"Well, go find him. In the first place, none of us except him know how to chart to intersect Uranus' orbit, and in the second place, we don't know how to operate that crazy velocity intensifier of his'n, and--" Fretfully. "--and in the third place, I don't like this in the first place!" So I made a tour of the ship, and found him where I should have looked first. In his own cabin, raptly fondling a cabinet photograph of Diane Hanson--soon-to-be Biggs. He glanced up as I entered, and his phenomenal Adam's apple, an auricular escalator if I ever saw one, bobbed in greeting. "Hello, Sparks," he said dreamily, and held out the picture for my inspection. "She's lovely, isn't she?" I said, "Don't look now, Mr. Biggs, but that cheery little noise you've been ignoring is the audio buzzer beside your elbow. It's for you. The skipper wants you top-side." Biggs looked startled. "Me? But there must be some mistake. I'm off duty until tomorrow morning." "Guess again," I told him. "It so happens that you are the only mugg--I mean officer--around here who knows how to finagle that velocity intensifier of yours. So you're elected. After all, if we're going to Uranus--" That got him. He popped off his hip pockets like a thunderbolt from the blooie! "What! Uranus!" "Okay," I said gloomily. "And you watch yours." I stared at him curiously, though. "What's the matter; didn't you know?" "Know! Of course not! B-but--" His fluid larynx did handsprings. "But I can't go to Uranus! I told her I'd be home in ten days!" I said, "Then she'd better not hold her breath till you get there. You led with your chin, Lieutenant, when you told the president of our belovéd corporation about your new invention. He'd decided to give it a work-out. And as near as I can figure--" This was what had been worrying me from the start. "It will take us about ten months to get to Uranus, and another twelve to get back!" But, surprisingly, it was my dejection that snapped Biggs out of his. The impatient-bridegroom-look disappeared from his eyes, and he grinned. "My goodness, no, Sparks! Don't you understand the operation of my velocity intensifier?" "I'm a bug-pounder," I told him. "I understand the space code, and dots and dashes, and Ampies, and I know four languages. That's par for the course." "It's really quite simple. My velocity intensifier is exactly what the name implies--a device that is attached to the hypatomic motors for the purpose of "stepping up" our normal velocity. It's based on the principle of energy-conservation. A series of parallax-condensers absorb all waste energy, pass it through multiple amplifiers, rotors and--" "--and all points west!" I finished. "It's no go, Lieutenant. That's one of the languages I don't talk. Give it to me in words of one syllable. How long will it take us to get to Uranus and back?"