In all of the man-made works on Terra, Pluto, Venus, Mars, and Luna, considerably less than the volume of a hundred-mile sphere had been moved. Affected, perhaps, but not man-moved; the pile-up of rivers behind a dam could not be counted. So man pitting himself against a celestial object seemed almost like sacrilege, though Sandra Drake knew that these men would take a job of analyzing the course-constants of the Star of Bethlehem if they thought they knew where it was now. And as small as Soaky was against the giants of the galaxy, it was none the less a celestial object. So she searched the sky hopefully and was not surprised that nothing was there. Her search was more "Will it happen" instead of "When will it happen?" And then a Telfan stuck his head in the room and called: "Sandrake! Can you come?" Sandra shook her head, rubbed her eyes again, and went. "Now what?" she asked wearily. "We don't have to evacuate another district?" "No," smiled Theodi, "not that bad this time. But we are going out to Loana--a small town not too far from here--and try out some of this latest stuff." "Have any hope for it?" "I must have hope," said Theodi. "That's selling yourself a bill of goods," said Sandra. "I know. But unless I play self-deception to the limit, I'll quit from sheer futility. No, Sandrake, I must hope with all my soul and I must force myself to believe that this may work." "I won't even mention my friends," she said. "You are beginning to give up?" "I hate to think of it," said Sandra honestly. "It'll be the first time that they failed to do what they said they could do. I know they planned it, perhaps it takes longer than they think. Or perhaps they came unprepared; their equipment not complete. After all," and Sandra managed a reminiscent smile in spite of her feelings, "I've seen them running some of the haywirest equipment in the world and making it perform. Maybe this time the law of averages caught up with them." "You think perhaps they are finding that our satellite is too much for them?" "I hate to think of it. I'd hate to admit that they could fail." "You have changed, Sandrake." "Have I? I wonder if it is my hope that they will take me home. No, Theodi, in spite of what I may say about them, they know their potatoes. They're the typical genius-type. Whether they rate as genius I wouldn't know, but they're that kind of people. Give them a situation, and from somewhere in their memory they can bring forth the darnedest things which fit in like jigsaw pieces to complete the whole picture." "I hope they continue," said Theodi. "Feel up to coming along?" "Sure." "Good. We need you." "Who, me?" asked Sandra. "Yes." "Why?"