The Ra-Twelve's control room lay brightly lit and silent behind him.
"Ha-ha!" Peer's chuckle came from the communicator. "That woke you up, I bet! Was that you that fell over?"
"Aw-awk!" breathed Channok. Articulation came back to him. "All right, crew-member Peer! Just wait till we get to Old Nameless! I'll fix you good!"
"Shall I tell you the story now about the Horror Ship from Mizar?" Peer inquired intrepidly.
"Go right ahead," Channok challenged, righting his chair and settling back into it. "You can't scare me with that sort of stuff!" He began checking their position.
He must have been asleep for quite a while! The Nameless System was less than two hours ahead now. He switched on the front screen; and the sun swam up like a big, glowing coal before him. He began checking for the seventh planet.
"Well," he reminded the communicator grimly, "you were going to tell me a story."
The communicator remained silent a moment.
"I don't think I will, anyway," Peer said then, rather quietly.
"Why not?" Channok inquired, getting his screen-viewer disentangled from a meteor-belt in the Nameless System.