The scientist harrumphed and set his burden on the desk.
“This is all there is to it,” he said, “but I had to hunt all through the library to find a Dirac record with a beep still on it. Just a moment more while I make connections… .”
Weinbaum used the time to bring his mind back to the matter at hand, although not quite completely. Then two tape spindles began to whir like so many bees, and the end-stopped sound of the Dirac beep filled the room. Wald stopped the apparatus, reset it, and started the smearing tape very slowly in the opposite direction.
A distant babble of voices came from the speaker. As Weinbaum leaned forward tensely, one voice said clearly and loudly above the rest:
“Hello, Earth bureau. Lt. T. L. Matthews at Hercules Station NGC 6341, transmission date 13-22-2091. We have the last point on the orbit curve of your dope-runners plotted, and the curve itself points to a small system about twenty-five light-years from the base here; the place hasn’t even got a name on our charts. Scouts show the home planet at least twice as heavily fortified as we anticipated, so we’ll need another cruiser. We have a ‘can-do’ from you in the beep for us, but we’re waiting as ordered to get it in the present NGC 6341 Matthews out.”
After the first instant of stunned amazementfor no amount of intellectual willingness to accept could have prepared him for the overwhelming fact itselfWeinbaum had grabbed a pencil and begun to write at top speed. As the voice signed out he threw the pencil down and looked ex-citedly at Dr. Wald.