"Can't send more than one," returned Pete. "Still want him?" "Why didn't you contact me?" "Line was busy." "O.K., send one man. The gang at 6 was indisposed, that's all, and Dan can work now. Fred is going to be out of commission for the duration, but he can still direct as soon as we get him patched." To Wilkins, he said: "Dan, we're going to trot. There'll be help out here soon. Tommy and I are needed on 10." The flitter took off again and began to cross the lens for 10. Allison, at 2, called and said: "McBride? Good news. Two and 3 are ready for service." "Swell," said McBride. "Now look, call the stations and ask who needs help. You and Fellowes go out and assist." "Right." McBride hung up the phone, and it rang almost immediately. "Mac? This is Caldwell." "Yes, Doc?" "Look, Carlson is in bad shape." "Can you jack him up? Not now, but say in three hours?" "Probably, but not more than a few minutes. He'd be better in twenty-four hours." "Gad, Doc, Pluto'll be forty-eight degrees colder in that time! Knock forty-eight degrees off of the temperature on any planet, and you'll probably knock the whole thing for a loop. Better patch him up, Doc, because he's one of the mainsprings that'll be needed when we're about to restore the lens." "O.K.--and say, John, you don't mind my making a hospital out of your lab?" "Go ahead. How's the casualty situation?" "Nothing fatal. Mostly an assortment of cuts, bruises, fractures, and shock. I've been checking the stations, and we've been calling all bad injuries in here for treatment. Takes a little longer, but I can keep my eye on more men if they come than I could if I went traveling. Never can tell what'll happen." "Have you contacted the after stations? They got a shaking up, but I don't believe that it was anything compared to the fore element stations." "No, most of the trouble in the back was due to being hit by slowly moving objects of high inertia. They're mostly annoyed, back there. The front system got it, though, what with flying spots of molten metal, electrical discharges that convulsed muscles, and burns from the alphatrons when they went load-free. A few of the boys got hurt when the mechano-gravitic generators collected the full load of the power sources and let them have anything from 10 to 15-G until the gravity-switches cut out. That did more than haul the men to the floor; it also hauled a lot of what would have been light stuff down on top of them at weights from ten to fifteen times normal. That's what hurt the most of them." "What fell, mostly?" "Light fixtures, and ceiling equipment. The busbar hangers on 7 gave way and dropped a bus line on one fellow, breaking both legs. Eleven's mechano-gravitic generator misfocused and hauled everything slaunchwise into a corner of every room. The men picked themselves out of a pile of material; everything from loose generators to odds and ends of wire. The latter didn't hurt, but the heavy machinery did."