Plekhanov began to bellow an angry retort but Amschel Mayer popped suddenly to his feet and lifted a hand to quiet the others. "Our solution has just come to me!" Plekhanov glowered at him. Mayer said excitedly, "Remember what the Co-ordinator told us? This expedition of ours is the first of its type. Even though we fail, the very mistakes we make will be invaluable. Our task is to learn how to bring backward peoples into an industrialized culture in roughly half a century." The messroom's occupants scowled at him. Thus far he'd said nothing new. Mayer went on enthusiastically. "Thus far in our debates we've had two basic suggestions on procedure. I have advocated a system of free competition; my learned colleague has been of the opinion that a strong state and a planned, not to say totalitarian, economy would be the quicker." He paused dramatically. "Very well, I am in favor of trying them both." They regarded him blankly. He said with impatience, "There are two planets, at different ethnic periods it is true, but not so far apart as all that. Fine, eight of us will take Genoa and eight Texcoco." Plekhanov rumbled, "Fine, indeed. But which group will have the use of the _Pedagogue_ with its library, its laboratories, its shops, its weapons?" For a moment, Mayer was stopped but Joe Chessman growled, "That's no problem. Leave her in orbit around Rigel. We've got two small boats with which to ferry back and forth. Each group could have the use of her facilities any time they wished." "I suppose we could have periodic conferences," Plekhanov said. "Say once every decade to compare notes and make further plans, if necessary." Natt Roberts was worried. "We had no such instructions from the Co-ordinator. Dividing our forces like that." Mayer cut him short. "My dear Roberts, we were given _carte blanche_. It is up to us to decide procedure. Actually, this system realizes twice the information such expeditions as ours might ordinarily offer." "Texcoco for me," Plekhanov grumbled, accepting the plan in its whole. "The more backward of the two, but under my guidance in half a century it will be the more advanced, mark me." "Look here," Martin Gunther said. "Do we have two of each of the basic specialists, so that we can divide the party in such a way that neither planet will miss out in any one field?" Amschel Mayer was beaming at the reception of his scheme. "The point is well taken, my dear Martin, however you'll recall that our training was deliberately made such that each man spreads over several fields. This in case, during our half century without contact, one or more of us meets with accident. Besides, the _Pedagogue's_ library is such that any literate can soon become effective in any field to the extent needed on the Rigel planets." III.