tensive electronics training--but
Mardikian was a good, conscientious, useful technician.

His trouble was, perhaps, only that he was human.

Coffin pulled himself to the main receiver. A tape whirred slowly
between spools, preserving what the web gathered. Coffin looked at a
clipboard. Mardikian had written half an hour ago: "Nothing received.
Tape wiped and reset, 1530 hr." Maybe since then--? Coffin flipped a
switch. A scanner went quickly through the recording, found only cosmic
noise--none of the orderliness which would have meant code or
speech--and informed the man.

Now if it had just--

Coffin grew rigid. He floated among the mechanisms for a long time,
blank-eyed as they, and alone the quick harsh breath showed him to be
alive.

* * * * *

_O God, help me do that which is right._

_But what is right?_

_I should wrestle with Thy angel until I knew. But there is no time.
Lord, be not wroth with me because I have no time._

Anguish ebbed. Coffin got busy.

Decision would be reached at the meeting, fourteen hours hence. A
message which was to make a substantial difference ought to be
received before then. But not very much before; nor too late,
eleventh-hour-reprieve style, either.

But first, what should its wording be? Coffin didn't have to look up the
last one. It was branded on his brain. An invitation to return and talk
matters over. But necessarily short, compact, with minimum redundancy:
which meant an increased danger of misinterpretation.

He braced himself before the typer and began to compose, struck out his
first words and started again, and again and again. It had to be exactly
right. A mere cancellation of the previous message wouldn't do after
all. Too pat. And a suspicion, brooded on during a year-watch, could be
as deadly as an outright sense of betrayal. So....

_Since fleet now approaching equal-time point, quick action necessary.
Colonization plans abandoned. Expedition ordered, repeat ordered to
return to Earth. Education decree already rescinded_ (a man back home
wouldn't be certain the first beam had made contact) _and appeals for
further concessions will be permitted through proper channels.
Constitutionalists reminded that their first duty is to put their skills
at disposal of society._

Would that serve? Coffin read it over. It didn't contradict the first
one; it only changed a suggestion to a command, as if someone were
growing more fran