The trip out to the station was a monotonous series of uneventful hours, proceeding along one after the other. They dozed and slept most of the time, eating sparingly and doing nothing that was not absolutely necessary. Turnabout was accomplished and then the deceleration began, equally long and equally monotonous. It was equally inactive. Channing tried to plan, but it failed because he could not plan without talking and discussing the affair with his men. Too much depended upon their co-operation. He fell into a morose, futile feeling that made itself evident in grousing; Arden tried to cheer him, but Don's usually bubbling spirit was doused too deep. Also, Arden herself was none too happy, which is necessary before one can cheer another. Then they sighted the station and Channing's ill spirit left. A man of action, what he hated most was the no-action business of just sitting in a little capsule waiting for the relay station to come up out of the sky below. Once it was sighted, Channing foresaw action, and his grousing stopped. They zipped past the station at a distance of ten miles, and Channing opened the radio. "Walt Franks! Wake up, you slumberhead." The answer came inside of half a minute. "Hello, Don. Who's asleep?" "Where are you? In Joe's?" "Joe has declared a drought for the duration," said Franks with a laugh. "He thinks we can't think on Scotch." "We can't. Have you seen the boys?" "Murdoch's crew? Sure, they're circling at about five miles, running around in the plane of the ecliptic. Keep running on the colure and the chances are that you won't even see 'em. But, Don, they can hear us!" "How about the landing stage at the south end?" "There are two of them running around the station at different heights from north to south. The third is circling in a four-mile circle on a plane five miles south of the station. We've picked up a few HE shells, and I guess that, if you try to make a landing there, you'll be shot to bits. That devil is using the meteor detector for a gun pointer." "Walt, remember the visual loran?" "Y'mean the one we used to find the _Empress_?" "Uh-huh. Rig it without the mirrors? Get me? D'you know what I want to do?" "Yop. All we have to do is clear away some of the saw grass again. Not too much, though, because it hasn't been too long since we cut it before. I get you all right." "Fine. How soon?" "I'm in the beam control north, I've got a portable mike, and I walk over to the mirror and begin to tinker with the screws. _Ouch!_ I've skun me a knuckle. Now look, Don, I'm going inside and crack the passage end. I've broadcast throughout the station that it is to be cracked, and the men are swarming all over the axis of the station doing just that. Come--a-running!"