get Captain Czuv and the specifications of the new armament. All these things can be
done with one vessel in one trip.”
“That sounds fine!” boomed King. “It will give me a chance to get back there
where I belong, too. Who-all are you sending out ?”
“The seven couples who either have babies already or who will have them in the
next few months; and our unattached women, a few of whom aren’t standing the gaff
any too well. You won’t be in the red very deeply on the deal, either—while two or three
of the passengers I am sending you will certainly be unwelcome, anybody could use,
anywhere, such men as Commander Sanderson and Lieut. . . .”
“Sanderson!” interrupted King. “Why, he wasn’t— when did he get married?”
“The day after we arrived here,” replied the surgeon. “His fiancee was aboard the
Arcturus, and when they found out how long we would have to be here, they very
sensibly decided not to wait.”
“Were there any others got married there ?” demanded Nadia, who, standing
between Stevens and her father, had been an interested listener.
“Plenty of them! Fourteen of our young women passengers have married here
upon Europa. A few married fellow-passengers, but most of them picked out officers of
the Arcturus. You’ll find your staff made up pretty largely of Benedicts now, King! We’ve
been here a year, you know, and time will tell! Young Commander Sanderson’s a fine
baby—he’ll be a credit to the IPC some day, if we can get him aboard the Sirius, where
he can get a good start. We could give our babies normal air pressure here by building
special rooms, but we cannot give them the normal acceleration necessary to develop
their muscles properly.”
“Well, we’d better snap over to Callisto and take this up with the Council,”
Brandon put in. “I don’t imagine that there will be any objections, so you might as well
get your ship gassed up and loaded—we’ll be back here with the all x in about a minute
and a half.”
With Brandon at the controls and with Czuv at the communicator plate the
projection flashed toward distant Callisto and the group melted away, each man going
about his interrupted task.
“Daddy, take us somewhere—I want to talk to you,” Nadia spoke to her father,
and the director led her and Stevens to his own room.
“All x, daughter; out with it!” and he bent upon her a quizzical glance, under
which a fiery blush burned from her throat to her forehead.
“Dad, I’ve been thinking a lot since you rescued us, and what we’ve just heard
has given me the nerve to say it. Steve, of course, wouldn’t dare suggest such a thing
until we’re safely back on Earth, so I will.” Her deep brown eyes held his steadily. “All
those girls got married—why, some of them have babies already—and Steve and I have
waited for each other so long, daddy! And wane of them love each other the way we do,
do they, Steve ?”
“I don’t see how they could, sir; and that goes straight across the panel,” and he
bore unflinchingly the piercing gaze of the older man as^ his right arm encircled the girl
and held her close.
“Well, why not?” A sudden smile transformed Newton’s stern visage. “There are
three chaplains with the police —a Methodist minister, a Catholic priest, and a Jewish
rabbi. Also we have on board two full-fledged I-P captains, either of whom is authorized
to tie matrimonial knots. The means are not lacking—but just how sure are you of
yourselves ?” and all levity disappeared as he studied the two young faces.
“Yes, you are sure,” he continued after a moment, “just as her mother and I
were—and are. It is a drawback that she cannot be here with you, but it may be a long
time before we can return to Tellus, and you have indeed waited long. But, on the other
hand, I do not know quite what to think of having a bride aboard a war-vessel . . .”
“Oh thanks, Daddy, you’re just a perfectly wonderful old darling!” Nadia
exclaimed, as she threw her arms rapturously around his neck. “And this isn’t a warship
at all— you know perfectly well that it’s a research laboratory, and that as soon as the
Navy gets here you won’t let it fight a bit more, because such scientists can’t be allowed
to risk themselves! And also, you’re forgetting that whole flock of women and babies
that are coming out here just as fast as they can get themselves ready. So get going,
daddy old dear, and let’s do things! Steve’s a Quaker and we’re Presbyterians, so none
of the chaplains will do at all. Besides, I promised Captain King ages ago that he could
marry me, so go get him and we’ll do it now. Bill can be my bridesmaid, you’ll give me
away, and Steve can have the other two of his Big Three for best men. I’m off to hunt up
the flimsiest, fussiest white dress I can find in my trunks. Let’s go!”
“Mr. Newton.” Stevens spoke thoughtfully as Nadia darted away. “You said
something about her mother. I didn’t want to say anything to raise false hopes while she
was here, but I’ve got an idea. Let’s meet in Brandon’s room instead of here. We can
send code to Tellus easily enough on our ultra-wave, and we may be able to fake up
something on vision.”
A few minutes later the Big Three were in Brandon’s private study; staring intently
into a screen upon which played flickering, flashing lights, while the black-haired
physicist manipulated micrometer dials in infinitesimal arcs.
“Once more, Mac,” Brandon directed. “Pretty near had ’em that time. We’re
stretching this projector about six hundred percent, but we’ve got to make this
connection. Can’t you coax just a few more amps out of those secondaries?”
“I can not!” The voice of the first assistant snapped from the speaker. “I’m
overloading now so badly that my plates are getting hot—if I hold this voltage much
longer the whole secondary bank is going out. All x—you’re on zero!”
“All x!'” Flashing and waning, the lights upon the screen formed fleeting, shifting,
nebulous images of a relay station upon distant Earth; but the utmost power of the
transmitting fields could neither steady the image nor hold it.
“Back off, Mac,” Brandon instructed. ” ‘Fraid we can’t hold ’em direct—no use
blowing a bank of tubes. We’ll try relaying through Mars—we can hold ’em there, I think.
It’ll mush up reception some, but it’ll probably be better than direct, at that. Point oh five
three six . . . all x—shoot!”
Brandon’s relay station upon Mars was finally raised and held, and a corps of
keenly-interested engineers there made short work of the Earth-Mars linkage. Soon the
screen glowed with the picture of the transmitter-room of the Terrestrial station, and
while the three men were waiting for Mrs. Newton to be called to her own television set
the door behind them opened. Nadia and her escorts entered the room—but Stevens’
eyes saw only the entrancing vision of loveliness that was his bride. Dressed in a
clinging white gown of shimmering silk, her hair a golden blonde corona, sweetly curved
lips slightly parted and wide eyes eloquent, she paused momentarily as Stevens came
to his feet and stared at her, his very heart in his eyes.
“You never saw me in a dress before—do you like me, Steve?”
“Like you!” Gray eyes and brown, deep with wonder and with love, met and held
as, unheeding the presence of their friends, they went into each other’s arms in a
coalescence as inevitable and as final as Fate itself.
“Hi, Nadia old dear!” and “Daughter, from what I can see of my son-in-law, I
believe that he may do,” came together from the speaker. Nadia tore herself from
Stevens’ embrace, to see upon the lambent screen the happily smiling faces of her
mother and sister.
“Mother! Claire! Wonderful! Oh, you three wonderworkers !” She addressed
simultaneously the distant Terrestrials and the scientists at her side, while broken
exclamations, punctuated by ominous, crackling snaps, came from the laboring
amplifier.
“Sorry to interrupt,” MacDonald’s voice broke in, “but you’ll have to hurry it up.
Alcantro and Fedanzo are doing their best, but every plate in my secondary bank’s red
hot, and you could fry an egg on any one of my transformers. Even my primaries are
running hot. She won’t hold together five minutes longer!”
Captain King opened his book, and in that small steel room, unadorned save for
stack upon stack of book-cases, the brief but solemn ceremony joining two young lives
was read—its solemnity only intensified by its unique accompaniment. For from
Brandon at the primary controls, through the power-room of the Sirius and the relay-
station upon Mars, to the immense Inter-Planetary transmitter upon Earth, the greatest