"Stacey and Morrow and you and I--" he said. His voice trailed away for a moment, and then he forgot what he was going to say because he was busy with the instrument panel. * * * * * Albert Donatti had been editor of the Neoterra _News_ through three changes of policy. The _News_, claiming to be politically neutral, was definitely neutral on the coalition side, presenting the autonomy party in less than favorable light, while tending to gloss over any missteps taken by the coalitionists. Like the other newspapers, the Neoterra _News_ subscribed to the Neosol Wire Service, and so Al Donatti got the same news that the other subscribers did. Al had been sitting at his desk all morning trying to think up something bright and brilliant to say about Huston and his plans, or something bright and derogatory to say about Hoagland's gang. Even Donatti had become tired of making the same veiled remarks regarding the possibility of furnishing Terran and Solarian news before it was ten months old, but he knew that the one way to hold the home tie was to keep on offering hope. The virtual disappearance (for Hoagland was not inclined to give out his plans) of Paul Grayson had put a crimp in the schedule, for they never knew when they said one thing whether the other side would be able to come up with incontrovertible truth to the contrary. With a few less facets to play upon, the editorializing of Huston and the Z-wave was almost reduced to the constant harping on a single subject--which is tiring even to the most ardent enthusiast. Even a faithful believer wants some shred of proof. So the coalition party was in the same state as a prize fighter who has trained too fine; who has reached the pinnacle of physical perfection some time before the fray. The additional newscopy that would have been furnished by Paul Grayson's presence among the coalition group had been diminished. That additional space would have kept the campaign rising upward. It had been a long dry stretch, even for an imaginative editor with a bill of goods to sell. Manufacturing news is one of the hardest things in the world after the process has gone on for month after month. Donatti was reaching the end of the string, and there were still months to go. Donatti groaned, and then looked up to see a copy boy approaching, waving a reel of recording tape in one hand. "Yes--?" "Z-wave! Z-wave!" said the copy boy breathlessly. "So what--?" grunted Donatti, taking the reel and slipping it into his playback. It started: "Neosol Wire Service. Neovenus, Four August. Archeologists today discovered the traces of a crude civilization dating at least seven thous--" Donatti groaned. That would make page eighteen, sandwiched between an ad and the local theatre column. "--and years old. No trace of this civilization remains today. Crude pottery and some stone arrowheads--"