Below me, the thirst-mad crew wrestled insanely with the ponderous manuals of the forward photon beams. Compressors throbbed a sullen song of power, groaning under the overlord of hard straining engines. The steelite shell of the ship, triple-braced as it was, quivered gently with the vibration.

And above in the control-room, I watched fierce streamers of released photons burst hotly from liquid captive light into free energy. The gigantic recoil slowed the ship perceptibly in her eager rush toward the approaching satellite.

I hesitated, hardly daring to use full power with the forward engines half-crippled from Jupiter warp. But the Sprite's velocity was far too great for safe landing.

“Full power to all forward beams!“ I shouted into the tube, casting caution to the wind.

The trembling black needles of the pressure gauge swung far over. Hot light gushed from the beam nozzles, backrushed soundlessly into the engine room, filled the control cabin with the indefinable acrid sweetness of bursting light. Bright glowing plumes reached out far ahead of the quivering Sprite.