stage
of growth, completed a task, cut himself off from an environment that
had held him back. What the ship did, in response to his warnings, no
longer mattered. If it landed, its personnel too would join the
colonists. If it obeyed the request of an E, it might circle there
indefinitely.

Indefinitely watching the turkeys circle inside their low fence, unable
to aid them, release them.

He did not particularly care what they did.

They could go on, spluttering out their signals, trying to question him.
He didn't even try to read their messages. It didn't matter. Their
science had nothing to do with him, nothing to offer him. Through it he
could not reach a solution.

Somehow he knew that already.

19

"This time," the communications supervisor said with all the firmness he
could muster, "this time there must not be any interference with
communication. There just absolutely must not be!"

"Well, it wasn't my fault," the operator retorted with an exasperation
that blanketed prudent restraint. "You heard what E McGinnis said--that
they could identify E Gray, and the ship's crew, and many of the
colonists, but that there was no sign of the ship that took them there.
If there wasn't any ship there couldn't be any communication. It's not
my fault. I can't receive something that wasn't sent."

"I know, I know," the supervisor said, and then, worried that he may be
giving the appearance of backing down, commanded savagely, "just watch
it, that's all!" He chewed violently at his knuckle and glared at the
operator.

"Just watch it," the operator mumbled bitterly. "Just watch it, the man
says. And what will I watch if the message stops coming?"

"Now, now, now, now," the supervisor nagged, "we'll have no
insubordination, if you please."

And upstairs this time more than Bill Hayes, sector chief, were
monitoring the message. The top administrative brass of E.H.Q. were
assembled in their big plush conference room used for arriving at major
policy decisions that sometimes affected the whole course of man's
progress and direction in occupying the universe.

They sat in worried silence as E McGinnis reported the two messages he
had received from Junior E Gray.

First: Keep clear of me. I am maneuvering with difficulty.

Then: Keep off. No mechanical science allowed in this co-ordinate
system.

They looked at one another under beetled brows. They wondered, at first
privately and then openly if that Junior