later, after he'd evacuated the air from one of the bubble-cages and increased the temperature to seven hundred degrees fahrenheit, after he'd supervised a slow warming process for the worm and seen it deposited, still drowsy, in the bubble with sufficient quantities of silicon-compounds to keep it well fed, steve hobbled with his crutches to the general lounge. teejay sat there with half a dozen of the venusian experts, for the hunt would be much more protracted on that teeming jungle-world. the woman stood up at once and crossed the floor to steve. "how's the worm?"

"fine." he always felt a little edgy and on his guard when the woman spoke to him.

"and how's the extra-zoo expert's bum leg?"

"coming along, i think."

teejay turned to the six men seated around the lounge, said: "this is steve stedman, our extra-zoo man—at least temporarily. stedman, phillips knows more about amphibians than any man alive, ianello is our arboreal expert, smith ferrets out the cave-dwelling mammals—we hope, waneki goes floundering around after sea-monsters, st. clair is—"

then something buzzed shrilly on the adjacent wall, and teejay flipped a toggle switch. "captain here."

"radio from earth, captain. mr. brody carmical himself."

"is that so?" said teejay, her eyebrows lifting. "give me a circuit." and, a moment later, "what's the trouble, brody?"

the big man's voice came through faint and metallic over more than fifty million miles of space. "plenty, t. j., barling decided to start in the middle this year. some of our—er, contacts told us his ship's rocketing for ganymede, and fast. you'll have to get there first if you can, naturally."

"we'll get there," said teejay, quite grim, and cut the connection.

steve had time to think one thought before he was swept along in the general rush, crutches and all, after the woman galvanized into activity. she might take orders from brody carmical, but she even had a way with the big man, making him cow to her—perhaps unconsciously.

teejay was yelling and pointing, it seemed, in all directions at once. "hey you, ianello, shake a leg down to the fission-room and tell 'em to start straining. smith, get me kevin mcgann on the intercom. waneki, you can forget all about those venusian sea-monsters and tell the docs to be ready for plenty of acceleration cases. you better bed down right now, phillips, you're not as strong as the rest of us, not with sixty years of junketing behind you. hello, mcgann? listen, mac, i want the entire crew assembled in general inside of ten minutes. yeah, expedition too. everyone but those boys down in fission. and tell your orbit-man to figure a way to get us off this trajectory and on a quick ellipse from here to the jovian moons. yes, that's what i said—the jovian moons."

she paused long enough to take a breath and turn to steve. "well, stedman, we'll be dropping down over your brother's grave on ganymede before you know it. maybe then you'll be able to remove that chip from your shoulder."

"me? from my shoulder? sister, you've got things backwards."

but the woman pivoted away, and kevin's voice bleated over the intercom: "crew and expedition—all to general lounge on the double! you boys in fission stay put, captain's orders. this is urgent."

almost before kevin's voice had stopped echoing through the corridors, leclarc popped into the lounge. "you wanted me, captain? may i help?"

"i wanted everyone. everyone can help. just sit still till the rest of 'em get here."

leclarc appeared hurt, but he took a seat in glum silence. in twos and threes the members of the crew began to drift in, wild rumors circulating among them in whispers. finally, leclarc counted noses and told his captain that everyone except the fission crew was present.

teejay nodded, stepped to the center of the floor. she removed her cape and dropped it, discarding it so suddenly and yet with such a polished flourish that a complete silence fell upon the large room almost at once.

she paced back and forth, her bare, lithe limbs flashing under the green-glowing wall panels. "you've all come to know that cape," she said, her voice strident and alive. "it's a sort of affectation i have. but it's not necessary. like everything that's not necessary, it must be discarded, at least temporarily. men, we're in serious trouble."

just like that, inside of a few seconds, she had them eating out of the palm of her hand. she went on to say that barling's ship had already blasted off from the earth for ganymede, how, unless their efforts here on the gordak were herculean and then some, barling's ship would reach ganymede first. "and you all know what that would mean," she continued. "like the elephant of two centuries ago, the ganymeden anthrovac is the one solid necessity for any circus sideshow. but the anthrovacs have a way of going into hiding when they're disturbed. so, if barling gets to ganymede first, we've had it. we can all start looking for jobs after that, do you understand? i want full acceleration from here to ganymede, as soon as we can get the new orbit plotted. nothing but the immediate problem—to reach the jovian moons before barling—nothing else matters. if i tell you to work two shifts and go without sleep one night, you will do that. if i decide that a man must go beyond the shieldings in fission, he'll climb into a vac-suit and hope for the best. it's going to be like that, men, and i can't help it. i crack the whip and you jump. any questions?"

she stood dramatically, hands on hips, somehow poised on tip-toes without straining, a tall, impressive and quite beautiful figure.

"yes," said one of the orbiteers. "i have a question. can i get to work on the new orbit at once?"

there were hoarse shouts of approval, some applause and a scattering of deep-throated laughter. steve watched teejay walk off her improvised stage, complete master of the situation. if it were humanly possible for the gordak to reach ganymede before barling, they'd do it.