hite man looking at
maps could label "Congo."

Tombu himself, educated in the white man's schools to the white man's
ways, and probing ever deeper into the white man's knowledge, was only
vaguely aware of his ancestral origin. He counted his kingdom in
negative terms, terms that were no longer applicable in a modern
world. Where national boundaries everywhere were melting further and
further into disuse, it would seem to his mind foolish to lay claim to
a kingship that had been nonexistent for more than one hundred years
over a people that had been scattered to the four winds and ground
together with other peoples in the Belgian Congo protectorate.

Odd the combination might be; but together the two machinists worked
well, with a mutual respect for each other's abilities and a mutual
understanding that is rare to find among members of different races.

Quickly they lashed and anchored the crate containing the lathe and
hauled it in towards the main south lock of the big wheel.

* * * * *

These were not the only activities in and around the wheel, or other
places in space. Man already had a toehold in space, and that toehold
was gradually growing into a real beachhead. Swarms of satellites in
their short, fast orbits down close to Earth had been performing their
tasks for many years. Astronauts had come and gone, testing, checking,
probing however briefly; bravely clawing their way up the sides of the
long gravitic well that separated Earth from space.

The moon project that had originally been forecast for immediate
accomplishment had met with delay. As yet there was no base on the
moon, though men had been there, and this was bound to occur.

But the lab was not here so much as a stepping stone to the moon as it
was to provide information for the future manned trips out towards
Mars and the asteroids; and in towards Venus and the sun.

Besides research, the big wheel would provide living quarters for men
building other projects; would provide a permanent central for the
network of communications beams that was gradually encompassing man's
world and would eventually spread to the other planets as well.
Cooperating with this master communications central, other satellites,
automatic so far, occupied the same orbit, leading and lagging by one
hundred twenty degrees.

A twenty-four hour orbit would have been more advantageous from the
point of view of communications, except for the