nteresting, and--"

"Carlos Inverness and party," announced the guard from the doorway.

Inverness nodded to me in friendly fashion and indicated his two
companions.

"Commander Hanson," he said, "permit me to present Godar Tipene and
Cleve Brady, who are my companions on this expedition." I bowed, and
shook hands with Brady; Tipene was a Zenian, and hence did not offer
me this greeting of Earth. Then, quickly, I completed the round of
introductions, studying Inverness's companions with interest as I did
so.

* * * * *

Brady was short, and rather red-faced; a beefy, taciturn type, with a
trap-like mouth and thoughtful discerning eyes. He struck me as being
one with whom most men would like to be friendly, but who would have
exceedingly few friends.

The Zenian was a perfect foil for him. Tipene was exceedingly tall and
slender, like all his race, and very dark. His eyes were almost
womanly in their softness, and he had the nervous grace of a
thoroughbred--which is an Earth animal of particularly high breeding,
raised for show purposes. He had the happy faculty of speaking the
language of Earth without a trace of Zenian or Universal accent; the
Zenians are exceeded by none in linguistic ability, which was a real
accomplishment before these decadent days when native languages are
slipping so rapidly into obscurity.

"And now," said Inverness crisply, when the introductions were over,
"I presume you'll wish to know something about our destination and the
objects of this expedition, sir?"

"It would be helpful in charting our course," I admitted, smiling.

Inverness, with beautiful disregard for the necessities of space
navigation, spread voluminous papers over the table whose surface was
formed by the pair of three-dimensional charts which were the
_Ertak's_ eyes in outer space.

"Our destination," he said, "is a body designated on the charts as
FX-31. You are familiar with it, Commander Hanson?"

"Hardly familiar," I admitted, smiling at Correy. "The universe is
rather sizable, and even the named bodies are so numerous that one is
able to be familiar with but an exceedingly small percentage. Its
designation, of course, gives me certain information regarding its
size, location and status, however."

"How much information, Commander?" asked Tipene nervously.

"Well, 'F' indicates that it is large; larger than Earth, for example.
The numerals tells me where to locate it upon o