When he reached Groombridge 34, all Lance did was pop out into normal space long enough to assure himself he had reached the proper checkpoint for turning back. The tapes were in good order, and there had been no hitches. Grunting, he threw in the switch-over and once more found himself plowing through hyperspace. Only this time, he was homeward bound. If he were lucky, just real lucky, he told himself, there might be a Carolyn Sagen alive and waiting for him in whatever time-track he wound up in this time. At last, he materialized again in the Solar System. Or _some_ Solar System, anyhow. As far as he could tell, all the planets looked unchanged. It was just four weeks to the day, since his escape from World Two. This would be World Three. He had been gone eight weeks and two days from World One. Lance cut the ecliptic at a different angle than before, and Terra was farther along in her journey around Sol. He needed a new landing trajectory. His eye swept his panel, to see if anything had been preset. There was no green flashing on the deck, where there should have been green. Oh, well. There could have been cruisers waiting in space, too, to pot him with ship-to-ship missiles. He'd taken one chance, he could take another. Lance opened a switch and called Base Traffic's frequency. "This is the _Cosmos XII_, Major Lance Cooper piloting. Just broke out of hype. Can you read me?" He repeated the message for several minutes. Finally, he got an answer. A startled voice whipped back at him through crackling static: "_Cosmos XII_, this is Traffic. Who did you say you were up there?" * * * * * Lance hardly knew whether he felt more like laughing or crying. He was fairly close to home, anyhow. They did have space traffic here. And being pretty much of an optimist, he also decided that it was a time-track where he had been known. Only being so long overdue, he had probably been given up for lost. On this premise, he could visualize all the consternation and excitement now in progress downstairs; the personnel were likely falling all over each other in the stampede to pass the word around. "I'm Major Lance Cooper," he announced over the mike. There was a long pause. "Repeat that, please." "This is Lance Cooper, Major, Space Service. I'm up here in the _Cosmos XII_." "B-b-but you can't be." "Who says I can't. Say, what's the matter with you monkeys? I want to come in." Another voice took over on the channel. "The lieutenant's right. You actually do sound like Cooper, whoever you are!" Lance laughed openly. "I've lived with him all my life, why shouldn't I? You think I'm a ghost?" "Well ... no. We know you're real. We're getting a blip from you. Only thing is--" "Let's talk about it when I get down," Lance interrupted. "I need a program fast. Get those G.S. computers working and read me an orbit." "W-will do." "And one more thing: Is Colonel Sagen around?" "Not today, major. He had to fly to Luna."