hen did _he_ get
married?"

"The day after we arrived here," replied the surgeon. "His fiancee was
aboard the _Arcturus_, and when they found out how long we would have
to be here, they very sensibly decided not to wait."

"Were there any others?" demanded Nadia, who, standing between Stevens
and her father, had been an interested listener.

"Plenty of them! Fourteen of our young women passengers have married
here upon Europa. A few married fellow-passengers, but most of them
picked out officers of the _Arcturus_. You'll find your staff made up
pretty largely of benedicts now, King! We've been here a year, you know,
and time will tell! Young Commander Sanderson's a fine baby--he'll be a
credit to the IPC some day, if we can get him aboard the _Sirius_, where
he can get a good start. We could give our babies normal air pressure
here by building special rooms, but we cannot give them the normal
acceleration necessary to develop their muscles properly."

"Well, we'd better snap over to Callisto and take this up with the
Council," Brandon put in. "I don't imagine that there will be any
objections, so you might as well get your ship gassed up and
loaded--we'll be back here with the okay in about a minute and a half."

* * * * *

With Brandon at the controls and with Czuv at the communicator plate,
the projection flashed toward distant Callisto and the group melted
away, each man going about his interrupted task.

"Daddy, take us somewhere--I want to talk to you," Nadia spoke to her
father, and the director led her and Stevens to his own room.

"All x, daughter; out with it!" and he bent upon her a quizzical glance,
under which a fiery blush burned from her throat to her forehead.

"Dad, I've been thinking a lot since you rescued us, and what we've just
heard has given me the nerve to say it. Steve, of course, wouldn't dare
suggest such a thing until we're safely back on Earth, so I will." Her
deep brown eyes held his steadily. "All those girls got married--why,
some of them have babies already--and Steve and I have waited for each
other _so_ long, daddy! And _none_ of them love each other the way we
do. Do they, Steve?"

"I don't see how they could, sir; and that goes straight across the
panel," and he bore unflinchingly the piercing gaze of the older man
as his right arm encircled the girl and held her close.

"Well, why not?" A sudden smile transformed Newton's stern visage.
"The