There was complete silence for a moment as the Grak stared at them gloatingly, and they looked back in despair. To have gotten so close, only to be stopped now! They could see the little teddy bear ship through another door behind the Grak, in a large cargo area.

Unexpectedly, George’s father leaped forward. With a strangled cry, he attacked the Grak with all his strength, hitting and kicking him. The Grak was so surprised that he staggered backwards—and dropped his blaster!

Instantly, the Protector leaped forward and grabbed the blaster. The Grak had recovered from his shock and shoved George’s father roughly aside, but found the blaster pointed at his chest by the Protector.

“The tables have turned,” said the Protector quietly. He adjusted a knob on the blaster, then to George’s shock, pulled the trigger. A beam of light shot out of the blaster and caught the Grak in the chest. He slumped to the floor and was silent.

“Not to worry,” said the Protector, noticing George’s shocked look. “I set the blaster to stun. He’ll wake up in a few hours, feeling a bit sore. I just didn’t want to have to tie him up—we don’t have time!”

The Protector rushed through the other door and toward the ship, while George reached out a hand to his father, to help him up.

“Don’t touch me!” cried his father anxiously, waving George back. “The sickness, you know.” He staggered to his feet. “I’m all right,” he said softly. “He didn’t hurt me.”

“That was incredible!” said George in awe. “You attacked him when he had a blaster pointed at you!”

“I don’t know what came over me,” said his father with a rueful smile. “It was crazy, I guess. Downright foolhardy! But I just couldn’t stand the thought of them winning again—and keeping you captive.”

The Protector had disappeared inside the teddy bear ship. They could hear its engines start to whine, and could see the Protector beckoning to them urgently from a window in the forward hull.

“We’d better get on board quick,” said his father, breaking into a run. George quickly followed him through the other door and into the cargo area, and then up the ramp and into the ship.

Once more, George was taken aback by the unexpected interior of the teddy bear ship. The floor, the walls, the chairs, everything was decorated in soft, plush fluffiness. Most of it was pink and purple, with a few soft yellow swirls mixed in. It looked more like a pre-school playroom than a spaceship.

But the Protector had managed to find a control panel, apparently by pulling a pillow off what had looked like a couch. There were dozens of glowing dials and knobs on the panel, and the Protector was feverishly punching buttons.

“We’ll be lifting off in a few seconds,” he said, turning to George and his father. “The coordinates are all set. Just flip that switch on the wall behind you to raise the entrance ramp, please.”

Turning, George saw a switch and flipped it. The ramp slowly closed behind them.

“How are we going to open the outside door?” asked George’s father worriedly. “It looks like we’re trapped inside this cargo hold.”

“I’ve already located the remote control door opener,” said the Protector, turning back to the control panel. “It’s similar to a garage door opener on your planet. I’ll first shut the door we came in by remote control, to trigger the air lock, then open the outside cargo door.”

He flipped another series of switches. Through the window, George saw the door they had come in—with the unconscious Grak on the other side—gently swing closed. Turning, he then saw a large door in the side of the cargo area suddenly start to open. Loose items on the floor of the cargo area immediately started to lift in the air and drift about, caught up by the weightlessness of space.

“Now, just a few more seconds,” said the Protector, pushing more buttons feverishly.

Suddenly, the lights in the cargo area turned red, and a siren began to blare. “They’re on to us!” cried the Protector, over the noise of the siren and the increasing whine of the ship’s engines. “We’ve got to get out that door before they close it with their override button!”

George noticed the outer cargo door had stopped opening. The stars of space were beckoning to them gently from the other side, but the opening seemed very small. Was it big enough for them to get out?

The teddy bear ship suddenly lurched into the air, and swung around to face the door. And at that very instant, the door began to close!

“Hold on!” cried the Protector. “No time for a smooth exit—it’s gonna be a quick one!”

There was a blast of sound, and George was shoved off his feet as if he had been punched in the chest. He flew against the wall, hitting it so hard, that for an instant, some of the stars he was seeing were not all intergalactic ones.

George saw that the Protector had also been shoved back, and was hanging onto the controls for dear life. Yet, amazingly, his father had hardly moved, and was standing as erect as before, as if nothing had happened!

“We’re out!” cried the Protector. “The door was barely open wide enough!”

“We made it!” cried George excitedly, staring in tremendous relief at the stars filling the outside window.

“Not exactly,” said the Protector grimly. “They’ve got a tractor beam they’re going to hit us with, any second, like they did when they captured me. It’ll pull us right back to the cargo hold.”

“You mean, we’re still trapped?” cried George. “Isn’t there a way to get past it?” He stared back through the window at the Grak ship, sitting ominously in space behind them.

“Not normally,” said the Protector. “But there is a way. No time to explain. Just hold on.”

The teddy bear ship swerved suddenly, and arced upward. Then, to George’s surprise, it headed back down directly toward the Grak ship! What was the Protector doing?

The Protector was feverishly working the controls. Suddenly, George saw a stream of white shoot out of the teddy bear ship toward the Grak ship.

“Nothing but water,” said the Protector, anticipating George’s question about what the white stuff was. “Just enough to mark their tractor beam.”

The teddy bear ship swerved around sharply again, shoving George back against the wall. His father had sat down on one of the tiny, fluffy teddy bear chairs in order to not be tossed about as much.

“Now, up and away!” cried the Protector. Yet, even as the teddy bear ship surged forward, George saw a beam of greenish light shoot out of the Grak ship toward them. He could see it clearly in the white crystallized water that still shrouded the Grak ship like a fog.

“That’s their tractor beam,” said the Protector. “We can see it because of the water I sprayed on them.” He flipped some more switches, and suddenly it felt as if the teddy bear ship had come to a screeching stop in space. The force of their sudden stop shoved George once more against the wall.

“Their tractor beam just shot ahead of us,” said the Protector. “Right where we would have been if we hadn’t seen it and stopped! That should give us just barely the time we need …”

He talked slowly and deliberately as he worked the switches on the control panel. “It’ll take them about 15 seconds to reset their tractor beam for another try. Meanwhile, we should be able to get just out of range—“

George was again shoved against the wall as the teddy bear ship shot forward as if being blasted from a gun. The Protector had evidently given it full power.

George watched in fascination as the Grak ship shrank away from them at incredible speed. Boy, were they moving!

“You sure know how to operate a spaceship,” said George’s father in admiration.

“Oh, it’s nothing really,” said the Protector, with as much modesty as he could muster. “I’m just a genius, that’s all.”

George saw another greenish beam of light shoot through the fog around the Grak ship. “That’ll be another tractor beam,” said the Protector. “And it’s going to grab us this time.” Even as he spoke, the teddy bear ship shuddered, as if it had been grabbed by an invisible hand. The ship slowed nearly to a stop, and shook as wildly as a flag in a windstorm.

“They’ve almost got us,” said the Protector, sweat beading on his face in concentration. “But they don’t quite have enough power. We’re too far away …” He flipped some more switches. George could hear the engines of the little teddy bear ship whine as they peaked at full power.

And slowly, they began to move forward! “It’s working!” cried the Protector happily. “They were so convinced they’d get us with their tractor beam, they didn’t use their guns on us! Now we’re out of both gun range and tractor beam range!” He flipped some more switches, and the ship swerved suddenly to the left. “Now, to make a real jump!” said the Protector, enthusiastically. The tractor beam suddenly lost its grip, and the teddy bear ship shot forward as if propelled by a slingshot. George once again flew against the wall.

“Now, the chase begins,” said the Protector softly, turning more levers and switches on the control panel. “But not for long. This ship is pretty fast. In about 30 seconds we’ll break the light barrier, and then they’ll be lost for good.”

“Break the light barrier?” said George curiously.

“That’s right,” replied the Protector, not taking his eyes from the gauges. “Or, as they would say in Star Wars, we’ll make the jump to light speed. Only it’s not really a jump. It’s more of a gradual build up of speed until you just bridge over the speed of light. Sort of like an airplane on your planet building up speed until it gradually pierces through the sound barrier. Then it’s traveling faster than sound.”

“Fascinating!” said George’s father. “I wish we had such technology on earth.”

“Be glad you don’t,” replied the Protector. “From what I’ve seen of earthlings, I don’t think they’re ready for such power just yet.”

George noticed that the stars seemed to be shuddering gently, as if they were spiraling in tiny little circles around where they had just been the second before.

“We’re almost at the light barrier,” said the Protector calmly. “The light of the stars always begins to act funny at about this point.” He flipped some more switches, and to George’s surprise, a black sheath suddenly descended down across the window, completely shutting off their outer vision. Glancing back, he could barely see the Grak ship like a tiny speck behind them before the shield closed completely and cut off his vision.

“It’s a light shield,” said the Protector, anticipating George’s question about the shield. “After we break through the light barrier, the light of the stars looks like it’s gone crazy. Without the shield, we’d be blinded. But if we flip a few more switches—“

Suddenly, the stars reappeared in the window, exactly as they had been before. The Protector turned to George and gave a deep sigh of relief.

“We made it,” he said with a happy sigh. “Boy, was that a close shave!”

“How come the stars came back into view?” asked George. “And where’s the Grak ship?” He pointed to where he had last seen it before the window was shielded.

“It’s still there,” said the Protector. “It just isn’t being projected onto the screen like the stars are.”

Seeing George’s look of confusion, the Protector explained. “The stars you’re seeing aren’t real. They’re just images projected on the light shield, as if it were a movie screen. That’s so we can watch our progress through space. Only the more advanced projector screens show spaceships or other objects than stars that may be around us. This teddy bear ship isn’t that advanced.”

“Isn’t there a chance we may hit something out there that we don’t see?” asked George’s father worriedly. “Like maybe an asteroid?”

“No,” replied the Protector casually. “The ship’s navigation detects them all and steers clear of them. We’re perfectly safe. And the Grak ship won’t be following us for long. It’s impossible to follow another ship for very long after breaking the light barrier. Even the most advanced ships can’t do it!”

George’s father came over and looked in amazement at the myriad of dials and buttons on the control panel. He whistled softly. “I don’t know how on earth you can make sense of that,” he said in wonder. “Much less, how you could make this ship do all the things you just did. That was an amazing job of space flying!”

“Aw, shucks,” said the Protector, happily embarrassed. “It was nothing. For a genius, that is.”

“I’ve been thinking,” said George suddenly. “The Grak ship doesn’t need to follow us, does it? They already know where we’re going—to earth! They’ll probably just send a message ahead and have another of their ships meet us just as we’re getting close!”

The Protector looked at George in admiration. “You’re absolutely correct,” he said gently. “Well done, to have thought of that. I’m sure the Grak have done exactly what you said!”

“Then, there’s no hope!” cried George’s father in despair. “After all your efforts, we’ll just be captured again—within sight of home!”

“Not exactly,” said the Protector. “I knew they’d do that, so I plotted a different course. We’re not going to earth. We’re going somewhere they don’t expect us to go—somewhere with lots of transporters. As soon as we arrive there, we can just go through a transporter and be at my home on earth immediately, the minute we walk through!”

George’s eyes lit up in excitement. “You don’t mean …” he said slowly.

“That’s right!” said the Protector in triumph. “We’re going to my planet! We’re going to Dluron!”