It took four more months to raise Aldebaran. When we ran onto the range of Aldebaran, things grew a bit tricky. There were no truly accurate charts, no perfectly matched coordinates for absolute bearings, only the tape of the Essex's astro-officer to trail in on. We set the tape and locked the controls in on them and turned all the scanners up full. We proceeded at ten percent power, gradually drawing in on the solar system of the red star, setting a solar orbit and drawing in toward the nebula of its system. Here, the Essex's tape became useless. They had made eight approaches before striking a parallel orbit, had not recorded the orbital timing of the various outer planets of the system, and had sort of felt their way into the ninth planet. We would be obliged to do the same thing. Throne, the astrogation officer, took over control and eased the Algonquin down, decelerating gradually over a period of seven hours. He then brought us to a complete halt and looked up at me. "We'll have to go back out and start over, sir," he said. "I have insufficient data to bring us through correctly. It might take weeks. I don't understand how the Essex made it. Probably a big piece of luck." We lifted out of the solar plane and set the computers to coordinating positional data on Aldebaran's system. This time, the Essex's tapes were unnecessary. Throne plotted an exact course, determined to strike the ninth planet at the apogee of its orbit. None of Aldebaran's planets, incidentally, hold anywhere near a circular orbit. There are six belts of what can be classed as asteroids. These were very likely planets, or pairs of planets, at one time, but before the multi-rhythmed cycle of Aldebaran's system established itself, these planets ceased to exist, through what cataclysmic collisions I could not even begin to imagine. We struck an orbit about Aldebaran IX without fault, and Throne returned command to me. There was a general announcement made throughout the ship that we were in orbit about the objective planet and shortly thereafter, the voice of Captain Kingsford, for the first time during the voyage, came over the communications system. "Attention. This is Captain Kingsford speaking. Mr. Rogers will supervise the locking of all controls into this orbit about our objective, and members of the crew will assemble on the main deck. I wish to address you. My compliments to Mr. Throne on a fine piece of ship handling in this rudimentarily charted area. Thank you, Mr. Throne. In ten minutes, then, gentlemen." The men all looked up, as if suddenly reawakened to the fact that there was an officer aboard who was my superior. "Well," I said, "I guess you'll now meet Capt. Kingsford." * * * * *