"I believe I have the floor." Dr. White looked from one face to another as he addressed his remarks to each delegate seated at the conference table. "If we had been free to use the X-factor, we could now have reached the stars with no need to concern ourselves with the time barrier. Instead we are virtually confined to the barren planets of the Solar System. Right here on our own planet, the X-factor could have rebuilt the world almost overnight following the war." "There is an ancient saying," Kotenko interrupted. "Those who play with fire--" "The time has come," Dr. White pushed on, "to reappraise our position with regard to the X-factor capsules lying unused in the Swiss stockpile." "We are hardly in a position to act on that matter," said the delegate from Greater Germany. "This is a matter for the Council itself." Chandler tossed his pencil aside and stood up. "Nor is there any need to get a decision at this moment. The drill--with or without the capsule--will be basically the same. I'd like to see a motion for work to proceed on the drill. The matter of the X-factor can be decided later." "I make such a motion," said the Canadian. The motion was passed. It was Marta who selected the site. She chose a grassy meadow in northern Michigan that stood directly in the path of the advancing glacier. But long before the first fingers of the glacier could search out the site, searing billows of heat would spread like a spider web across the mountain heights and northern reaches of North America, the north Atlantic and northwestern Europe. Only Marta's stubborn insistence that this was the most central location had worn down a number of European delegates who had wanted operations to begin on their side of the Atlantic. Kotenko, with a green light from Chandler, ordered three long-abandoned automotive plants into action in Michigan. Scientists and technicians from many nations of the World Council were brought together in the old General Motors Technical Center in Detroit. Plans were drawn, models constructed and a test vehicle sent to the center of Saturn's moon, Mimas. * * * * * Chandler carefully studied Kotenko's report of the Mimas probe, then met with the Russian in the latter's office. "I know why you're here," said Kotenko, offering Chandler a black Russian cigar. "You must take into consideration that this was only a scale model." "But it had full power," Chandler argued. "The initial descent was held to fifty miles an hour." Kotenko lit Chandler's cigar. "A fast start and we would have done it with power to spare. And remember that we haven't licked the heat problem. The test drill was softened by friction heat." "You still couldn't have made it to the center of Rhea, let alone to the core of the Earth," Chandler said. "It can be done," Kotenko insisted, "and without resorting to your X-factor."