the most
important man in the Galaxy. Because if Mayhem boards that ship and
can't do anything about it, he'll die with the rest of them."

"Why? We could always pluck his _elan_ out again."

"_If_ he were inhabiting a dead one. In a live body, I don't think so.
The attraction would be stronger. There would be forces of cohesion--"

"That's true. Still, Mayhem's our only hope."

"I'll admit it's a job for Mayhem, but he's too important."

"Is he? Don't be a fool. What, actually, is Johnny Mayhem's importance?
His importance lies in the very fact that he is expendable. His
life--for the furtherance of the new Galactic Federation."

"But--"

"And the President is aboard that ship. Maybe he can't do as much for
the Galaxy in the long run as Mayhem can, but don't you see, man, he's a
figurehead. Right now he's the most important man in the Galaxy, and if
we could talk to him I'm sure Mayhem would agree. Mayhem would want to
board that ship."

"It's funny, we've been working with Mayhem all these years and we never
even met the guy."

"Would you know him if you saw him?"

"Umm-mm, I guess not. Do you think we really can halt his _elan_ in
subspace and divert it over to the _Glory of the Galaxy_?"

"I take it you're beginning to see things my way. And the answer to your
question is yes."

"Poor Mayhem. You know, I actually feel sorry for the guy. He's had more
adventures than anyone since Homer wrote the _Odyssey_ and there won't
ever be any rest for him."

"Stop feeling sorry for him and start hoping he succeeds."

"Yeah."

"And let's see about getting a bead on his _elan_."

The two young men walked to a tri-dim chart which took up much of the
room. One of them touched a button and blue light glowed within the
chart, pulsing brightly and sharply where space-sectors intersected.

"He's in C-17 now," one of the men said as a gleaming whiteness was
suddenly superimposed at a single point on the blue.

"Can you bead him?"

"I think so. But I still feel sorry for Mayhem. He's expecting to wake
up in a cold-storage corpse on Deneb IV but instead he'll come to in a
living body aboard a spaceship on collision course for the sun."

"Just hope he--"

"I know. Succeeds. I don't even want to think of the possibility he
might fail."

In seconds, the gleaming white dot crawled across the surface of the
tri-dim chart from sector C-17 to sector S-1.

* * * * *

The _Glory of t