“Vesta and Maluleme—if Tommie was right about you two having to talk, make a note of this. Don’t do it as long as you’re members of this crew. If you do, I’ll fire you the second I find out about it. Now everybody—as far as I’m concerned none of this ever happened. We came here to blow out vortices and that’s all we did. We’ll go back to the hotel, get a few hours sleep, and. . . .” The long-range communicator, silent for weeks, came suddenly to life in English. “Calling space-ship _Vortex Blaster One_, Commander Neal Cloud. Acknowledge, please. Calling space-ship _Vortex Blaster One_. . . .” “Space-ship _Vortex Blaster One_ acknowledging.” The detector-coupled projector had swung into exact alignment. “Commander Cloud speaking.” “Space-ship YB216P9, of First Continent, Tominga, relaying message from Philip Strong of Tellus. Will you accept message?” “Will accept message. Ready.” “Begin message. Report in person as soon as convenient. Answer expected. End message. Signed Philip Strong. Repeat, please. We will relay reply.” Cloud repeated. Then: “Reply. To Philip Strong, Vortex Control Laboratory, Tellus. Begin message. Remess. Will leave Manarka fourteenth Sol for Tellus. End of message. Signed Neal Cloud. Repeat, please.” That done, he turned to his crew. “Now we’ll _have_ to go to work!” With Vesta to translate, two days sufficed to rid Tominga of her loose atomic vortices; and no one so much as suspected that the Patrol ship or any of its crew had had anything to do with the upheaval in Mingia. The trip to Manarka, a two-day flit, was uneventful. So was the extinguishment of Manarka’s vortices. When the job was done, Nadine’s mind and Cloud’s met briefly. No direct reference was made to the unpleasantness on Tominga, nor to their somewhat variant ideas concerning it. Nadine wanted to stay on. She liked the job and she liked Cloud. He was somewhat impractical and visionary, a bit too idealistic in his outlook at times; but a strong and able man and a top-bracket commander, nevertheless. And the Manarkan, in Cloud’s mind, was not only a top-bracket medico, but also a _very_ handy hand to have around. On the fourteenth of Sol, then, the good ship _Vortex Blaster I_ took off for Tellus, with Cloud wondering more than a little as to what was in the wind. He wasn’t the type to be unduly perturbed about being called up on the carpet _per se_; but Phil didn’t go in for mystery much—he explained things . . . He couldn’t possibly know anything about that Mingian business so soon . . . and he was going to tell him all about it anyway. . . . There was plenty of Laboratory business that shouldn’t be relayed all over space, and this was undoubtedly some of it. Whatever it was, it’d have to keep until he got to Tellus, anyway, so he’d forget it until then. But he didn’t. _Chapter 10_ ▂▂▂▂▂▂JANOWICK