"Yes," replied the commander, but he continued to stare at the
teleceiver screen. Strong waited respectfully and finally Walters turned
back to him, shaking his head. "The spaceport looks pretty deserted,"
was his only comment.

Strong had already noticed the desolate appearance of the ordinarily
buzzing spaceport and it troubled him more than he would show. He knew
that unless the defect in the force fields was corrected soon, the
outer-space colony would have to be abandoned to the deadly methane
ammonia atmosphere. And to Strong, who had seen the dead satellite
before the Solar Guard had discovered crystal there, it was like seeing
an old friend sick with a deadly disease. In addition, the hundreds of
thousands of colonists would have to be relocated if the force fields
could not be repaired and the effect on the economy of the whole Solar
Alliance would be disastrous.

Walters and Strong were met at the air lock by Captain Howard. "I'm
awfully glad to see you, sir," he said, coming to attention and saluting
smartly. "Hello, Steve. Welcome to Titan."

"Glad to be here, Joe," said Strong.

"We came out as soon as we received your report that you had started
evacuation," said Walters. "Have you discovered anything new?"

Howard shook his head. "Not a thing, Commander," he replied. "We've done
just about everything but take the force-field projectors apart, but so
far we haven't found a thing wrong."

"Any word on the race, Joe?" asked Strong.