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Distribution System
Modeling and Analysis
Distribution System
Modeling and Analysis
Fourth Edition
William H. Kersting
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does not warrant the accuracy of the text or exercises in this book. This book’s use or discussion
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MathWorks of a particular pedagogical approach or particular use of the MATLAB® software.
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Library of Congress Cataloging‑in‑Publication Data
Names: Kersting, William H., author.

Title: Distribution system modeling and analysis / William H. Kersting.
Description: Fourth edition. | Boca Raton : Taylor & Francis, CRC Press, 2017.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017010755 | ISBN 9781498772136 (hardback : alk. paper) |
ISBN 9781498772143 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Electric power distribution--Mathematical models.
Classification: LCC TK3001 .K423 2017 | DDC 333.793/2--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017010755
Visit the Taylor & Francis Web site at

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and the CRC Press Web site at

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Contents
Preface.......................................................................................................................xi
Acknowledgments.............................................................................................. xvii
Author.................................................................................................................... xix
1. Introduction to Distribution Systems.........................................................1

1.1 The Distribution System.......................................................................1
1.2 Distribution Substations.......................................................................2
1.3 Radial Feeders........................................................................................5
1.4 Distribution Feeder Map.......................................................................6
1.5 Distribution Feeder Electrical Characteristics...................................8
1.6 Summary.................................................................................................9
Reference............................................................................................................9
2. The Nature of Loads...................................................................................... 11

2.1 Definitions............................................................................................. 11
2.2 Individual Customer Load................................................................. 13
2.2.1 Demand.................................................................................... 13
2.2.2 Maximum Demand................................................................ 13
2.2.3 Average Demand.................................................................... 14
2.2.4 Load Factor.............................................................................. 14
2.3 Distribution Transformer Loading.................................................... 15
2.3.1 Diversified Demand............................................................... 16
2.3.2 Maximum Diversified Demand............................................ 16
2.3.3 Load Duration Curve............................................................. 17
2.3.4 Maximum Noncoincident Demand..................................... 18
2.3.5 Diversity Factor....................................................................... 18
2.3.6 Demand Factor........................................................................ 19
2.3.7 Utilization Factor.................................................................... 20
2.3.8 Load Diversity......................................................................... 20
2.4 Feeder Load........................................................................................... 20
2.4.1 Load Allocation....................................................................... 21
2.4.1.1 Application of Diversity Factors............................ 21
2.4.1.2 Load Survey............................................................. 21
2.4.1.3 Transformer Load Management........................... 25
2.4.1.4 Metered Feeder Maximum Demand.................... 26
2.4.1.5 What Method to Use?............................................. 27
2.4.2 Voltage Drop Calculations Using Allocated Loads........... 28
2.4.2.1 Application of Diversity Factors............................ 28
2.4.2.2 Load Allocation Based upon
Transformer Ratings............................................... 32
v
vi Contents
2.5 Summary............................................................................................... 33
Problems........................................................................................................... 33
3. Approximate Method of Analysis............................................................. 39

3.1 Voltage Drop......................................................................................... 39
3.2 Line Impedance.................................................................................... 41
3.3 “K” Factors............................................................................................42
3.3.1 Kdrop Factor................................................................................43
3.3.2 Krise Factor................................................................................. 45
3.4 Uniformly Distributed Loads............................................................. 47
3.4.1 Voltage Drop............................................................................ 47
3.4.2 Power Loss............................................................................... 50
3.4.3 The Exact Lumped Load Model........................................... 52
3.5 Lumping Loads in Geometric Configurations................................ 55
3.5.1 The Rectangle.......................................................................... 55
3.5.2 The Triangle............................................................................. 60
3.5.3 The Trapezoid..........................................................................65
3.6 Summary............................................................................................... 71
Problems........................................................................................................... 71
Reference.......................................................................................................... 76
4. Series Impedance of Overhead and Underground Lines......................77

4.1 Series Impedance of Overhead Lines................................................77
4.1.1 Transposed Three-Phase Lines............................................. 78
4.1.2 Untransposed Distribution Lines......................................... 79
4.1.3 Carson’s Equations................................................................. 81
4.1.4 Modified Carson’s Equations................................................83
4.1.5 Primitive Impedance Matrix for Overhead Lines.............. 86
4.1.6 Phase Impedance Matrix for Overhead Lines.................... 86
4.1.7 Sequence Impedances............................................................ 89
4.1.8 Parallel Overhead Distribution Lines.................................. 96
4.2 Series Impedance of Underground Lines......................................... 99
4.2.1 Concentric Neutral Cable.................................................... 100
4.2.2 Tape-Shielded Cables........................................................... 106
4.2.3 Parallel Underground Distribution Lines......................... 109
4.3 Summary............................................................................................. 113
Problems......................................................................................................... 114
WindMil Assignment................................................................................... 118
References...................................................................................................... 119
5. Shunt Admittance of Overhead and Underground Lines................... 121

5.1 General Voltage Drop Equation....................................................... 121
5.2 Overhead Lines.................................................................................. 123
5.2.1 The Shunt Admittance of Overhead Parallel
Lines....................................................................................... 127
Contents vii
5.3 Concentric Neutral Cable Underground Lines.............................. 130

5.4 Tape-Shielded Cable Underground Lines...................................... 134
5.5 Sequence Admittance........................................................................ 136
5.6 The Shunt Admittance of Parallel Underground Lines............... 137
5.7 Summary............................................................................................. 138
Problems......................................................................................................... 138
References...................................................................................................... 139
6. Distribution System Line Models............................................................ 141

6.1 Exact Line Segment Model............................................................... 141
6.2 The Modified Line Model................................................................. 150
6.2.1 The Three-Wire Delta Line.................................................. 150
6.2.2 The Computation of Neutral and Ground
Currents.................................................................................. 152
6.3 The Approximate Line Segment Model.......................................... 155
6.4 The Modified “Ladder” Iterative Technique.................................. 160
6.5 The General Matrices for Parallel Lines......................................... 163
6.5.1 Physically Parallel Lines...................................................... 166
6.5.2 Electrically Parallel Lines.................................................... 172
6.6 Summary............................................................................................. 177
Problems......................................................................................................... 178
References...................................................................................................... 183
7. Voltage Regulation...................................................................................... 185

7.1 Standard Voltage Ratings.................................................................. 185
7.2 Two-Winding Transformer Theory................................................. 187
7.3 Two-Winding Autotransformer....................................................... 192
7.3.1 Autotransformer Ratings..................................................... 196
7.3.2 Per-unit Impedance.............................................................. 199
7.4 Step-Voltage Regulators.................................................................... 202
7.4.1 Single-Phase Step-Voltage Regulators............................... 204
7.4.1.1 Type A Step-Voltage Regulator........................... 204
7.4.1.2 Type B Step-Voltage Regulator............................ 206
7.4.1.3 Generalized Constants......................................... 208
7.4.1.4 The Line Drop Compensator............................... 209
7.4.2 Three-Phase Step-Voltage Regulators................................ 216
7.4.2.1 Wye-Connected Regulators................................. 216
7.4.2.2 Closed Delta-Connected Regulators.................. 226
7.4.2.3 Open Delta-Connected Regulators..................... 229
7.5 Summary............................................................................................. 241
Problems......................................................................................................... 241
References...................................................................................................... 247
viii Contents
8. Three-Phase Transformer Models........................................................... 249

8.1 Introduction........................................................................................ 249
8.2 Generalized Matrices........................................................................ 250
8.3 The Delta–Grounded Wye Step-Down Connection..................... 251
8.3.1 Voltages.................................................................................. 251
8.3.2 Currents.................................................................................. 256
8.4 The Delta–Grounded Wye Step-Up Connection........................... 267
8.5 The Ungrounded Wye–Delta Step-Down Connection................. 269
8.6 The Ungrounded Wye–Delta Step-Up Connection...................... 281
8.7 The Grounded Wye–Delta Step-Down Connection..................... 283
8.8 Open Wye–Open Delta..................................................................... 290
8.9 The Grounded Wye–Grounded Wye Connection......................... 296
8.10 The Delta–Delta Connection............................................................ 299
8.11 Open Delta–Open Delta.................................................................... 309
8.12 Thevenin Equivalent Circuit............................................................ 314
8.13 Summary............................................................................................. 317
Problems......................................................................................................... 318
9. Load Models................................................................................................. 325

9.1 Wye-Connected Loads...................................................................... 325
9.1.1 Constant Real and Reactive Power Loads......................... 326
9.1.2 Constant Impedance Loads................................................. 327
9.1.3 Constant Current Loads....................................................... 327
9.1.4 Combination Loads.............................................................. 328
9.2 Delta-Connected Loads..................................................................... 332
9.2.1 Constant Real and Reactive Power Loads......................... 332
9.2.2 Constant Impedance Loads................................................. 333
9.2.3 Constant Current Loads....................................................... 333
9.2.4 Combination Loads..............................................................334
9.2.5 Line Currents Serving a Delta-Connected Load..............334
9.3 Two-Phase and Single-Phase Loads................................................334
9.4 Shunt Capacitors................................................................................334
9.4.1 Wye-Connected Capacitor Bank.........................................334
9.4.2 Delta-Connected Capacitor Bank....................................... 335
9.5 Three-Phase Induction Machine...................................................... 336
9.5.1 Induction Machine Model................................................... 337
9.5.2 Symmetrical Component Analysis of a Motor.................340
9.5.3 Phase Analysis of an Induction Motor..............................346
9.5.4 Voltage and Current Unbalance.......................................... 353
9.5.5 Motor Starting Current........................................................354
9.5.6 The Equivalent T Circuit......................................................354
9.5.7 Computation of Slip.............................................................. 361
9.5.8 Induction Generator............................................................. 362
Contents ix
9.5.9 I nduction Machine Thevenin Equivalent Circuit............ 365

9.5.10 The Ungrounded Wye–Delta Transformer Bank
with an Induction Motor�� 368
9.6 Summary............................................................................................. 375
Problems......................................................................................................... 376
References...................................................................................................... 380
10. Distribution Feeder Analysis.................................................................... 381

10.1 Power-Flow Analysis......................................................................... 381
10.1.1 The Ladder Iterative Technique.......................................... 382
10.1.1.1 Linear Network..................................................... 382
10.1.1.2 Nonlinear Network............................................... 383
10.1.2 General Feeder...................................................................... 386
10.1.3 The Unbalanced Three-Phase Distribution Feeder......... 387
10.1.3.1 Shunt Components................................................ 388
10.1.4 Applying the Ladder Iterative Technique......................... 389
10.1.5 Let’s Put It All Together....................................................... 390
10.1.6 Load Allocation..................................................................... 398
10.1.7 Loop Flow.............................................................................. 399
10.1.7.1 Single-Phase Feeder.............................................. 399
10.1.7.2 IEEE 13 Bus Test Feeder........................................ 405
10.1.7.3 Summary of Loop Flow....................................... 412
10.1.8 Summary of Power-Flow Studies....................................... 412
10.2 Short-Circuit Studies......................................................................... 413
10.2.1 General Short-Circuit Theory............................................. 413
10.2.2 Specific Short Circuits.......................................................... 417
10.2.3 Backfeed Ground Fault Currents........................................422
10.2.3.1 One Downstream Transformer Bank.................423
10.2.3.2 Complete Three-Phase Circuit Analysis............ 426
10.2.3.3 Backfeed Currents Summary.............................. 435
10.3 Summary............................................................................................. 435
Problems......................................................................................................... 436
WindMil Assignment...................................................................................442
References...................................................................................................... 447
11. Center-Tapped Transformers and Secondaries..................................... 449

11.1 Center-Tapped Single-Phase Transformer Model......................... 449
11.1.1 Matrix Equations.................................................................. 453
11.1.2 Center-Tapped Transformer Serving Loads
through a Triplex Secondary�� 460
11.2 Ungrounded Wye–Delta Transformer Bank with
Center-Tapped Transformer�� 466
11.2.1 Basic Transformer Equations.............................................. 466
11.2.2 Summary................................................................................ 483
x Contents
11.3 pen Wye–Open Delta Transformer Connections.......................484

O
11.3.1 The Leading Open Wye–Open Delta Connection...........484
11.3.2 The Lagging Open Wye–Open Delta Connection........... 485
11.3.3 Forward Sweep..................................................................... 486
11.3.4 Backward Sweep................................................................... 490
11.4 Four-Wire Secondary......................................................................... 493
11.5 Putting It All Together...................................................................... 497
11.5.1 Ungrounded Wye–Delta Connection................................ 497
11.5.2 Open Wye–Delta Connections............................................ 503
11.5.3 Comparisons of Voltage and Current Unbalances.............508
11.6 Summary.............................................................................................508
Problems......................................................................................................... 509
WindMil Homework Assignment.............................................................. 510
References...................................................................................................... 511
Appendix A: Conductor Data........................................................................... 513

Appendix B: Underground Cable Data.......................................................... 517
Index...................................................................................................................... 519
Preface
One of the “hot” topics today is the “smart grid.” At the very start, I want
to emphasize that this text is intended to only develop and demonstrate
the computer models of all of the physical components of a distribution
system. As the text develops the component models, it will become clear
that what we called “load” is the weak link in the overall analysis of a dis-
tribution system. At present, the only true information available for every
customer is the energy, in kilowatt hours, consumed during a specified
period. This topic is addressed in Chapter 2. The problem with load is that
it is constantly changing. Computer programs can be and have been devel-
oped that will very accurately model the components; but without real load
data the results of the studies are only as good as the load data used. As
the smart grid is developed, more accurate load data will become available,
which will provide for a much more accurate analysis of the operating con-
ditions of the distribution system. What needs to be emphasized is that the
smart grid must have computer programs that will very accurately model
all of the physical components of the system. The purpose of this text is to
develop the very accurate models of the physical components of a distribu-
tion system.
In the model developments, it is very important to accurately model the
unbalanced nature of the components. Programs used in the modeling of
a transmission system make the assumption that the system is a balanced
three-phase system. This makes it possible to model only one phase. That is
not the case in the modeling of a distribution system. The unbalanced nature
of the distribution system has to be modeled. This requirement is made pos-
sible by modeling all three phases of every component of the distribution
system.
The distribution system computer program for power-flow studies can be
run to simulate present loading conditions and for long-range planning of
new facilities. For example, the tools provide an opportunity for the distri-
bution engineer to optimize capacitor placement to minimize power losses.
Different switching scenarios for normal and emergency conditions can be
simulated. Short-circuit studies provide the necessary data for the develop-
ment of a reliable coordinated protection plan for fuses and recloser and
relay/circuit breakers.
So what is the problem? Garbage in, garbage out is the answer. Armed
with a commercially available computer program, it is possible for the user
to prepare incorrect data, and as a result, the program outputs are not cor-
rect. Without an understanding of the models and a general “feel” for the
operating characteristics of a distribution system, serious design errors and
operational procedures may result. The user must fully understand the
xi
xii Preface
models and analysis techniques of the program. Without this knowledge,

the garbage in, garbage out problem becomes very real.
The purpose of this text is to present the reader a general overall feeling
for the operating characteristics of a distribution system and the modeling of
each component. Before using the computer program, it is extremely impor-
tant for the student/engineer to have a “feel” for what the answers should
be. When I was still teaching, I would bring up how my generation used a
slide rule as our computational tool. The advantage of using a slide rule was
you were forced to know what the “ballpark” answer should be. We have lost
that ability owing to hand calculators and computers, but understanding the
ballpark answer is still a necessity.
It has been very interesting to receive many questions and comments
about previous editions of the text from undergraduate and graduate stu-
dents in addition to practicing engineers from around the world. That gets
back to the need for the “feel” of the correct answer. New students need to
study the early chapters of the book in order to develop this “feel.” Practicing
engineers will already have the “feel” and perhaps will not need the early
chapters (1, 2, and 3). In developing the fourth edition of the book, I have
retained most of the contents of the first three editions and have added
“advanced” topics in the final four chapters. The advanced topics should be
of interest to the practicing engineers.
This textbook assumes that the reader has a basic understanding of trans-
formers, electric machines, transmission lines, and symmetrical components.
In many universities, all of these topics are crammed into a one-semester
course. For that reason, a quick review of the needed theory is presented as
required.
There are many example problems throughout the text. These examples
are intended to not only demonstrate the application of the models but
also teach the “feel” of what the answers should be. The example prob-
lems should be studied very carefully since they demonstrate the applica-
tion of the theory just presented. Each chapter has a series of homework
problems that will assist the student in applying the models and devel-
oping a better understanding of the operating characteristics of the com-
ponent being modeled. Most of the example and homework problems are
very number-intensive. All of the example problems have used a software
package called “Mathcad” [1]. I have found this software to be a wonderful
number-crunching tool used to apply the models and perform the analysis
of a feeder. Many simple Mathcad routines are displayed in some of the more
intensive example problems. The students are urged to learn how to use this
powerful tool. The students are also encouraged to write their own com-
puter programs for many of the homework problems. These programs can
use Mathcad or the more popular MATLAB® [2].
As more components are developed and the feeder becomes more
complicated, it becomes necessary to use a sophisticated distribution
Preface xiii
analysis program. Milsoft Utility Solutions has made a student version of

“WindMil” [3] available along with a user’s manual. The user’s manual
includes instructions and illustration on how to get started using the pro-
gram. Starting in Chapter 4, there is a WindMil assignment at the end of the
homework problems. A very simple system utilizing all of the major com-
ponents of the system will evolve as each chapter assignment is completed.
In Chapter 10, the data for a small system are given that will allow the stu-
dent/engineer to match operating criteria. The student version of WindMil
and the user’s manual can be downloaded from the Milsoft Utility Solutions
website homepage. The address is:
Milsoft Utility Solutions

P.O. Box 7526
Abilene, TX 79608
E-mail: [email protected]
Homepage: www.milsoft.com
Unfortunately, there is a tendency on the part of the student/engineer to

believe the results of a computer program. Although computer programs are
a wonderful tool, it is still the responsibility of the users to study the results
and confirm whether or not the results make sense. That is a major concern
and one that is addressed throughout the text.
Chapter 1 presents a quick overview of the major components of a dis-
tribution system. This is the only section in the text that will present the
components inside a substation along with two connection schemes. The
importance of the distribution feeder map and the data required is presented.
Chapter 2 addresses the important question—what is the “load” on the
system? This chapter defines the common terms associated with the load. In
the past, there was limited knowledge of the load, and many assumptions
had to be made. With the coming of the smart grid, there will be ample real-
time data to assist in defining the load for a given study. Even with better
load data, there will still be a concern on whether or not the computer results
make sense.
Chapter 3 may seem to be old fashioned and of not much use because it
develops some approximate methods that help in developing a feel for ball-
park answers. It is important that the new students study this chapter in
detail; in the process, they will discover ways of evaluating the correctness
of computer program results.
The major requirement of a distribution system is to supply safe and
reliable energy to every customer at a voltage within the ANSI standard is
addressed in Chapters 4 and 5. The major goal of planning is to simulate
the distribution system under different conditions now and into the future
and ensure that all customer voltages are within the acceptable ANSI range.
Because voltage drop is a major concern, it is extremely important that the
xiv Preface
impedances of the system components be as accurate as possible. In par-

ticular, the impedances of the overhead and underground distribution lines
must be computed as accurately as possible. The importance of a detailed
feeder map that includes the phase positions for both overhead and under-
ground line is emphasized.
Chapter 6 develops the models for overhead and underground lines using
the impedances and admittance computed in earlier chapters. The “exact”
model along with an approximate model is included. The “ladder” (forward/
backward sweep) iterative method used by many commercial programs and
the matrices required for the application of the ladder analysis method are
introduced. Methods of modeling parallel distribution lines are included in
this chapter.
Chapter 7 addresses the important concept of voltage regulation: How is it
possible to maintain every customer’s voltage within ANSI standards when
the load is varying all of the time? The step-voltage regulator is presented as
an answer to the question. A model is developed for the application in the
ladder technique.
Chapter 8 is one of the most important chapters in the text. Models for
most three-phase (closed and open) transformer connections in use today
are developed. Again, the models use matrices that are used in the ladder
iterative technique. The importance of phasing is emphasized once again.
Chapter 9 develops the models for all types of loads on the system. A
new term is introduced that helps define the types of static load models.
The term is “ZIP.” Most static models in a distribution system can be mod-
eled as constant impedance (Z), constant current (I), or constant complex
power (P), or a combination of the three. These models are developed for
wye and delta connections. A very important model developed is that of
an induction machine. The induction motor is the workhorse of the power
system and needs, once again, to be modeled as accurately as possible.
Several new sections have been included in this chapter that develop
models of the induction machine and associated transformer connection
that are useful for power-flow and short-circuit studies. Induction gen-
erators are becoming a major source of distributed generation. Chapter 9
shows that an induction machine can be modeled either as a motor or as
a generator.
Chapter 10 puts everything in the text together for steady-state power-flow
and short-circuit studies. The “ladder” iterative technique is introduced in
Chapter 4. This chapter goes into detail on the development of the ladder
technique starting with the analysis of a linear ladder network that is intro-
duced in most early circuit analysis courses. This moves onto the nonlinear
nature of the three-phase unbalanced distribution feeder. The ladder tech-
nique is used for power-flow studies. A method for the analysis of short-
circuit conditions on a feeder is introduced in this chapter.
Chapter 11 introduces the center-tapped transformer that is used for provid-
ing the three-wire service to customers. Models for the various connections
Preface xv
are introduced that are used in the ladder iterative technique and short-
circuit analysis. The WindMil assignments at the end of Chapters 10 and
11 allow the student/engineer to build and to study and fix the operating
characteristics of a small distribution feeder.
References
1. Mathcad: www.ptc.com
2. MATLAB: www.mathworks.com
3. WindMil: www.milsoft.com
Acknowledgments
I want to thank the many students and engineers who have communicated
with me via e-mail their questions about some of the contents of the third
edition. It has been a pleasure to work with these individuals in helping
them to understand better some of the models and applications in the text.
Since I am retired, it has been a real pleasure to have the opportunity to work
with many graduate students working on their research involving distribu-
tion systems. I hope that students and practicing engineers will continue to
feel free to contact me at [email protected].
Special thanks to Wayne Carr, Milsoft Utility Solutions, Inc., for allowing
me to make WindMil a major part of the third and fourth editions. Thanks
also to the many support engineers at Milsoft who have guided me in devel-
oping the special WindMil assignments.
As always, I want to thank my wife, Joanne, who has been very supportive
of me for over 50 years. She has been very patient with me as I worked on the
fourth edition.
xvii
Author
William H. Kersting received his BSEE from New Mexico State University
(NMSU), Las Cruces, NM and his MSEE from the Illinois Institute of
Technology. Prior to attending graduate school and for a year after gradu-
ate school, he was employed by El Paso Electric Company as a distribution
engineer. He joined the faculty at NMSU in 1962 and served as a professor
of electrical engineering and from 1968 as the director of the Electric Utility
Management Program until his retirement in 2002. He is currently a consul-
tant for Milsoft Utility Solutions.
Professor Kersting is a life fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers (IEEE). He received the NMSU Westhafer award for Excellence
in Teaching in 1977 and the Edison Electric Institutes’ Power Engineering
Education award in 1979. He has been an active member of the IEEE Power
Engineering Education Committee and the Distribution Systems Analysis
Subcommittee.
xix
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Title: The star-stealers
Author: Edmond Hamilton
Illustrator: Hugh Rankin
Release date: April 21, 2024 [eBook #73442]
Language: English
Original publication: Indianapolis, IN: Popular Fiction Publishing

Company, 1929
Credits: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed

Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STAR-

STEALERS ***
THE STAR-STEALERS
By EDMOND HAMILTON
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from

Weird Tales May, February 1929.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
As I stepped into the narrow bridgeroom the pilot at the controls
there turned toward me, saluting.
"Alpha Centauri dead ahead, sir," he reported.
"Turn thirty degrees outward," I told him, "and throttle down to
eighty light-speeds until we've passed the star."
Instantly the shining levers flicked back under his hands, and as I
stepped over to his side I saw the arrows of the speed-dials creeping
backward with the slowing of our flight. Then, gazing through the
broad windows which formed the room's front side, I watched the
interstellar panorama ahead shifting sidewise with the turning of our
course.
The narrow bridgeroom lay across the very top of our ship's long,
cigar-like hull, and through its windows all the brilliance of the
heavens around us lay revealed. Ahead flamed the great double star
of Alpha Centauri, two mighty blazing suns which dimmed all else in
the heavens, and which crept slowly sidewise as we veered away
from them. Toward our right there stretched along the inky skies the
far-flung powdered fires of the Galaxy's thronging suns, gemmed
with the crimson splendors of Betelgeuse and the clear brilliance of
Canopus and the hot white light of Rigel. And straight ahead, now,
gleaming out beyond the twin suns we were passing, shone the
clear yellow star that was the sun of our own system.
It was the yellow star that I was watching, now, as our ship fled on
toward it at eighty times the speed of light; for more than two years
had passed since our cruiser had left it, to become a part of that
great navy of the Federation of Stars which maintained peace over
all the Galaxy. We had gone far with the fleet, in those two years,
cruising with it the length and breadth of the Milky Way, patrolling
the space-lanes of the Galaxy and helping to crush the occasional
pirate ships which appeared to levy toll on the interstellar commerce.
And now that an order flashed from the authorities of our own solar
system had recalled us home, it was with an unalloyed eagerness
that we looked forward to the moment of our return. The stars we
had touched at, the peoples of their worlds, these had been friendly
enough toward us, as fellow-members of the great Federation, yet
for all their hospitality we had been glad enough to leave them. For
though we had long ago become accustomed to the alien and
unhuman forms of the different stellar races, from the strange brain-
men of Algol to the birdlike people of Sirius, their worlds were not
human worlds, not the familiar eight little planets which swung
around our own sun, and toward which we were speeding
homeward now.
While I mused thus at the window the two circling suns of Alpha
Centauri had dropped behind us, and now, with a swift clicking of
switches, the pilot beside me turned on our full speed. Within a few
minutes our ship was hurtling on at almost a thousand light-speeds,
flung forward by the power of our newly invented de-transforming
generators, which could produce propulsion-vibrations of almost a
thousand times the frequency of the light-vibrations. At this
immense velocity, matched by few other craft in the Galaxy, we were
leaping through millions of miles of space each second, yet the
gleaming yellow star ahead seemed quite unchanged in size.
Abruptly the door behind me clicked open to admit young Dal Nara,
the ship's second-officer, descended from a long line of famous
interstellar pilots, who grinned at me openly as she saluted.
"Twelve more hours, sir, and we'll be there," she said.
I smiled at her eagerness. "You'll not be sorry to get back to our
little sun, will you?" I asked, and she shook her head.
"Not I! It may be just a pin-head beside Canopus and the rest, but
there's no place like it in the Galaxy. I'm wondering, though, what
made them call us back to the fleet so suddenly."
My own face clouded, at that. "I don't know," I said, slowly. "It's
almost unprecedented for any star to call one of its ships back from
the Federation fleet, but there must have been some reason——"
"Well," she said cheerfully, turning toward the door, "it doesn't
matter what the reason is, so long as it means a trip home. The
crew is worse than I am—they're scrapping the generators down in
the engine-room to get another light-speed out of them."
I laughed as the door clicked shut behind her, but as I turned back
to the window the question she had voiced rose again in my mind,
and I gazed thoughtfully toward the yellow star ahead. For as I had
told Dal Nara, it was a well-nigh unheard-of thing for any star to
recall one of its cruisers from the great fleet of the Federation.
Including as it did every peopled star in the Galaxy, the Federation
relied entirely upon the fleet to police the interstellar spaces, and to
that fleet each star contributed its quota of cruisers. Only a last
extremity, I knew, would ever induce any star to recall one of its
ships, yet the message flashed to our ship had ordered us to return
to the solar system at full speed and report at the Bureau of
Astronomical Knowledge, on Neptune. Whatever was behind the
order, I thought, I would learn soon enough, for we were now
speeding over the last lap of our homeward journey; so I strove to
put the matter from my mind for the time being.
With an odd persistence, though, the question continued to trouble
my thoughts in the hours that followed, and when we finally swept
in toward the solar system twelve hours later, it was with a certain
abstractedness that I watched the slow largening of the yellow star
that was our sun. Our velocity had slackened steadily as we
approached that star, and we were moving at a bare one light-speed
when we finally swept down toward its outermost, far-swinging
planet, Neptune, the solar system's point of arrival and departure for
all interstellar commerce. Even this speed we reduced still further as
we sped past Neptune's single circling moon and down through the
crowded shipping-lanes toward the surface of the planet itself.
Fifty miles above its surface all sight of the planet beneath was shut
off by the thousands of great ships which hung in dense masses
above it—that vast tangle of interstellar traffic which makes the
great planet the terror of all inexperienced pilots. From horizon to
horizon, it seemed, the ships crowded upon each other, drawn from
every quarter of the Galaxy. Huge grain-boats from Betelgeuse, vast,
palatial liners from Arcturus and Vega, ship-loads of radium ores
from the worlds that circle giant Antares, long, swift mail-boats from
distant Deneb—all these and myriad others swirled and circled in
one great mass above the planet, dropping down one by one as the
official traffic-directors flashed from their own boats the brilliant
signals which allowed a lucky one to descend. And through
occasional rifts in the crowded mass of ships could be glimpsed the
interplanetary traffic of the lower levels, a swarm of swift little boats
which darted ceaselessly back and forth on their comparatively short
journeys, ferrying crowds of passengers to Jupiter and Venus and
Earth, seeming like little toy-boats beside the mighty bulks of the
great interstellar ships above them.
As our own cruiser drove down toward the mass of traffic, though, it
cleared away from before us instantly; for the symbol of the
Federation on our bows was known from Canopus to Fomalhaut, and
the cruisers of its fleet were respected by all the traffic of the Galaxy.
Arrowing down through this suddenly opened lane we sped smoothly
down toward the planet's surface, hovering for a moment above its
perplexing maze of white buildings and green gardens, and then
slanting down toward the mighty flat-roofed building which housed
the Bureau of Astronomical Knowledge. As we sped down toward its
roof I could not but contrast the warm, sunny green panorama
beneath with the icy desert which the planet had been until two
hundred thousand years before, when the scientists of the solar
system had devised the great heat-transmitters which catch the
sun's heat near its blazing surface and fling it out as high-frequency
vibrations to the receiving-apparatus on Neptune, to be transformed
back into the heat which warms this world. In a moment, though,
we were landing gently upon the broad roof, upon which rested
scores of other shining cruisers whose crews stood outside them
watching our arrival.
Five minutes later I was whirling downward through the building's
interior in one of the automatic little cone-elevators, out of which I
stepped into a long white corridor. An attendant was awaiting me
there, and I followed him down the corridor's length to a high black
door at its end, which he threw open for me, closing it behind me as
I stepped inside.
It was an ivory-walled, high-ceilinged room in which I found myself,

its whole farther side open to the sunlight and breezes of the green
gardens beyond. At a desk across the room was sitting a short-set
man with gray-streaked hair and keen, inquiring eyes, and as I
entered he sprang up and came toward me.
"Ran Rarak!" he exclaimed. "You've come! For two days, now, we've
been expecting you."
"We were delayed off Aldebaran, sir, by generator trouble," I replied,
bowing, for I had recognized the speaker as Hurus Hol, chief of the
Bureau of Astronomical Knowledge. Now, at a motion from him, I
took a chair beside the desk while he resumed his own seat.
A moment he regarded me in silence, and then slowly spoke. "Ran
Rarak," he said, "you must have wondered why your ship was
ordered back here to the solar system. Well, it was ordered back for
a reason which we dared not state in an open message, a reason
which, if made public, would plunge the solar system instantly into a
chaos of unutterable panic!"
He was silent again for a moment, his eyes on mine, and then went
on. "You know, Ran Rarak, that the universe itself is composed of
infinite depths of space in which float great clusters of suns, star-
clusters which are separated from each other by billions of light-
years of space. You know, too, that our own cluster of suns, which
we call the Galaxy, is roughly disklike in shape, and that our own
particular sun is situated at the very edge of this disk. Beyond lie
only those inconceivable leagues of space which separate us from
the neighboring star-clusters, or island-universes, depths of space
never yet crossed by our own cruisers or by anything else of which
we have record.
"But now, at last, something has crossed those abysses, is crossing
them; since over three weeks ago our astronomers discovered that a
gigantic dark star is approaching our Galaxy from the depths of
infinite space—a titanic, dead sun which their instruments showed to
be of a size incredible, since, dark and dead as it is, it is larger than
the mightiest blazing suns in our own Galaxy, larger than Canopus or
Antares or Betelgeuse—a dark, dead star millions of times larger
than our own fiery sun—a gigantic wanderer out of some far realm
of infinite space, racing toward our Galaxy at a velocity
inconceivable!
"The calculations of our scientists showed that this speeding dark
star would not race into our Galaxy but would speed past its edge,
and out into infinite space again, passing no closer to our own sun,
at that edge, than some fifteen billion miles. There was no possibility
of collision or danger from it, therefore; and so though the approach
of the dark star is known to all in the solar system, there is no idea
of any peril connected with it. But there is something else which has
been kept quite secret from the peoples of the solar system,
something known only to a few astronomers and officials. And that
is that during the last few weeks the path of this speeding dark star
has changed from a straight path to a curving one, that it is curving
inward toward the edge of our Galaxy and will now pass our own
sun, in less than twelve weeks, at a distance of less than three
billion miles, instead of fifteen! And when this titanic dead sun
passes that close to our own sun there can be but one result.
Inevitably our own sun will be caught by the powerful gravitational
grip of the giant dark star and carried out with all its planets into the
depths of infinite space, never to return!"
Hurus Hol paused, his face white and set, gazing past me with wide,
unseeing eyes. My brain whirling beneath the stunning revelation, I
sat rigid, silent, and in a moment he went on.
"If this thing were known to all," he said slowly, "there would be an
instant, terrible panic over the solar system, and for that reason only
a handful have been told. Flight is impossible, for there are not
enough ships in the Galaxy to transport the trillions of the solar
system's population to another star in the four weeks that are left to
us. There is but one chance—one blind, slender chance—and that is
to turn aside this onward-thundering dark star from its present
inward-curving path, to cause it to pass our sun and the Galaxy's
edge far enough away to be harmless. And it is for this reason that
we ordered your return.
"For it is my plan to speed out of the Galaxy into the depths of outer
space to meet this approaching dark star, taking all of the scientific
apparatus and equipment which might be used to swerve it aside
from this curving path it is following. During the last week I have
assembled the equipment for the expedition and have gathered
together a force of fifty star-cruisers which are even now resting on
the roof of this building, manned and ready for the trip. These are
only swift mail-cruisers, though, specially equipped for the trip, and
it was advisable to have at least one battle-cruiser for flag-ship of
the force, and so your own was recalled from the Federation fleet.
And although I shall go with the expedition, of course, it was my
plan to have you yourself as its captain.
"I know, however, that you have spent the last two years in the
service of the Federation fleet; so if you desire, another will be
appointed to the post. It is one of danger—greater danger, I think,
than any of us can dream. Yet the command is yours, if you wish to
accept it."
Hurus Hol ceased, intently scanning my face. A moment I sat silent,
then rose and stepped to the great open window at the room's far
side. Outside stretched the greenery of gardens, and beyond them
the white roofs of buildings, gleaming beneath the faint sunlight.
Instinctively my eyes went up to the source of that light, the tiny
sun, small and faint and far, here, but still—the sun. A long moment
I gazed up toward it, and then turned back to Hurus Hol.
"I accept, sir," I said.
He came to his feet, his eyes shining. "I knew that you would," he
said, simply, and then: "All has been ready for days, Ran Rarak. We
start at once."
Ten minutes later we were on the broad roof, and the crews of our
fifty ships were rushing to their posts in answer to the sharp alarm
of a signal-bell. Another five minutes and Hurus Hol, Dal Nara and I
stood in the bridgeroom of my own cruiser, watching the white roof
drop behind and beneath as we slanted up from it. In a moment the
half-hundred cruisers on that roof had risen and were racing up
behind us, arrowing with us toward the zenith, massed in a close,
wedge-shaped formation.
Above, the brilliant signals of the traffic-boats flashed swiftly,
clearing a wide lane for us, and then we had passed through the jam
of traffic and were driving out past the incoming lines of interstellar
ships at swiftly mounting speed, still holding the same formation
with the massed cruisers behind us.
Behind and around us, now, flamed the great panorama of the
Galaxy's blazing stars, but before us lay only darkness—darkness
inconceivable, into which our ships were flashing out at greater and
greater speed. Neptune had vanished, and far behind lay the single
yellow spark that was all visible of our solar system as we fled out
from it. Out—out—out—rocketing, racing on, out past the
boundaries of the great Galaxy itself into the lightless void, out into
the unplumbed depths of infinite space to save our threatened sun.
Twenty-four hours after our start I stood again in the bridgeroom,

alone except for the silent, imperturbable figure of my ever-watchful
wheelman, Nal Jak, staring out with him into the black gulf that lay
before us. Many an hour we had stood side by side thus, scanning
the interstellar spaces from our cruiser's bridgeroom, but never yet
had my eyes been confronted by such a lightless void as lay before
me now.
Our ship, indeed, seemed to be racing through a region where light
was all but non-existent, a darkness inconceivable to anyone who
had never experienced it. Behind lay the Galaxy we had left, a great
swarm of shining points of light, contracting slowly as we sped away
from it. Toward our right, too, several misty little patches of light
glowed faintly in the darkness, hardly to be seen; though these, I
knew, were other galaxies or star-clusters like our own—titanic
conglomerations of thronging suns dimmed to those tiny flickers of
light by the inconceivable depths of space which separated them
from ourselves.
Except for these, though, we fled on through a cosmic gloom that
was soul-shaking in its deepness and extent, an infinite darkness
and stillness in which our ship seemed the only moving thing. Behind
us, I knew, the formation of our fifty ships was following close on
our track, each ship separated from the next by a five hundred mile
interval and each flashing on at exactly the same speed as
ourselves. But though we knew they followed, our fifty cruisers were
naturally quite invisible to us, and as I gazed now into the tenebrous
void ahead the loneliness of our position was overpowering.
Abruptly the door behind me snapped open, and I half turned
toward it as Hurus Hol entered. He glanced at our speed-dials, and
his brows arched in surprize.
"Good enough," he commented. "If the rest of our ships can hold
this pace it will bring us to the dark star in six days."
I nodded, gazing thoughtfully ahead. "Perhaps sooner," I estimated.
"The dark star is coming toward us at a tremendous velocity,
remember. You will notice on the telechart——"
Together we stepped over to the big telechart, a great rectangular
plate of smoothly burnished silvery metal which hung at the
bridgeroom's end-wall, the one indispensable aid to interstellar
navigation. Upon it were accurately reproduced, by means of
projected and reflected rays, the positions and progress of all
heavenly bodies near the ship. Intently we contemplated it now. At
the rectangle's lower edge there gleamed on the smooth metal a
score or more of little circles of glowing light, of varying sizes,
representing the suns at the edge of the Galaxy behind us.
Outermost of these glowed the light-disk that was our own sun, and
around this Hurus Hol had drawn a shining line or circle lying more
than four billion miles from our sun, on the chart. He had computed
that if the approaching dark star came closer than that to our sun its
mighty gravitational attraction would inevitably draw the latter out
with it into space; so the shining line represented, for us, the
danger-line. And creeping down toward that line and toward our
sun, farther up on the blank metal of the great chart, there moved a
single giant circle of deepest black, an ebon disk a hundred times
the diameter of our glowing little sun-circle, which was sweeping
down toward the Galaxy's edge in a great curve.
Hurus Hol gazed thoughtfully at the sinister dark disk, and then
shook his head. "There's something very strange about that dark
star," he said, slowly. "That curving path it's moving in is contrary to
all the laws of celestial mechanics. I wonder if——"
Before he could finish, the words were broken off in his mouth. For
at that moment there came a terrific shock, our ship dipped and
reeled crazily, and then was whirling blindly about as though caught
and shaken by a giant hand. Dal Nara, the pilot, Hurus Hol and I
were slammed violently down toward the bridgeroom's end with the
first crash, and then I clung desperately to the edge of a switch-
board as we spun dizzily about. I had a flashing glimpse, through
the windows, of our fifty cruisers whirling blindly about like wind-
tossed straws, and in another glimpse saw two of them caught and
slammed together, both ships smashing like egg-shells beneath the
terrific impact, their crews instantly annihilated. Then, as our own
ship dipped crazily downward again, I saw Hurus Hol creeping across
the floor toward the controls, and in a moment I had slid down
beside him. Another instant and we had our hands on the levers,
and were slowly pulling them back into position.
Caught and buffeted still by the terrific forces outside, our cruiser
slowly steadied to an even keel and then leapt suddenly forward
again, the forces that held us seeming to lessen swiftly as we
flashed on. There came a harsh, grating sound that brought my
heart to my throat as one of the cruisers was hurled past us, grazing
us, and then abruptly the mighty grip that held us had suddenly
disappeared and we were humming on through the same stillness
and silence as before.
I slowed our flight, then, until we hung motionless, and then we
gazed wildly at each other, bruised and panting. Before we could
give utterance to the exclamations on our lips, though, the door
snapped open and Dal Nara burst into the bridgeroom, bleeding
from a cut on her forehead.
"What was that?" she cried, raising a trembling hand to her head. "It
caught us there like toys—and the other ships——"
Before any of us could answer her a bell beside me rang sharply and
from the diaphragm beneath it came the voice of our message-
operator.
"Ships 37, 12, 19 and 44 reported destroyed by collisions, sir," he
announced, his own voice tremulous. "The others report that they
are again taking up formation behind us."
"Very well," I replied. "Order them to start again in three minutes,
on Number One speed-scale."
As I turned back from the instrument I drew a deep breath. "Four
ships destroyed in less than a minute," I said. "And by what?"
"By a whirlpool of ether-currents, undoubtedly," said Hurus Hol. We
stared at him blankly, and he threw out a hand in quick explanation.
"You know that there are currents in the ether—that was discovered
ages ago—and that those currents are responsible for light-drift and
similar phenomena. All such currents in the Galaxy have always been
found to be comparatively slow and sluggish, but out here in empty
space there must be currents of gigantic size and speed, and
apparently we stumbled directly into a great whirlpool or maelstrom
of them. We were fortunate to lose but four ships," he added
soberly.
I shook my head. "I've sailed from Sirius to Rigel," I said, "and I
never met anything like that. And if we meet another——"
The strangeness of our experience, in fact, had unnerved me, for
even after we had tended to our bruises and were again racing on
through the void, it was with a new fearfulness that I gazed ahead.
At any moment, I knew, we might plunge directly into some similar
or even larger maelstrom of ether-currents, yet there was no way by
which we could avoid the danger. We must drive blindly ahead at full
speed and trust to luck to bring us through, and now I began to
understand what perils lay between us and our destination.
As hour followed hour, though, my fearfulness gradually lessened,
for we encountered no more of the dread maelstroms in our onward
flight. Yet as we hummed on and on and on, a new anxiety came to
trouble me, for with the passing of each day we were putting behind
us billions of miles of space, and were flashing nearer and nearer
toward the mighty dark star that was our goal. And even as we fled
on we could see, on the great telechart, the dark disk creeping down
to meet us, thundering on toward the Galaxy from which, unless we
succeeded, it would steal a star.
Unless we succeeded! But could we succeed? Was there any force in
the universe that could turn aside this oncoming dark giant in time
to prevent the theft of our sun? More and more, as we sped on,
there grew in my mind doubt as to our chance of success. We had
gone forth on a blind, desperate venture, on a last slender chance,
and now at last I began to see how slender indeed was that chance.
Dal Nara felt it, too, and even Hurus Hol, I think, but we spoke no
word to each other of our thoughts, standing for hours on end in the
bridgeroom together, and gazing silently and broodingly out into the
darkness where lay our goal.
On the sixth day of our flight we computed, by means of our
telechart and flight-log, that we were within less than a billion miles
of the great dark star ahead, and had slackened our speed until we
were barely creeping forward, attempting to locate our goal in the
dense, unchanged darkness ahead.
Straining against the windows, we three gazed eagerly forward,
while beside me Nal Jak, the wheelman, silently regulated the ship's
speed to my orders. Minutes passed while we sped on, and still
there lay before us only the deep darkness. Could it be that we had
missed our way, that our calculations had been wrong? Could it be—
and then the wild speculations that had begun to rise in my mind
were cut short by a low exclamation from Dal Nara, beside me.
Mutely she pointed ahead.
At first I could see nothing, and then slowly became aware of a
feeble glow of light in the heavens ahead, an area of strange,
subdued light which stretched across the whole sky, it seemed, yet
which was so dim as to be hardly visible to our straining eyes. But
swiftly, as we watched it, it intensified, strengthened, taking shape
as a mighty circle of pale luminescence which filled almost all the
heavens ahead. I gave a low-voiced order to the pilot which reduced
our speed still further, but even so the light grew visibly stronger as
we sped on.
"Light!" whispered Hurus Hol. "Light on a dark star! It's impossible—
and yet——"
And now, in obedience to another order, our ship began to slant
sharply up toward the mighty circle's upper limb, followed by the
half-hundred ships behind us. And as we lifted higher and higher the
circle changed before our eyes into a sphere—a tremendous, faintly
glowing sphere of size inconceivable, filling the heavens with its vast
bulk, feebly luminous like the ghost of some mighty sun, rushing
through space to meet us as we sped up and over it. And now at
last we were over it, sweeping above it with our little fleet at a
height of a half-million miles, contemplating in awed silence the
titanic dimensions of the faint-glowing sphere beneath us.
For in spite of our great height above it, the vast globe stretched
from horizon to horizon beneath us, a single smooth, vastly curving
surface, shining with the dim, unfamiliar light whose source we could
not guess. It was not the light of fire, or glowing gases, for the sun
below was truly a dead one, vast in size as it was. It was a cold
light, a faint but steady phosphorescence like no other light I had
ever seen, a feeble white glow which stretched from horizon to
horizon of the mighty world beneath. Dumfoundedly we stared down
toward it, and then, at a signal to the pilot, our ship began to drop
smoothly downward, trailed by our forty-odd followers behind.
Down, down, we sped, slower and slower, until we suddenly started
as there came from outside the ship a high-pitched hissing shriek.
"The vast globe stretched from horizon to horizon beneath
them."
"Air!" I cried. "This dark star has an atmosphere! And that light upon
it—see!" And I flung a pointing hand toward the surface of the giant
world below. For as we dropped swiftly down toward that world we
saw at last that the faint light which illuminated it was not artificial
light, or reflected light, but light inherent in itself, since all the
surface of the mighty sphere glowed with the same phosphorescent
light, its plains and hills and valleys alike feebly luminous, with the
soft, dim luminosity of radio-active minerals. A shining world, a world
glowing eternally with cold white light, a luminous, titanic sphere
that rushed through the darkness of infinite space like some pale,
gigantic moon. And upon the surface of the glowing plains beneath
us rose dense and twisted masses of dark, leafless vegetation,
distorted tree-growths and tangles of low shrubs that were all of
deepest black in color, springing out of that glowing soil and twisting
blackly and grotesquely above its feeble light, stretching away over
plain and hill and valley like the monstrous landscape of some
undreamed-of hell!
And now, as our ship slanted down across the surface of the glowing
sphere, there gleamed ahead a deepening of that glow, a
concentration of that feeble light which grew stronger as we raced
on toward it. And it was a city! A city whose mighty buildings were
each a truncated pyramid in shape, towering into the air for
thousands upon thousands of feet, a city whose every building and
street and square glowed with the same faint white light as the
ground upon which they stood, a metropolis out of nightmare, the
darkness of which was dispelled only by the light of its own great
glowing structures and streets. Far away stretched the mass of those
structures, a luminous mass which covered square mile upon square
mile of the surface of this glowing world, and far beyond them there
lifted into the dusky air the shining towers and pyramids of still other
cities.
We straightened, trembling, turning toward each other with white
faces. And then, before any could speak, Dal Nara had whirled to the
window and uttered a hoarse shout. "Look!" she cried, and pointed
down and outward toward the titanic, glowing buildings of the city
ahead; for from their truncated summits were rising suddenly a
swarm of long black shapes, a horde of long black cones which were
racing straight up toward us.
I shouted an order to the pilot, and instantly our ship was turning
and slanting sharply upward, while around us our cruisers sped up
with us. Then, from beneath, there sped up toward us a shining little
cylinder of metal which struck a cruiser racing beside our own. It
exploded instantly into a great flare of blinding light, enveloping the
cruiser it had struck, and then the light had vanished, while with it
had vanished the ship it had enveloped. And from the cones beneath
and beyond there leapt toward us other of the metal cylinders,
striking our ships now by the dozens, flaring and vanishing with
them in great, silent explosions of light.
"Etheric bombs!" I cried. "And our ship is the only battle-cruiser—the
rest have no weapons!"
I turned, cried another order, and in obedience to it our own cruiser
halted suddenly and then dipped downward, racing straight into the
ascending swarm of attacking cones. Down we flashed, down, down,
and toward us sprang a score of the metal cylinders, grazing along
our sides. And then, from the sides of our own downward-swooping
ship there sprang out brilliant shafts of green light, the deadly de-
cohesion ray of the ships of the Federation Fleet. It struck a score of
the cones beneath and they flamed with green light for an instant
and then flew into pieces, spilling downward in a great shower of
tiny fragments as the cohesion of their particles was destroyed by
the deadly ray. And now our cruiser had crashed down through the
swarm of them and was driving down toward the luminous plain
below, then turning and racing sharply upward again while from all
the air around us the black cones swarmed to the attack.
Up, up, we sped, and now I saw that our blow had been struck in
vain, for the last of our ships above were vanishing beneath the
flares of the etheric bombs. One only of our cruisers remained,
racing up toward the zenith in headlong flight with a score of the
great cones in hot pursuit. A moment only I glimpsed this, and then
we had turned once more and were again diving down upon the
attacking cones, while all around us the etheric bombs filled the air
with the silent, exploding flares. Again as we swooped downward
our green rays cut paths of annihilation across the swarming cones
beneath; and then I heard a cry from Hurus Hol, whirled to the
window and glimpsed above us a single great cone that was diving
headlong down toward us in a resistless, ramming swoop. I shouted
to the pilot, sprang to the controls, but was too late to ward off that
deadly blow. There was a great crash at the rear of our cruiser; it
spun dizzily for a moment in midair, and then was tumbling crazily
downward like a falling stone toward the glowing plain a score of
miles below.
I think now that our cruiser's mad downward plunge must have
lasted for minutes, at least, yet at the time it seemed over in a single
instant. I have a confused memory of the bridgeroom spinning about
us as we whirled down, of myself throwing back the controls with a
last, instinctive action, and then there came a ripping, rending crash,
a violent shock, and I was flung into a corner of the room with
terrific force.
Dazed by the swift action of the last few minutes I lay there
motionless for a space of seconds, then scrambled to my feet. Hurus
Hol and Dal Nara were staggering up likewise, the latter hastening at
once down into the cruiser's hull, but Nal Jak, the wheelman, lay
motionless against the wall, stunned by the shock. Our first act was
to bring him back to consciousness by a few rough first-aid
measures, and then we straightened and gazed about us.
Apparently our cruiser's keel was resting upon the ground, but was
tilted over at a sharp angle, as the slant of the room's floor attested.
Through the broad windows we could see that around our prostrate
ship lay a thick, screening grove of black tree-growths which we had
glimpsed from above, and into which we had crashed in our mad
plunge downward. As I was later to learn, it was only the shock-
absorbing qualities of the vegetation into which we had fallen, and
my own last-minute rush to the controls, which had slowed our fall
enough to save us from annihilation.
There was a buzz of excited voices from the crew in the hull beneath
us, and then I turned at a sudden exclamation from Hurus Hol, to
find him pointing up through the observation-windows in the
bridgeroom's ceiling. I glanced up, then shrank back. For high above
were circling a score or more of the long black cones which had
attacked us, and which were apparently surveying the landscape for
some clue to our fate. I gave a sharp catch of indrawn breath as
they dropped lower toward us, and we crouched with pounding
hearts while they dropped nearer. Then we uttered simultaneous
sighs of relief as the long shapes above suddenly drove back up
toward the zenith, apparently certain of our annihilation, massing
and wheeling and then speeding back toward the glowing city from
which they had risen to attack us.
We rose to our feet again, and as we did so the door clicked open to
admit Dal Nara. She was a bruised, disheveled figure, like the rest of
us, but there was something like a grin on her face.
"That cone that rammed us shattered two of our rear vibration-
projectors," she announced, "but that was all the damage. And
outside of one man with a broken shoulder the crew is all right."
"Good!" I exclaimed. "It won't take long to replace the broken
projectors."
She nodded. "I ordered them to put in two of the spares," she
explained. "But what then?"
I considered for a moment. "None of our other cruisers escaped, did
they?" I asked.
Dal Nara slowly shook her head. "I don't think so," she said. "Nearly
all of them were destroyed in the first few minutes. I saw Ship 16
racing up in an effort to escape, heading back toward the Galaxy,
but there were cones hot after it and it couldn't have got away."
The quiet voice of Hurus Hol broke in upon us. "Then we alone can
take back word to the Federation of what is happening here," he
said. His eyes suddenly flamed. "Two things we know," he
exclaimed. "We know that this dark star's curving path through
space, which will bring it so fatally near to our own sun in passing, is
a path contrary to all the laws of astronomical science. And we know
now, too, that upon this dark-star world, in those glowing cities
yonder, live beings of some sort who possess, apparently, immense
intelligence and power."
My eyes met his. "You mean——" I began, but he interrupted swiftly.
"I mean that in my belief the answer to this riddle lies in that
glowing city yonder, and that it is there we must go to find that
answer."
"But how?" I asked. "If we take the cruiser near it they'll sight us
and annihilate us."
"There is another way," said Hurus Hol. "We can leave the cruiser
and its crew hidden here, and approach the city on foot—get as near
to it as possible—learn what we can about it."
I think that we all gasped at that suggestion, but as I quickly
revolved it in my mind I saw that it was, in reality, our only chance
to secure any information of value to take back to the Federation. So
we adopted the idea without further discussion and swiftly laid our
plans for the venture. At first it was our plan for only us three to go,
but at Dal Nara's insistence we included the pilot in our party, the
more quickly because I knew her to be resourceful and quick-witted.
Two hours we spent in sleep, at the suggestion of Hurus Hol, then

ate a hasty meal and looked to our weapons, small projectors of the
de-cohesion ray similar to the great ray-tubes of the cruiser. Already
the ship's two shattered vibration-projectors had been replaced by
spares, and our last order was for the crew and under-officers to
await our return without moving beyond the ship in any event. Then
the cruiser's hull-door snapped open and we four stepped outside,
ready for our venture.
The sandy ground upon which we stood glowed with the feeble
white light which seemed to emanate from all rock and soil on this
strange world, a weird light which beat upward upon us instead of
down. And in this light the twisted, alien forms of the leafless trees
around us writhed upward into the dusky air, their smooth black
branches tangling and intertwining far above our heads. As we
paused there Hurus Hol reached down for a glowing pebble, which
he examined intently for a moment.
"Radio-active," he commented. "All this glowing rock and soil." Then
he straightened, glanced around, and led the way unhesitatingly
through the thicket of black forest into which our ship had fallen.
Silently we followed him, in single file, across the shining soil and
beneath the distorted arches of the twisted trees, until at last we
emerged from the thicket and found ourselves upon the open
expanse of the glowing plain. It was a weird landscape which met
our eyes, a landscape of glowing plains and shallow valleys patched
here and there with the sprawling thickets of black forest, a pale,
luminous world whose faint light beat feebly upward into the dusky,
twilight skies above. In the distance, perhaps two miles ahead, a
glow of deeper light flung up against the hovering dusk from the
massed buildings of the luminous city, and toward this we tramped
steadily onward, over the shining plains and gullies and once over a
swift little brook whose waters glowed as they raced like torrents of
rushing light. Within an hour we had drawn to within a distance of
five hundred feet from the outermost of the city's pyramidal
buildings, and crouched in a little clump of dark tree-growths, gazing
fascinatedly toward it.
"It was a weird landscape that met their eyes."
The scene before us was one of unequaled interest and activity.

Over the masses of huge, shining buildings were flitting great
swarms of the long black cones, moving from roof to roof, while in
the shining streets below them moved other hordes of active figures,
the people of the city. And as our eyes took in these latter I think
that we all felt something of horror, in spite of all the alien forms
which we were familiar with in the thronging worlds of the Galaxy.
For in these creatures was no single point of resemblance to
anything human, nothing which the appalled intelligence could seize
upon as familiar. Imagine an upright cone of black flesh, several feet
in diameter and three or more in height, supported by a dozen or
more smooth long tentacles which branched from its lower end—
supple, boneless octopus-arms which held the cone-body upright
and which served both as arms and legs. And near the top of that
cone trunk were the only features, the twin tiny orifices which were
the ears and a single round and red-rimmed white eye, set between
them. Thus were these beings in appearance, black tentacle-
creatures, moving in unending swirling throngs through streets and
squares and buildings of their glowing city.
Helplessly we stared upon them, from our place of concealment. To
venture into sight, I knew, would be to court swift death. I turned to
Hurus Hol, then started as there came from the city ahead a low,
waxing sound-note, a deep, powerful tone of immense volume which
sounded out over the city like the blast of a deep-pitched horn.
Another note joined it, and another, until it seemed that a score of
mighty horns were calling across the city, and then they died away.
But as we looked now we saw that the shining streets were
emptying, suddenly, that the moving swarms of black tentacle-
creatures were passing into the pyramidal buildings, that the cones
above were slanting down toward the roofs and coming to rest.
Within a space of minutes the streets seemed entirely empty and
deserted, and the only sign of activity over all the city was the
hovering of a few cones that still moved restlessly above it.
Astounded, we watched, and then the explanation came suddenly to
me.
"It's their sleep-period!" I cried. "Their night! These things must rest,
must sleep, like any living thing, and as there's no night on this
glowing world those horn-notes must signal the beginning of their
sleep-period."
Hurus Hol was on his feet, his eyes suddenly kindling. "It's a chance
in a thousand to get inside the city!" he exclaimed.
The next moment we were out of the shelter of our concealing trees
and were racing across the stretch of ground which separated us
from the city. And five minutes later we were standing in the empty,
glowing streets, hugging closely the mighty sloping walls of the huge
buildings along it.
At once Hurus Hol led the way directly down the street toward the
heart of the city, and as we hastened on beside him he answered to
my question, "We must get to the city's center. There's something
there which I glimpsed from our ship, and if it's what I think——"
He had broken into a run, now, and as we raced together down the
bare length of the great, shining avenue, I, for one, had an
unreassuring presentiment of what would happen should the huge
buildings around us disgorge their occupants before we could get
out of the city. Then Hurus Hol had suddenly stopped short, and at a
motion from him we shrank swiftly behind the corner of a pyramid's
slanting walls. Across the street ahead of us were passing a half-
dozen of the tentacle-creatures, gliding smoothly toward the open
door of one of the great pyramids. A moment we crouched, holding
our breath, and then the things had passed inside the building and
the door had slid shut behind them. At once we leapt out and
hastened on.
We were approaching the heart of the city, I judged, and ahead the
broad, shining street we followed seemed to end in a great open
space of some sort. As we sped toward it, between the towering
luminous lines of buildings, a faint droning sound came to our ears
from ahead, waxing louder as we hastened on. The clear space
ahead was looming larger, nearer, now, and then as we raced past
the last great building on the street's length we burst suddenly into
view of the opening ahead and stepped, staring dumfoundedly
toward it.
It was no open plaza or square, but a pit—a shallow, circular pit not
more than a hundred feet in depth but all of a mile in diameter, and
we stood at the rim or edge of it. The floor was smooth and flat, and
upon that floor there lay a grouped mass of hundreds of half-globes
or hemispheres, each fifty feet in diameter, which were resting upon
their flat bases with their curving sides uppermost. Each of these

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1. Introduction to Distribution Systems.........................................................1

2. The Nature of Loads...................................................................................... 11

3. Approximate Method of Analysis............................................................. 39

4. Series Impedance of Overhead and Underground Lines......................77

5. Shunt Admittance of Overhead and Underground Lines................... 121

5.3 Concentric Neutral Cable Underground Lines.............................. 130

6. Distribution System Line Models............................................................ 141

7. Voltage Regulation...................................................................................... 185

8. Three-Phase Transformer Models........................................................... 249

9. Load Models................................................................................................. 325

9.5.9 I nduction Machine Thevenin Equivalent Circuit............ 365

10. Distribution Feeder Analysis.................................................................... 381

11. Center-Tapped Transformers and Secondaries..................................... 449

11.3  pen Wye–Open Delta Transformer Connections.......................484

Appendix A: Conductor Data........................................................................... 513

models and analysis techniques of the program. Without this knowledge,

analysis program. Milsoft Utility Solutions has made a student version of

Milsoft Utility Solutions

Unfortunately, there is a tendency on the part of the student/engineer to

impedances of the system components be as accurate as possible. In par-

Title: The star-stealers

Author: Edmond Hamilton

Illustrator: Hugh Rankin

Release date: April 21, 2024 [eBook #73442]

Original publication: Indianapolis, IN: Popular Fiction Publishing

Credits: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STAR-

[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from

It was an ivory-walled, high-ceilinged room in which I found myself,

Twenty-four hours after our start I stood again in the bridgeroom,

Two hours we spent in sleep, at the suggestion of Hurus Hol, then

The scene before us was one of unequaled interest and activity.

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5.3 Concentric Neutral Cable Underground Lines.............................. 130

9.5.9 I nduction Machine Thevenin Equivalent Circuit............ 365

11.3 pen Wye–Open Delta Transformer Connections.......................484