"QX, fellows, a nice job. A good job, in fact, considering--even though we all know that it isn't what any of us would call a good machine. Part of that meter jump, of course, is due to the fact that nothing about the heap is true or balanced, but most of it must be due to this cockeyed ether. Anyway, none of it is due to the usual causes--loose bars and faulty insulation. So my best guess is that she'll keep on doing her stuff while we do ours. One sure thing, she isn't going to fall apart, even under that ungodly knocking; and I don't _think_ that she's going to shake herself off of the planet." * * * * * After Thorndyke's somewhat less than enthusiastic approval of his brain-child, the adventurers into that fantastic region attacked the second phase of their project. Two Patrol Bergenholms were landed and were installed. Their meters jumped, too, but the engineers were no longer worried about that. _Those_ machines would run indefinitely; and a concerted sigh of relief arose when the improvised generator was shut down. Pits were dug. Atomic blasts and other engines were installed, as were many exceedingly complex instruments and mechanisms. A few tons of foreign matter on the planet's surface would now make no difference, but there was no relaxation of the extreme precautions against the transfer of any matter whatever from the planet to the spaceship. When the job was done, but before the clean-up, Thorndyke called his crew into conference. "Fellows, I know just what a beating you've been taking. We all feel as though we had been on a Delgonian clambake. Nevertheless, I've got to tell you something. Kinnison said that if we could get this one fixed up without too much trouble, it'd be a mighty good idea to have two of them. What do you say? Did we have too much trouble?" He got exactly the reaction he had expected. "Lead us to it!" "Pick out the one you want!" "Trouble? It's all over--we can tow this scrap heap on a space line, match intrinsics with clamp-on drivers, and plant it anywhere!" Another metal-studded, barren, lifeless world was therefore found and prepared, and no real argument arose until Thorndyke broached the matter of selecting the two men who were to stay with him and Henderson in the two lifeboats which were to remain for a time near the two loose planets after _Space Laboratory XII_ had returned to normal space. Everybody wanted to stay. Each one _was_ going to stay, too, by all the gods of space, if he had to pull rank to do it! "Hold it!" Thorndyke commanded. "We'll do the same as we did before, then, by drawing lots. Quartermaster Allerdyce--" "No!" Uhlenhuth, formerly Atomic Technician 1/c, objected vigorously, and was supported by several others. "He's too clever with his fingers--look what he did to the original draw! We're not squawking about that one, you understand--a little fixing was QX back there--but we want this one to be honest."