the impact of the magnet as water would do when a small stone is dropped in a pond, and the ripples exposed the red metal skin of the sphere.

"March, this is going to be tricky," Jay said, "That dust is metallic and will build up on the magnetic soles of my boots."

"Okay, Star, we have you on the screen," came the reply over the Ship to Ship radio band into Jay's helmet speaker from Deb March who was in the mother ship, Signet, with Luke Spear. Deb added, "Make sure you hook the tether securely, Star."

"Roger, Deb," Star said with a slight smile in his voice.

Jay Star was already suited to go out into the vacuum of space, so he opened the hatch above his head to let out the little atmosphere that was left in the Quest. Then, he placed his gloved hands over the edge of the opening and pulled his body out of the craft. As he floated above the opening, Jay hooked a tether line to an eye-bolt there and plugged the center of the tether, which was his SS link to the Quest's radio, into a receptacle beside the eye-bolt. Then he pushed off feet first toward the curved side of the huge sphere. Jay bent his knees, but he still felt the jolt go through his body when the soles of his boots hit the solid metal of the sphere.

He straightened up and looked around and said, "I'm on the outer skin of the sphere."

"Roger," Deb March replied.

Off to his left, Jay saw that the small Quest hung above the outer skin of the large spaceship as if it was balanced on top of that small rod that held the Quest to the metal skin of the spaceship. Above him, the bright stars almost hid the cone shape of the Signet, which had brought Jay and the other two out here from Space Station Glory that orbited the planet, Gobar. Gobar was hidden from Jay's view by this huge spaceship, but Tri, which was the sun that shone down on Gobar, was above and behind him. Tri's yellow rays cast Jay's shadow across a bright yellow crater in the dull red skin of the huge sphere, and this crater was what Jay was to explore. There were many craters like this one on this huge sphere, and they were the only blemishes on its outer skin.

"I'm going over to the edge of the crater now," Jay said, "I'll try to keep my boots as close to the metal as I can, so the dust won't build up too much on the magnetic soles."

"Roger," Deb said. Then she said, "Be careful, Jay."

Sliding his left foot forward then sliding his right foot forward, and repeating this procedure, Jay reached the edge of the crater in less than one minute.

"I'm at the edge of the crater," Jay said, "and I can see a round hole at the bottom that looks big enough for me to get through."

"Roger," Deb said, "Is your tether line going to be long enough?"

"Yes, I think so," Jay answered, "I've got a hundred and fifty feet, and the crater is only twenty-five feet deep."

"Okay, Star," Luke Spear said, "Ground control said to go ahead, but to be very cautious." Luke's job was to inform the Ground control crew of Jay's actions via the Ship to Ground radio link.

"I will," Jay said as he slipped his right foot loose from the metal surface and moved it over the edge and down onto the sloping side of the crater. When he began to raise his left foot, his right foot slipped off the yellow surface.

"Hey, guys," Jay called out as he put his right foot back on the metal hull, "the crater's surface isn't ferrous metal. I'll have to use the grabbers to pull myself to the hole."

"Okay, Star, but won't the dust interfere with the grabbers?" Deb asked.

"Doesn't look like there's any dust in the crater, March."

After a short pause, Luke said, "Okay, Star, but Ground control wants you to get a sample of the metal on the inside of the crater before you start out."

"Will do," Jay said.

Jay reached into a pocket at his waist and brought out a small hammer and a tube. The tube was a chisel that would keep the metal inside of it until the chisel was brought back to the lab aboard the Signet. Jay crouched down and placed the tube against the yellow metal. Then he hit the tube sharply with the hammer, and the tube cut deep into the metal.

"This metal is real soft," Jay said, as he pulled the tube out of the small hole in the yellow metal, "and I've got a good sample of it."

Jay put the hammer and tube back in a pocket and unclipped the two grabbers from his belt. Each grabber had a handle with a trigger that, when squeezed, would push the inner part of the grabber against the surface. When the trigger was released, the inner part would be pulled away and the grabber would release its grip and could be moved forward. There was also a lock to keep the cup gripped to the surface if needed.

"I'm going to use the grabbers now," Jay informed the two.

"Roger," Deb said.

Jay pulled himself down to the edge of the crater and placed one of the grabbers on the yellow metal inside the crater and pulled the trigger to lock. Placing the other grabber on the crater side and locking the cup in place, Jay broke loose the grip of his magnetic boots from the metal of the sphere. His feet were now floating out away from the sphere, and he began to crawl forward into the two hundred feet wide crater.

After a few minutes of silence, Jay said, "I'm at the edge of the hole, and it's big enough for me to crawl into, so I'm going to go in feet first."

"Okay, Star," Deb said.

Jay unlocked the right hand grabber and clipped it to his belt. Holding onto the left hand grabber, Jay swiveled his body around until his feet entered the round hole. Then he pulled his body into the hole and turned loose of the grabber. He left the grabber there and pushed against the sides of the hole with his hands to move himself farther into the shaft.

The tether peeled out of the reel on his belt as Jay went farther into the shaft. The light, which was attached to Jay's helmet, reflected off the yellow sides of the shaft, but Jay hadn't seen any cracks in the side of the shaft when he came to the end of his tether. Bending his helmet down toward his feet, Jay could see the open end of the shaft that was not more than ten feet away.

"I'm at the end of my tether," Jay said, "and the end of the shaft is about twelve feet farther along. What do you think about me going on without the tether?"

"We'll have to talk to Ground control, Star, and get back with you," Deb said, "But I don't think you should." Then she asked, "Can you see anything at the end of the shaft?".

"There is some red light there, March," Jay answered, "but it's very dim. I would like to see what it is."

"Roger," Deb said, "Stay where you are and we'll get back with you."

Jay counted off a minute and four seconds in his mind as he waited for a reply.

"Star," Luke said, "Ground control said for you to come out of the shaft, so we can hook you up to a longer tether. They don't believe it would be advisable for you to go ahead without contact with the Signet."

"I understand, Spear," Jay said, "but I don't have that much air to come out and get a longer tether and then to come back in. I'm going to unhook from the SS band for a little while, so I can take a quick look at the opening ahead. It won't take long so don't tell Ground control, okay."

"Jay," Deb said anxiously, "don't do it! There's no telling what's up ahead."

"Deb," Jay said softly, "don't worry I'll be fine. I'll still be hooked to the tether by my suit line."

"Star," Spear said, "if you're going to go ahead, we'll give you five minutes before we tell Ground control. Then, if you don't report in, we're coming in to get you, okay?"

"Okay, Spear," Jay said as he unhooked the tether reel from his belt and unplugged the SS band. Then he hooked the twenty feet of suit line to the tether reel and, holding on to the suit line with one hand, pushed himself toward the end of the shaft.

Jay could feel the slight pull of gravity as he emerged from the round shaft into the dim red light of the round room, which was shaped like the inside of a ball. Covering the surface of the curved walls, were many small red lights that were about a foot apart.

Jay loosened his grip on the line and let the pull of gravity lower him to the curved surface. When Jay's feet touched the surface, the red lights became brighter and began to blink off and on. Jay felt a vibration in the vacuum around him, and the vibration was building up pressure against his suit very fast.

"I had better get the hell out of here!" Jay thought to himself, as he gripped the line and climbed up, hand over hand, until he was away from the pull of gravity. But the vibration and pressure was following him up the shaft.

Jay didn't stop to hook up to the SS band. He touched the switch of the gas jet, which was on the back of his suit, and sped through the round shaft and out into space. When he came to the end of the suit line, which was hooked to the tether, Jay was jerked to a stop and was swung in a large arc back toward the huge sphere of the alien spaceship.

Using the controls of the jet pack, Jay brought himself to a stop before he hit the side of the sphere. At that time, Jay saw the ball of fire emerge from the crater and head out into space. The fire ball was moving so fast that it vanished in less than a second.

Jay pulled on the suit line to get to the tether reel, then he hooked the reel to his belt and plugged in the SS band.

"Hey, March, Spear," Jay said excitedly, "did you guys see that?" But there was no answer.

"Can you hear me Deb?" Jay asked.

There still was no answer.

"I must have pulled the plug loose from the Quest," Jay said, as he began to pull himself toward the small space-pod.

When he got to the Quest, Jay saw that the SS band was plugged in, so he unplugged it and unhooked the tether and pulled himself down into the Quest's seat. After closing the hatch, Jay hooked his suit's air and power plugs into the Quest.

"Can you guys hear me now?" Jay asked again.

There was still no answer, so Jay began to pressurize the Quest with air. When the space-pod was pressurized, Jay took off his helmet and gloves; then, he placed his three fingers and thumb around the hand mike.

(All the inhabitants of Gobar had 4 fingers on each hand and 4 toes on each foot. Which made their math work in base 8. The numbers 8 and 9 were not used in their language at all. They counted like this: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 20 and so forth.)

"Okay, you guys," he said, "I know you can hear me now."

When there was no answer, Jay disconnected the Quest's magnetic arm from the metal side of the sphere and took the Quest out to where the Signet should have been. From out there, Jay could see Gobar and could contact Ground control on the SG band.

"Hello, Ground control," Jay said into the hand mike.

"Ground control here," one of the ground crew said, "Is that you, Star? Are you all right?"

"I'm fine," Jay said, "but I can't seem to raise anyone in the Signet on the SS band. Will you give them a call?"

"The Signet isn't there," the voice said, "What ever it was that came from the spaceship took the Signet with it, but we'll keep searching for it. What the hell happened up there?"

"Damn-it, Debbie," Jay thought as tears began to form in his eyes, "I'm sorry. I loved you so much." Then he wiped the tears from his eyes and told Ground control about the gravity, vibration, and the flashing red lights that he had set off when he touched them. And he told them how he had gotten out of the shaft just before the fire ball had emerged from the crater.

"Is there any chance that they're still alive?" Jay added.

"We don't believe there is, Star. All telemetry signals from the Signet stopped when the fire ball came out from the spaceship. But how did you get to the end of the shaft, Star? Spear told us that your tether line was too short."

"The tether was too short, Ground control. I unhooked from the tether and hooked my suit line to it, so I could go on into the ship.

"I just thought of something, ground control. If the Signet is gone, and I have only about 6 hours of air left in the Quest, how am I going to get back to Gobar? Is there a ship docked at Space Station Glory?"

There was a long silence before the voice from Ground control said, "That is going to be problem, Star. There's no ship docked at SSG, but we may be able to get a ship up to you in 12 hours. I guess that won't do you much good, though, will it Star?"

"No, no it won't!" Jay said with a touch of anger, "That'll be 4 hours too late." Jay softened his voice and said, "But I may as well make good use of what time I have left. What do you have for me to explore next?"

"Roger, Star, we know how you must feel. We have found a crack in the sphere. The crack is in the side of the ship that faces Gobar, so you will be able to stay in touch with us."

"Roger, ground control," Jay said, "I may get lucky and get inside this sphere before my time runs out."

Jay moved the Quest around the huge sphere to the side that faced toward Gobar. Watching the screen closely, he saw what looked to be a crack, which was about 1600 feet long and 50 feet wide, in the side of the spaceship and stopped the Quest above it. The sun shone down on the sphere at an angle and made the crack look wider than it actually was.

"Ground control," Jay said, "I've found the crack, and it looks like one side is higher than the other. I'm going in closer so I can send you some pictures of it."

"Roger," Ground control said."

As he moved in closer, Jay pushed the switch to send the pictures of the crack toward Gobar. At about twenty feet out from the sphere's surface, Jay stopped the Quest.

"Ground control," Jay said, "It doesn't look like a crack from here. It looks more like a huge hatch that's only partly open. As you can see, the smooth edges of the crack are wider in the center and then they close to a point at both ends. I didn't see where the other side of the hatch's edge went into the ship, but that's what the crack looks like from here."

"Roger. We're studying the pictures now, Star."

Jay thought that the Quest would fit between the edges of the crack at its widest point, so he moved the Quest closer to the sphere's surface. Just as the Quest passed through the opening into the sphere, Jay heard from Ground control.

"Star, this is Ground control. Don't take the Quest into the ship. There may be a gravity force like the one in that crater shaft. If there is, it'll pull you down into it, and the Quest doesn't have the lifting force to bring you back out."

"Ground control," Jay said angrily, "you're still getting pictures aren't you? That's what I'm up here for is to find out what's on the inside of this huge spaceship, so don't worry about me. I'll be dead in five hours anyway if I don't find some air on the inside of this ship."

"Roger," Ground control said.

As the small Quest descended down through the thick skin of the huge sphere, the sides of the opening began to blend with the darkness inside the ship, so Jay switched on the Quest's outside lights, and he soon saw the inside edge of the ship's thick skin come into view. Jay stopped the descent and slowly spun the Quest in a circle.

This room was very large and there were hundreds of small red spheres attached to a flat deck below him. If the spheres were setting on the floor of this huge room, the partly opened hatch would be above them.

Jay felt that he would not get the Quest back out again if he descended on into the room, but he knew there was no hope for him unless he found a supply of air in this ship, so Jay guided the Quest toward the red spheres.

As the Quest approached the spheres, which were larger than Jay thought, the Quest began to pick up speed. Jay had to use all the force that the gas jets would put out to keep the Quest from crashing onto the floor below. The pull of gravity became too strong for the Quest, and the Quest hit the floor in a skid that brought it up against one of the spheres.

Jay heard the hiss of escaping air so he quickly put on his helmet and gloves and sealed them in place. Then he shut off the air supply to the inside of the Quest.

"Well," Jay thought, "there goes a few minutes of my life. I better go out and see how bad the Quest is damaged."

Jay began to reach up to open the hatch, but found that his arms were very heavy. He had been in zero gravity for over three days, so he wasn't used to the pull of gravity yet. But he managed to open the hatch and pull himself up to stand on the seat. The lights around the outside of the Quest were still working, so he could see that the front of the Quest was buckled and cracked where it touched one of the legs that held the sphere above the deck. His suit was still hooked to the air and power of the Quest, so he called Ground control.

"Ground control, can you copy?"

"Roger, Star, but your signal is very weak."

"That's because the gravity here pulled the Quest hundreds of feet inside the spaceship to a deck that is covered with red spheres, which are held above the deck by six short legs, and the Quest crashed against the leg of one of these spheres. The spheres are about four times as big as the Quest, and they look like small models of the huge spaceship. They even have yellow craters in their skin.

"According to my instruments, the gravity here is point 75 G's, about Gobar norm, so it'll be awhile before I can get used to it. I did lose some air, though, when I crashed, so I have only a little over 4 hours of air left."

"Roger," Ground control said.

Jay had 1 hour of air left in his suit tank, which would hold 2 hours, so he sat down in the seat and filled the tank from the Quest's air supply. Then Jay unhooked from the Quest's air and power and stood up on the seat to hook his tether line to the eye-bolt on the outside of the Quest.

Jay plugged in the SS band and said, "Ground control, can you copy?"

"Roger, Star, we can copy you."

"I just hooked up to my tether and wanted to make sure the SS to SG band worked. I'm climbing out on top of the Quest now. When I get on top, I'm going to slide down the side of the Quest to the deck."

"Roger," Ground control said.

Jay raised himself up onto the edge of the opening and swung his feet out onto the Quest's hull. At that moment, the Quest rolled a little, and Jay began to slide backward. He spun his feet around and slid down the smooth side of the Quest to the deck, which was 6 feet below the top of the Quest. Jay landed on his feet and would have fallen forward, but the magnets in the soles of his boots held him to the deck.

"I'm on the deck," Jay said, "but I'm going to have to take the magnets off my boots, so I can walk around."

"Roger," Ground control said.

Jay bent over and pulled loose the flaps on the toes and heels of his boots and stepped out of the magnetic soles. Then he walked forward to look at the front of the Quest.

The front of the Quest was under the red sphere and up against one of the round legs, which were 3 inches thick and protruded 10 feet from the bottom of the sphere to the deck, and the Quest was crumpled around the leg. The space-pod was made of very light metal and wasn't built to withstand this type of hit.

"The front of the Quest is damaged pretty bad, Ground control. But that doesn't really matter because the gas jets wouldn't raise it off this deck anyway. I'm going to check out this sphere, which is about 50 feet in diameter."

"Roger," Ground control said.

Jay walked all the way around the sphere, using the light on his helmet, but he didn't see any openings into it, but for the small holes in the center of the yellow craters. Then he walked under the sphere, and, there, he found a thin crack that made a circle, 4 feet in diameter, in the smooth skin of the sphere's bottom.

Jay felt around the crack with his gloved hand and found six small dents next to it on one side of the circle. The six dents had a square crack around them, so he pushed against the square, but nothing happened. Jay then placed the 3 fingers on each of his hands in the dents and pushed on the square, and the square moved in an inch. Then, the circled part of the skin began to come out of the bottom of the sphere.

Jay stepped back and watched as a cylinder shaped column moved down and stopped against the deck. A section, which was about 2 feet wide and 6 feet high, in the side of the column slipped in and slid to the side flooding the deck with light. The column was hollow and the inside was empty.

"Ground control, I believe I've found a way to get into this sphere, but I'll have to unhook from my tether."

Jay then told Ground control what he had seen when he had walked around the cratered sphere, and how he had found the way to get the column to come out of the sphere. Then Jay asked how much air he had left.

"Roger," Ground control said, "We figure you have 1 hour and 17 minutes of air left in the suit tank, and 2 hours in the Quest."

"Okay, Ground control. I'm going to unhook from my tether and the SS band now. If you don't hear from me in 1 hour and 17 minutes, you'll know I'm history."

"Roger, Star, good luck."

Taking the tether reel from his belt and unplugging the SS band, Jay laid the reel down on the deck and stepped up and into the column.