ht, Paul
thought, as he reached his own office again. It must be terrible to be
in their shoes, fighting constantly the conviction that they were poor
miserable creatures hardly fit to polish the shining hulls of their
creations!

They were trained in the best of military traditions, crushing their
weaknesses by sheer force. And they had concluded their own breakdown
was inevitable, in spite of their training and traditions. How could
such men even hope for the stars!

But where was the flaw in it all? If the answer was not in men who were
more nearly like their own machines, where was it?

They needed a year or two to even approach the problem properly, and
some kind of answer was demanded within weeks!

Oglethorpe came to the laboratory the morning Harper was to begin his
test runs. "We're going on a complete crash-priority basis, with
round-the-clock shifts," he said. "It's been a toss-up whether to close
Superman and put everything we had on the new Wheel, or leave it open in
the hope of getting something out of it.

"For the time being I'm leaving it open, but remember that every hour
Harper or one of his men spends here is an hour away from the job on the
Wheel.

"We didn't need your suggestion about an investigation. Plenty of other
people thought of it first. The Senators will be here in four or five
days. You're going to talk to them. You're going to tell them what you
proposed to tell them."

"Of course. And what are you going to do about Morgan's cavalcade?"

Oglethorpe spat out an exclamation. "We'll set up barricades that they'd
better not cross within ten miles of Base!"

"That won't help," Paul warned. "I think you'd better let me prepare
something for them, too."

"Forget them! Take care of the Senators and the Project and you'll be
doing enough."

Harper arrived shortly, nervous in spite of his attempt to appear
composed. But he was put at ease when they took him to the laboratory of
complex testing equipment assembled by Nat Holt.

Paul indicated a seat in the middle of the mass of equipment. "As near
as we've been able to make it," he said, "this simulates the landing
procedure of a rocket craft. There are a hundred and thirty-five
distinct actions, observations and judgements involved. A taped voice
will lead you through the sequence, asking you to press buttons and make
adjustments to indicate your observations and responses. When you can do
all this to your satisfaction, you will tu