The visiphone buzzed, and when Tee flipped the switch, the worried face
of the chief mechanic sprang into focus. "Oh, there you are, Mr. Jenner.
Glad I caught you before you left. We've run into trouble."
"Well, out with it," barked Jenner. "What is it?"
The mechanic cleared his throat nervously. "We were testing the main
gyroscope when it threw a blade."
"How bad is it?" asked Jenner.
"Pretty bad, I'm afraid. It tore up the subetherscope unit so bad we'll
have to replace it. We can't get any on Aurora either. We'll have to
send to Lennix, and that'll take close to a month."
"Roj! Knock off until I get there," barked Jenner. He slammed over the
switch, viciously. "Of all the rotten luck!"
"Can't you get some plant here on Aurora to hand tool one for you?"
asked Tee.
"No, that's just it," replied Jenner. "It's a special alloy. The owners
of the process wouldn't give us any details on the manufacture. Anyway,
even if we knew how, we couldn't duplicate it without their special
machine tools."
"Does that mean--"
"I'm afraid so. The ship won't be ready for a month, now."
"_A month!_ I can't wait a month."
"_You_ can't wait a month? We've got four million tied up in that ship
and you tell me _you_ can't wait a month."
"Look, Mr. Jenner, I'll test it without the unit."
"That's impossible. The ship would vibrate into a billion pieces as soon
as it went into subspace. No! We'll just have to wait."
"I can't wait," cried Tee. "You'll have to get another pilot."
"Just a minute! You can't walk out on your contract. If it's a matter of
credits--"