"BANning 6226," she repeated.

"Fine. Now, Brock's agents will be watching you, so I'll have to
figure out a way to get you away from them, but that won't be too
hard. I'll let you know at the proper time. Meanwhile, get back in
there, get ready for bed, and get some sleep. You'll need it. Move."

She nodded rather dazedly, got up, and went to the door. She turned,
said goodnight in a low, puzzled voice, and closed the door.

Half an hour later, I quietly sneaked into her room just to check. She
was sound asleep in bed. I went back to my own room, and got some sack
time myself.

* * * * *

"It's a pleasure to have you here again, Miss Ravenhurst," said Chief
Engineer Midguard. "Anything in particular you want to see this time?"
He said it as though he actually enjoyed taking the boss' teenage
daughter through a spacecraft plant.

Maybe he did, at that. He was a paunchy, graying man in his sixties,
who had probably been a rather handsome lady-killer for the first
half-century of his life, but he was approaching middle age now, which
has a predictable effect on the telly-idol type.

Jack Ravenhurst was at her regal best, with the kind of _noblesse
oblige_ that would bring worshipful gratitude to the heart of any
underling. "Oh, just a quick run-through on whatever you think would
be interesting, Mr. Midguard; I don't want to take up too much of your
time."

Midguard allowed as how he had a few interesting things to show her,
and the party, which also included the watchful and taciturn Colonel
Brock, began to make the rounds of the Viking plant.

There were three ships under construction at the time: two cargo
vessels and a good-sized passenger job. Midguard seemed to think that
every step of spacecraft construction was utterly fascinating--for
which, bully for him--but it was pretty much of a drag as far as I was
concerned. It took three hours.

Finally, he said, "Would you like to see the McGuire-7?"

Why, yes, of course she would. So we toddled off to the new ship while
Midguard kept up a steady line of patter.

"We think we have all the computer errors out of this one, Miss
Ravenhurst. A matter of new controls and safety devices. We feel that
the trouble with the first six machines was that they were designed to
be operated by voice orders by any qualified human operator. The
trouble is that they had no way of telling just who was qualified. The
brains are perfectly capable