It took only seconds for the flying column of energy to reach the black circle of the negative mass that menaced Terra.
Yes, seconds only, it took. The negative mass that menaced Sol could not have been far away.
Then cylinder and sphere met in a singular lack of display. The cylinder, narrow but shining, bored into the sphere, dark and menacing. Perceptibly, the sphere slowed, dragged, came to a halt—then accelerated in the reverse direction.
In milliseconds the celestial body of negative mass had been stopped and re-started on its return trip. It accelerated swiftly, the acceleration-factor itself rising as the energy from the column became the energy of motion of the negative mass.
A negative mass—similar to a negative energy-level—demands energy before it can be stable. Its demands were satisfied and then satiated. It raced into unthinkable velocities before the column of energy was all used up and still the column poured into the negative mass.
It could not have been accomplished against a positive mass but the negative mass possessed negative inertia. The harder it was driven, the less energy it took to drive it harder.
Across space it went, becoming a pinpoint in Carroll's artificial viewplate. The stars of the galaxy behind it shone brightly—all but the one directly in line with the flight of the negative mass.
Then, as the spacial stresses diminished and a man could think again in that area, there was a tiny flash on the viewplate.