"Is this important?" Their mother had laid her sewing in her lap to listen to them, trying to follow and understand what her sons were talking about. "Pop thought it was, Mom," Jon explained. "One of the things men have been looking for ever since they first started dreaming of rockets and spaceships, was the best possible fuel. We knew the one we're using now isn't the ultimate, but it's the best they've been able to get so far. Pop thought perhaps this new stuff might be it--_if_ we could find it, and _if_ we could learn how to use it." "Why can't we use it if you find it?" Jak wanted to know. "There are so many problems. Maybe it would be so radioactive we wouldn't be able to handle it or keep it in the storage bins without endangering the people on the ship. Maybe the exciters and convertors wouldn't handle it without a lot of new experimenting and new designs we wouldn't have the scientific or technical know-how to make. Or it might be that instead of getting a steady stream of power as we do with our present activated-copper fuel, the stuff would want to blow up all at once. If the metal's as powerful as I think it is, it might cause an explosion that would make man's biggest H- or C-bomb look like a firecracker." "Then don't you go experimenting with it and blow us all up," his mother said sharply. Jon grinned at her. "You needn't worry about that, Mom, now that I've had a chance to learn how little I know. Although I would've gone off half-cocked that day you stopped me--for which I'm grateful, even though I was sore at you for a while then. But I'm sure going to study it as soon as we get the other markers set and can get back to Two." "By that time Father will be well again," Jak said. "Isn't it wonderful that he really is coming around all right? Seems to be taking an awful long time for him to recover fully, though." "I'm sure he'll be his own keen self again soon ... although he'll have to stay in bed until that leg is strong enough to stand on again." "Well, let's hit the sack, so we can get a good start in the morning. 'Night, Mom." * * * * * During their journeys over the surface of Planet Three the boys conscientiously tended the machines and recorders that gave them the data on land and water conditions, the proportions of each, the approximate amounts of metallic ores their analyzers showed, the information on weather, temperature and humidity. They took numerous pictures as required by law--their mother often helping in this, after Jak had taught her how to operate the cameras. These pictures Jak developed and printed as he had time, and mounted them in their data book for the Colonial Board to study when they got back. They also mapped and recorded the size and distances of Three's two moons. Jak named these "Zinnia" and "Begonia," much to Jon's sarcastic and openly-expressed derision. "This'll make a swell home for people who like cold weather." Jak tried to change the subject.