the bridge. I hereby do so."

Coming through the bulkhead were two more Security men, each with a
needle gun. His gun unwaveringly pointed at the captain, Com Officer
Clark reached down and flipped the red switch that turned off the
power to all of the ship intercoms.

* * * * *

On board Hot Rod, the Security crew was working against an accelerated
time-schedule now. The aiming controls of Hot Rod's big mirror were
infinitely precise--and correspondingly slow. As soon as the storage
power supply had been wired into the big weapon--a precise operation,
requiring both skill and time--the factors had been keyed in that
would bring the mirror in an arc, turning it to bear precisely on that
area of space through which the passenger spokes of the wheel turned;
but the motion of the mirror was infinitesimally slow.

As the crew of Hot Rod strove to get it into position to fire; and the
computer on the wheel strove to precess the wheel to a position where
firing would be fatal to the firer, it became a race between giant
snails.

But already the rim of the big wheel had inched slightly ahead in the
race; and the main part of the hub was disappearing behind it. In
spite of Elbertson's orders, the big wheel continued to turn its rim
directly towards the giant balloon with its bulbous nose.

It was a curious sensation, seeing the big wheel from this angle.
Much the same sensation as that of an ant, staring at the oncoming
wheel of a huge truck.

* * * * *

In the machine shop, Mike was rummaging around in one of the tool
lockers. "Any sort of a small telescope," he muttered, almost to
himself. Then "Paul, is there a theodolite or anything like that left
lying around in here?"

"Yes," said Paul, moving off to a cabinet in another part of the room.
"We needed them when we were putting the wheel together."

"O.K." Mike turned back to the laser milling machine. "Now can we take
the focusing lens off of this, and rig something to give me a focus at
about 4.5 miles? Or would it need focusing at all? Shooting at that
distance?"

"Depends on what you shoot, Mike. The unfocused beam can make a black
surface very hot very quick. But from a mirror surface, it would just
bounce, unless it's carefully focused."

"It ought to take care of the plastic at least, then."

"Go right through it. You gonna laser Hot Rod?"

"No. Just the anchor tubes that hold the mirror;