They sat around a drawing table and Channing began to sketch. "What I'd hoped to do is this," he said, drawing a schematic diagram. "We're not interested in power transmission, but your gadget will do a bit of voltage amplification because of its utter indifference to the power-line problem of impedance matching. We can take a relay tube and put in ten watts, say, across ten thousand ohms. That means the input will be somewhat above three hundred volts. Now, if our output is raced across a hundred thousand ohms, ten watts will give us one thousand volts. So we can get voltage amplification at the expense of current--which we will not need. Unfortunately, the relay tube as well as the rest of the system will give out with the same kind of power that it is impressed with--so we'll have amplification of driver radiation. Then we'll need a detector. We haven't been able to get either yet, but this is a start, providing that Terran Electric will permit us to take a deep breath without wanting to pass on it." "I think you may be able to get amplification," said Barney. "But to do it, you'll have to detect it first." "Huh?" "Sure. Before these darned things will work, this in-phase anode must be right on the beam. That means that you'll require a feed-back circuit from the final stage to feed the in-phase anodes. Could be done without detection, I suppose." "Well, for one thing, we're going to get some amplification if we change the primary anode--so. That won't permit the thing to handle any power, but it will isolate the output from the input and permit more amplification. Follow?" "Can we try it?" "As soon as I get Terran Electric's permission." "Here we go again!" groaned Walt. "Yeah," said Don to Barney, "now you'll see the kind of birds you sold your gadget to." They found Kingman and Farrell in conference. Channing offered his suggestion immediately, and Kingman looked it over, shaking his head. "It is not permitted to alter, change, rework, or repair tubes owned by Terran Electric," he said. "What are we permitted to do?" asked Channing. "Give me your recommendation and I shall have the shop at Terran Electric perform the operation." "At cost?" "Cost plus a slight profit. Terran Electric, just as Communications, is not in business from an altruistic standpoint." "I see." "Also," said Kingman severely, "I noticed one of your men changing the circuit slightly without permission. Why?" "Who was it?" "The man known as Thomas." "Charley Thomas is in charge of development work," said Channing. "He probably noticed some slight effect that he wanted to check." "He should have notified me first--I don't care how minute the change. I must pass on changes first." "But you wouldn't know their worth," objected Barney. "No, but Mr. Farrell does, and will so advise me." Wes looked at Channing. "Have you been to the Ninth Level yet?" "Nope," said Channing. "May I accompany you?"