He took off his cap, then lighted a cigarette. He checked his wrist watch with the large clock on the wall. He set the sweep second hand to coincide with the larger one. "Twelve minutes, Colonel," someone behind Wade said. He wiped his dry lips as he flicked his eyes in the direction of the Major in charge of the control panel. The Major gave him a tight smile. Wade nodded. Major Gormely was a good man ... they were all good men. Wade felt proud to be part of the team. He took in the radar man checking the never-ending sweep of the beam. Frank Piluis, a tall, lanky man of twenty-three. He was checking the screen, adjusting, as if his own life depended on its operation instead of a man he hardly knew. Wade checked his own screen again. The _Starfrost_ was so silent ... so latent ... so important. Wade found Tomer creeping into his thoughts again. He shut the thought out quickly. Wade was a military man. He had orders to forget Tomer. He gave orders. He also had to take them. Wade became mindful of someone standing behind him. He turned. The man was tall, wearing the cloak of authority in the very way he smiled. Distinguished looking streaks of gray ran over his once brown hair. Tiny wrinkles at the eyes told that he was a man with a sense of humor even though pressed with responsibility. "A penny for your thoughts, Wade." The Secretary of Defense said as Boeman got up. Wade wondered if the man had been in the control room all the time. He hadn't seen him. "They aren't worth it, Harry," he answered, offering his hand. "As bad as that," the Secretary laughed. "Here we are on the edge of a History making moment and you're wasting your time with worthless thoughts." Worthless thoughts. Wade wondered if they were, really. Wade first met Harry Lowe a long time ago when the project was just a dream on the drawing boards. Since that time he had come to know the Secretary intimately. Now, suddenly, he felt awkward before the man. Perhaps it was because Lowe seemed to have a special talent for reading peoples' expressions, converting them into sentences. Like now, Wade felt the man was reading his face like a book. "That's right, Harry. History is being made isn't it?" The Secretary's face became very serious. "More than that, Wade. Perhaps salvation depends on it." "Ten minutes," a voice said. Wade nodded at the technician. Tiny lights came into play on the control panel as Major Gormely began closing circuits. The communications man made a final type check on the huge P.C.R. set. "_Starfrost._ This is Mother. How do you read me? Over." "Mother. This is _Starfrost_. Loud and clear. Five by five." Ackerson's strong voice came from the loud-speaker located in the center of the equipment. "Oxygen checks. I've bedded down. Give the Colonel my love." The radio man looked at Wade. There had been no mistaking the sarcasm in Ackerson's voice. Wade felt his face grow red. "He hasn't changed," he heard the Secretary say.