I just want to say, as an aside, that the scientists involved
in this problem have been up all night reviewing every known fact about
Eden. We ask the indulgence of the E's not only for the kind of
knowledge that may prove too little, but for any strain caused by trying
to assemble such massive data into order in so short a time.

"For the press, let me say we are aware of some questions of why we
didn't immediately send out a fleet of ships as soon as the call failed
to come through. A military man does not rush troops into battle until
he has some idea of what he must oppose; even a plumber needs to get
some idea of the problem before he knows what tools to take with him. It
would serve no constructive purpose to rush an unprepared fleet out to
rescue, and might prove the highest folly."

All over E.H.Q., in the various buildings where anybody was directly
concerned, the same effect would be taking place as appeared here in the
club room. The tri-di screen wall would seem to join the room of the
person speaking. A pressed button signaled the desire to speak, and like
the chairman of a meeting, Bill Hayes decided whom to recognize. It was
a way to conduct a meeting of two or three thousand people as intimately
as a small conference.

"The E's have signaled they are ready for the Eden briefing," Hayes
continued formally. He faded out his own office, and was immediately
replaced by an astrophysics laboratory. The review of Eden was under
way.

With sky charts, pointers, math formulae and many references to
documentation, the astrophysicist established the celestial position of
Ceti relative to Earth, and its second planet Ceti II--popularly called,
he had heard, Eden. For his part, bitterly, he preferred a little less
popularizing of scientific data, a little more exactitude. He would,
therefore, continue to call it Ceti II.

He reminded Cal of certain teachers in schools he had been asked to
leave back in his ugly duckling days. How didactically, positively, they
clung to their exactitudes--like frightened little children in a chaotic
world too big for them to face, hanging on to mother's skirts, something
safe, sure, dependable.

The astrophysicist continued, at considerable length, to establish the
position of Ceti II to his own complete satisfaction.

In his own mind Cal willingly conceded that, at least in terms of
third-dimensional space-time continuum, Eden could be found where the
man said it was. Then he