Free Destroyer of Worlds by E. C. Tubb

Tall, whole, clean, unhurt — thank God it had only been an illusion!
    ‘Ship intact, no damage, all systems operational,’ reported Weight from his console. ‘One dead, three with minor injuries — all self-inflicted. Defence screens at optimum.’
    And nothing lay before them.
    Maddox stared at the screens, seeing only what had been visible before, the cold glitter of distant stars, the fuzz of distant nebulae. They had passed through hell and arrived — where?
    ‘Rose?’
    ‘Nothing, Commander. All — no, wait! I am receiving positive indications of a strong force-emission lying directly ahead. Magnetic field of incredible density.’ She gave the figures and Manton shook his head.
    ‘Amazing! Such firm control! Do you realise what this means, Carl? A near-total restraining of all leakage. Obviously the outer barrier through which we have passed utilised any seepage of energy to power the psychic force-field which serves as a warning and defence. How far, Rose?’
    ‘Close.’ She looked up, her face strained. ‘We should reach it within two minutes.’
    ‘Full boost on defensive shield!’ snapped Maddox. ‘Sound the red alert. Activate all external scanners.’
    He felt Claire at his side and took her hand in his own, his fingers firm against the warmth of her skin. He caught the scent of her perfume, a delicate floral aroma, and a strand of her golden hair caressed his cheek.
    ‘The transition point,’ murmured Manton. ‘This is where all light and radiation is seized by the enveloping force and rotated in a half-circle. If we were a photon of light or even a minute particle of spatial debris, we too could be so rotated.’
    But the Ad Astra had tremendous mass and any force which could move it so quickly from its destined path would volatise the entire body to incandescent vapour.
    ‘Carl!’ whispered Claire. ‘Carl, I —’
    ‘Now!’
    The screens blurred as Manton called out, stars seeming to flow from the centre to the edges, to wink, to vanish…
    To be replaced by a wall of utter darkness.
    A blank, ebon surface which served as a backdrop to something incredible.
    ‘Carl!’ Claire’s fingers dug into his hand, the nails gouging at his flesh. ‘Carl — it’s a brain! A living, human brain!’

CHAPTER 6
    It shone with a pulsating greenish glow, a leprous luminescence blotched with the lines of convolutions, divided into sponge-like hemispheres, rounded and soft-looking and incredible.
    ‘A brain!’ Manton’s voice reflected his amazement. ‘But big! So big!’
    The size of the Earth as seen from the Moon, tremendous, dominating. Maddox stared at it, noting details unseen before, the haze-like appearance of the thing, the blurred detail, the pulse of the greenish glow. The image blurred even more as he watched.
    ‘Frank?’
    ‘Interference, Commander. The external scanners are being affected by the discharge from our defensive shield.’ His voice rose a little, ‘Discharge far higher than normal. A radiated loss of seven per cent and mounting.’
    Maddox moved his eyes and stared at the external view of the screen. The outer hull was glowing, bright with emitted energy, scintillating with eye-hurting brilliance.’
    ‘Rose — any sign of anything approaching?’
    ‘No, Commander.’
    ‘No attacking vessels, then, and it would do no harm to drop the shield.’ The image in the main screens cleared as Weight collapsed the shield, sharpening in detail, shining with an inner light, an emerald mystery.
    It couldn’t be a brain. Not a human, pulsating, living organ — the size alone was against it being that. Maddox listened as Rose Armstrong reported the findings of her instruments.
    ‘Mass 2.365 Lunar. Volume 5.463. Distance .025 au. Local radiation 7.973 plus normal. Temperature —?’ She broke off then said, unsteadily, ‘Apparently zero.’
    ‘Check!’
    ‘I’ve done that, Commander. Our instruments must be defective in some way. No light-source can have zero