Vidac sat at the controls calmly and watched Tom. The curly-haired cadet
continued to wave his hand to lift the motors. The boom continued to
bend, and just as Tom thought it must snap, the motors lifted free and
Vidac swung them around to the table top of the barge. He climbed down
and walked over to Bush and Winters.

[Illustration]

"Next time you're afraid to try something and waste valuable time," he
barked, "you'll pay for it!"

He turned to Tom. "Let's go, Corbett," he said casually.

Day after day the work continued and finally, at the end of three weeks,
the dry barren plain had been transformed into a small city. Towering
above the city, the Administration Building glistened in the light of
their new sun, Wolf 359, and streets named after the colonists radiated
from it in all directions, like the spokes of a giant wheel.

[Illustration]

There were houses, stores, and off the central square a magnificent
assembly hall that could be transformed into a gymnasium. There were
smaller community buildings for sanitation, water, power, and all vital
services necessary to a community. Along the wide spacious streets,
still being paved, converted jet boats hummed. Women began to shop. Men
who had helped build the city the day before, now appeared in aprons and
began keeping account books until a monetary system could be devised. A
medical exchange that also happened to sell spaceburgers and Martian