her that he hasn't had any trouble with them....

"I guess that's about all, Lieutenant. This is an important job. And if
you find any reason for Halliday's delay in getting that job done, I
want you to flash me a message immediately. I'm putting a lot of
confidence in you, young man, but I don't think it's misplaced."

The colonel stood up and extended his hand.

"Good luck, son."

Ward took the older man's hand in a firm grip.

"Thank you, sir. I'll do everything I can to justify your confidence in
me."

He saluted, right-about-faced smartly and strode toward the door. The
colonel followed his straight young back with his eyes and there was a
smile of pride on his face. Lieutenant Ward Harrison, in the opinion of
the colonel, was definitely an excellent addition to the forces of
Earth.

Lieutenant Ward Harrison thought so himself, but he would have suffered
his tongue to be torn out before admitting it.

* * * * *

Three days later, at 24:40 inter-Stellar time, Ward Harrison arrived at
the Earth observation base located in the uncharted, inaccessible area
on the southern plane of the planet, Mars.

As he flashed into the atmosphere of the planet he cut the rear
propulsion rockets of his slim single-seater and prepared to land. He
sighted the base's small cluster of buildings and the mooring tower in
his fore visi-screen and he made quick rapid adjustments on his
instrument panel as his slender ship slanted toward them in a screaming
dive....

When the nose of his ship made contact with a mooring socket, he set all
instruments at zero. He climbed to his feet and stretched wearily. Then
he walked to the sliding side door of the ship, released the air lock
and stepped out onto the ramp that flanked the mooring tower.

From this position, some two hundred feet above the ground, he had his
first look at the terrain of Mars. Great gray wastelands spread
endlessly in all four directions and the only break in this monotony was
a low ridge of hills on the far-distant eastern horizon.

Ward shivered slightly. He hadn't been prepared for anything this
depressing. The small group of squat buildings beneath him looked like
tiny objects adrift in a vast, terrible gray sea.

A man appeared at the door of the central building and Ward felt an
idiotic sensation of relief at the sight of a human, moving figure in
that dead, silent, gray terrain.

The man waved to Ward and walked from th