Gavin's mind was going in circles like a dog chasing its tail. What was Villanowski's motive?
"Go on," said Y in a foreboding voice.
Villanowski looked down at his chains. "A ship travels through space during a passage of time. It had occurred to me that if I could invert the formula and drive a ship through time during a passage of space, the crude rocket ships could be abandoned. Murdock had gotten in trouble when Transplanet was discovered to be a colonal smuggling ring. He had studied astrophysics under me at New Yale. I knew him and knew I could trust him."
Gavin swallowed and struggled to keep a grip on himself. Obviously Villanowski had something up his sleeve.
Villanowski looked at Gavin. "We needed a space ship to complete our experiments. The effect of the drive on a body at rest was startling enough to predict success if we could attain sufficient velocity."
Gavin thought he detected a faint stressing of the word "startling". Villanowski had said, "The effect of the drive on a body at rest was startling...." The Nova was at rest!
"I persuaded Cabot," Villanowski proceeded, "to let me install the mechanism aboard the Nova. Murdock was to try—"
Gavin jumped.
With a back-handed, edge-on swipe, he caught Y in the throat full on his larynx.
Nadia screamed as Y went over backwards and lay still. The factor leaped to his feet. Gavin kicked him in the belly. Spinning against the girl, he wrenched out of her hand the dart-gun which she was drawing.