Later, as we were streaking the spaceways toward our Callisto rendezvous, the _Leo_ completely repaired, we demanded and received an explanation. I might add that in female togs the pint-sized chef looked just the right size, and a hundred percent O.Q. "I didn't exactly lie about my name," she explained. "It _is_ 'Andy Laney'--only you spell it a bit differently. I am really 'Ann Delaney.' My father was a spaceman, so was my grandfather and my great-grandfather. Daddy was always sorry he had a daughter instead of a son. He wanted to see the old tradition of a 'Delaney in space' go on. But you thick-headed males have rules against allowing women to take to the spaceways except as passengers, so there was nothing I could do." "You," I told her admiringly, "did all right." "More than all right!" acknowledged the Skipper. "If it hadn't been for you--Don't worry, Miss Delaney. I'll see that the proper authorities hear all about this. Only--" A crease puckered his forehead--"There's something I ain't yet puzzled out. How come you ordered Mr. Dugan to shoot not at, but above the ships? At the Bog? And how come the rocks came tumbling down thataway?" "Why," smiled Ann Delaney shyly, "it was really very simple. Heat, Captain." "Heat?" "Of course. As any student of thermodynamics knows, heat has a definite attractive force, varying directly as the difference in temperature. Space, being a vacuum, lacks heat entirely. Its temperature is that of Absolute Zero. Our gun emitted a heat-force equivalent to that of ten solar degrees. Thus the radiation we discharged at the bitter cold fragments of rock and ore comprising the Bog created a sort of passageway, an attractive channel down which the detritus was drawn. To state the problem more simply: have you ever watched a pot of beans boil? A seething whirlpool is created; the beans seek the heat." "By golly!" said O'Hara. "I think you got something there, Miss Delaney. Why--why, that's terrific! That gives us a brand-new combat technique for locations where there are small cosmic bodies. Wait till the War Department hears it!" But Ann Delaney just sniffed. "New?" she repeated disdainfully. "New? Why, every woman cook knows that, Captain!" You'll find the rest in the history books. Callisto _did_ sign a pact with us ... the Federation _did_ open a new front almost within spitting distance of Jupiter.... We've got a better universe to live in now. For one thing, there's peace throughout the Solar System. Because of Ann Delaney, the government changed its ruling about women in space; you'll find 'em everywhere, nowadays, doing everything and anything men do. But I'm glad to say Ann isn't one of those void-vampires any more. She and I--oh, sure! We're married now. I couldn't let a swell cook like her get away, could I? End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Captain Chaos, by Nelson S. Bond