"Is he O.K.?" "He's weak, but he'll be all right for a few minutes." "Look, Doc, I don't want to kill anybody by making him work when he's likely to keel over, but we need Carlson if we ever needed any man. Darn it, why are there so very few men with supersensitive balance?" "It's hereditary, and the human race is still mongrel by its own law," said Doc with a smile. "By which I mean that it is illegal to marry your own brother--or sister." McBride laughed, and then went in to see Carlson. "Carl," said McBride, "how do you feel?" "Wobbly." "How wobbly?" "Not too bad. How're things?" "We've been running around like waltzing mice for the past few hours, but we'll be ready for business in a few hours." "I'll be needed." "In an hour." "I'll be up." "He'll be up," said Doc. "How long will he be needed?" "Perhaps an hour." "He won't be up that long." "What can we do?" "Get everything ready. If he can hold out, or if you can set things so that the warp can be established in a shorter time, we're in. You couldn't hold a partial warp for any length of time?" "Not a chance. It's one of those yes or no things. You can't stand still while building a space warp. You must either build up or let fall." "If you could use something less than perfect, supersensitive balance, I could buck him up with a bit of dope and he'd last longer." "Why not stand by with the needle? Or could you give him something that will wear off in a half hour and sort of increase that balance as the time passes--giving him the buck-up at the first and saving that strength for later?" "Might work, but I sort of hate to take finely-cut chances like that," said Caldwell. "We'll try it!" * * * * * The last report was in, and all stations were ready and operating on test power. McBride spoke into the broadcast communicator, so that the superintendents of all stations could hear him simultaneously. "Rear element, fore stations, set up primary warp." Generators whined up the musical scale in the twelve stations that circled the junction between the fore and aft elements. Slowly and ponderously, the stations began to fall into a true plane, and as they began to align, the electro-gravitic generators began to work more efficiently. Before the warp had started to form, McBride called: "Rear element, rear stations, set up secondary warp!" The rearmost twelve began to fling their power across the circle, and the space between the two regular polygons began to take lenticular shape. As it formed, it thickened, and the massiveness of the space between the warps set the stations more firmly in place. They oscillated gently back and forth, in a damped cycle and would be moving in gentler and smaller excursions for days before they came to total rest. "Fore ring, set up magneto-gravitic warp!"