"My God," the Captain said finally. "Why did it happen? Why did it have to happen to the _Glory of the Galaxy_?" "What are you going to do, sir?" "_I_ can't do anything. I won't take the responsibility. Have the radioman contact the Hub at once." "Yes, sir." _The Glory of the Galaxy_, the SOS ship heading on collision course with the sun, was making its maiden run from the assembly satellites of Earth across the inner solar system via the perihelion passage which would bring it within twenty-odd million miles of the sun, to Mars which now was on the opposite side of Sol from Earth. Aboard the gleaming new ship was the President of the Galactic Federation and his entire cabinet. * * * * * The Fomalhautian freighter's emergency message was received at the Hub of the Galaxy within moments after it had been sent, although the normal space distance was in the neighborhood of one hundred thousand light years. The message was bounced--in amazingly quick time--from office to office at the hub, cutting through the usual red tape because of its top priority. And--since none of the normal agencies at the Hub could handle it--the message finally arrived at an office which very rarely received official messages of any kind. This was the one unofficial, extra-legal office at the Hub of the Galaxy. Lacking official function, the office had no technical existence and was not to be found in any Directory of the Hub. At the moment, two young men were seated inside. Their sole job was to maintain liaison with a man whose very existence was doubted by most of the human inhabitants of the Galaxy but whose importance could not be measured by mere human standards in those early days when the Galactic League was becoming the Galactic Federation. The name of the man with whom they maintained contact was Johnny Mayhem. "Did you read it?" the blond man asked. "I read it." "If it got down here, that means they can't handle it anywhere else." "Of course they can't. What the hell could normal slobs like them or like us do about it?" "Nothing, I guess. But wait a minute! You don't mean you're going to send Mayhem, without asking him, without telling--" "We can't ask him now, can we?" "Johnny Mayhem's _elan_ is at the moment speeding from Canopus to Deneb, where on the fourth planet of the Denebian system a dead body is waiting for him in cold storage. The turnover from League to Federation status of the Denebian system is causing trouble in Deneb City, so Mayhem--" "Deneb City will probably survive without Mayhem. Well, won't it?" "I guess so, but--" "I know. The deal is we're supposed to tell Mayhem where he's going and what he can expect. The deal also is, every inhabited world has a body waiting for his _elan_ in cold storage. But don't you think if we could talk to Mayhem now--" "It isn't possible. He's in transit." "Don't you think if we could talk to him now he would agree to board the _Glory of the Galaxy_?"