t of the orrery, a fat-faced Ser came in with a long
tube and began working the molten sky material, getting the feel of it.
He did things Hanson knew were nearly impossible, and he did them with
the calm assurance of an expert. Even when another rift in the sky
appeared with a crackling of thunder, there was no faltering on his
part. The sky shell and world supports were blown into shape around the
world model inside the outer tracks in one continuous operation. The Ser
then clipped the stuff from his tube and sealed the tiny opening
smoothly with a bit of sun material on the end of a long metal wand.

"Interesting material," he commented, as if only the technical nature of
the stuff had offered any problem to him.

Tiny, carefully polished chips from the stars were ready, and men began
placing them delicately on the shell. They sank into it at once and
began twinkling. The planets had also been prepared, and they also went
into the shell, while a mate to each was attached to the tracking
mechanism. The tiny sun came last. Hanson fretted as he saw it sink into
the shell, sure it would begin to melt the sky material. It seemed to
have no effect, however; apparently the sun was not supposed to melt the
sky when it was in place--so the little sun didn't melt the shell. Once
he was sure of that, he used a scrap of the sky to insulate the second
little sun that would control the first sympathetically from the track.
He moved the control delicately by hand, and the little sun followed
dutifully.

The weights on the control mechanism were in place, Hanson noted.
Someone would probably have to keep them wound from now on, unless they
could devise a foolproof motor. But that was for the future. He bent to
the hand cranks. Sather Karf was being called to give the exact settings
for this moment, but Hanson had a rough idea of where the planets should
be. He began turning the crank, just as the Sather came up.

There was a slight movement. Then the crank stuck, and there was a
whirring of slipping gears! The fools who had moved the orrery must have
been so careless that they'd sprung the mechanism. He bent down to study
the tiny little jeweled gears. A whole gear train was out of place!

Sather Karf was also inspecting it, and the words he cried didn't sound
like an invocation, though they were strange enough. He straightened,
still cursing. "Fix it!"

"I'll try," Hanson agreed doubtfully. "But you'd better get the man who
m