ree hand in the construction of the
barge. After six hours of hard labor, the "mover" was finished. It was
not the streamlined machine its designer had conceived, but it was
effective, in some cases, more so than the designer imagined. A low,
flat table roughly three hundred feet square, it moved on sledlike
runners and was powered by two dozen rockets. On each of the four sides
there was a two-hundred-foot boom which could be swung around in a 360 deg.
arc and was capable of lifting three hundred tons. Astro's most
outstanding improvement on the original design was what he termed
"adjustment rockets," placing single rockets that could be individually
controlled on all four sides, so that the operator of the giant jet
barge could jockey into perfect position anywhere. The machine quickly
demonstrated it could move anything, anywhere.

Roger worked with the supervisor of the assembly groups, ordering
supplies and machinery as they were needed from the wrecking crews and
seeing that they were sent to the right place at the right time. One of
his first jobs was the assembling of materials for the construction of
the Administration Building of the colony. Less than five days after the
foundation had been dug, the last gleaming sheets of Titan crystal were
welded together and the building towered over the plain, a glistening
monument to man's first flight to the stars.

Tom had been assigned to work closely with Vidac, who was responsible
for all the construction on Roald. The young cadet welcomed the chance
to observe the man in action, and time after time he found
contradictions in the character of the lieutenant governor. Vidac's
attitude and behavior in his drive to build the colony were completely
different from his actions on the long space flight. He was a man of
firmness and immediate decision. Shooting from one project to another in
a jet boat, he would listen to the supervisors' complaints, make a snap
decision, and then head for another project. Once Tad Winters and Ed
Bush, who had taken over Astro's jet barge, had hesitated when trying to
transfer a four-hundred-ton lift. A bank of atomic motors from Fleet
Ship Number Twelve was to be installed in the main power plant for the
colony. The motors were in a position where it was impossible to use
more than one of the booms for the lift. Bush and Winters tried futilely
to maneuver the jet barge into position where they could use two booms,
and when Vidac arrived he