uld turn on the powerful--or deadly--beam,
would come aboard in about half an hour. The men who had put the
finishing touches on the project during the past shift would remain
for another hour. His own crew of Security men shifted with the
scientists--but he, himself, shifted at will.

The immensity around him went unheeded as Steve Elbertson, eyes on
Project Hot Rod, savored the power of the beam that could control
Earth.

* * * * *

In the observatory, Perk Kimball and his assistant Jerry Wallace were
having coffee as the various electronic adjuncts to the instruments of
the observatory warmed up. Transistors and other solid state
components that made up the majority of the electronic equipment in
the observatory required no "warm up" in the sense that the older
electron tubes had--but when used in critical equipment, they were
temperature sensitive, and he allowed for time to reach a stable
operating temperature. Then, too, the older electron tubes had not
been entirely replaced. Many of them were still in faithful service.

The day would not be spent in the observation which was their main job
there, because calibration of many of the instruments remained to be
done, and the observatory was behind schedule, having had a good deal
of its time taken up in the sightings required by the communications
lab and Project Hot Rod.

Both of the astronomers were heartily sick of spending so much of
their observational time with recalcitrant equipment; and in making
observations of the globe from which they had come. After all, why
should an astronomer be interested in Earth? Though admittedly this
was the first observatory in man's entire history that had had the
opportunity for such a careful scrutiny.

"This flare business, that our captive Indian was predicting," Jerry
asked. "Think there's anything to it? Or am I just learning rumors
about my profession from lay sources?"

"A rather presumptuous prediction, though he may be right." Perk's
clipped tone was partly English, partly the hauteur of the
professional. To him, solar phenomena were strictly sourced on the
sun, and if they were to be understood at all, it would be in
reference to the internal dynamics of the sun itself.

"The torroidal magnetic fields dividing the slowly rotating polar
regions from the more rapid rotation near the solar equator," he said
slowly, rather pedantically, but as though talking to himself, "should
h