The captain and Nelva Guthrie, staring ... gleaming pinpoints on a darkened visiscreen ... a silver shaft and a hairless ghoul who laughed and laughed....
Dane sucked in air. "Are your guides set, Captain?"
"Computer guides set." Resignation and despair mixed in the greying officer's voice.
"For Callisto?"
"For Callisto."
Seconds, ticking by. Dane counted them as they passed.
Fifteen to go. Ten. Five. Four. Three. Two. One....
Nothing happened. Frowning, Dane started to turn to Helstrom.
It hit him, then—a sudden blazing bolt of power that surged and seethed through his brain. Dimly, as from afar, he was aware that the yat-stick package had slipped from his grasp and fallen to the floor, the truth as to its contents revealed as the plastic covering fell away. For his own part, a strange paralysis seemed to grip him. He stood upright, erect as before; yet it was beyond his power to move a single muscle. Sight and hearing—he still had them, but with vastly limited acuity. And while his brain still functioned, it seemed to work slowly, painfully, as if laboring under almost more of a burden than it could bear.