ike irresponsible children, they should be
spanked like irresponsible children.

He wondered if there were any young pretty female colonists who ought to
be spanked.

"... E Gray has just stepped off the landing ramp," the pilot out there
was reporting. "He is walking toward the three colonists. Now they have
started walking toward him. They do not seem hostile. They seem glad to
see us. My crew and I are still at our stations, ready for ..."

Silence.

The set simply didn't register anything more except that faint sigh of
uncompleted force fields in space.

"What now? What now?" the supervisor pushed the operator to one side,
and barely restrained the impulse to cuff him on the side of the head.
"Now what did you do? Why did you meddle with it when it was coming in
so clear and strong? What's happened?"

"I didn't do anything. I didn't meddle with it. I don't know what's
happened," the operator flared back. "The signal just stopped. That's
all."

There was an imperative flashing of the signal light on the line that
had been rigged to give direct connection of the running report to
Hayes's office. The operator hesitated, then flipped open the key, as if
he were touching a rattlesnake.

"What's happened down there?" Hayes complained abruptly, without
diplomatic softness. "This is a very crucial point!"

"I don't know what happened. I don't know," the supervisor quarreled
back. "The signal just stopped coming. We weren't doing anything to the
equipment."

He looked up at the continuously changing tri-di star map which made
the far wall appear to be a view into a miniature universe. "There's no
reason for an occlusion," he said to Hayes. "And the set here is alive.
It must be at the other end."

He turned to the operator, and said loudly, "Bounce a beam on Eden's
surface. Just see if any booster has gone out between here and there."
Most of it was making a show of efficiency for Hayes.

"Here we go again," the operator mumbled to himself, and pressed down a
key. The returning pips showed the signal was getting through to Eden.

"Pilot Lynwood! Pilot Lynwood!" the supervisor nagged into the mike.
"Speak up! Do you hear me?"

The operator sighed deeply. His panel partner grimaced something halfway
between a grin and a sneer of disgust.

"They don't answer," the supervisor said at last to Hayes. "It's the
same as before."

"Here we go again," Hayes groaned, but not only to himself. "All right,"
he said w