At Walters' nod, Strong saluted briskly and left the office. Walters
turned to Joan.

"You know, I don't think he's half as interested in finding a big
uranium deposit as he is in seeing those boys!"

* * * * *

In four separate soundproof cubicles in a small office in the
Administration Building on Roald, the three space cadets and Jeff
Marshall racked their brains to remember simple equations and formulas,
knowledge learned years ago but long-since forgotten, for the more
complicated subjects of space, time, and rocket travel. Now, trying to
recall simple arithmetic and other elementary studies, the cadets and
Marshall worked eighteen hours a day. Speaking directly into
soundscribers and filling what seemed to be miles of audio tape, the
four spacemen attempted to build a comprehensive library of a hundred
carefully selected subjects for the children of Roald. Professor Sykes
listened to the study spools as they were completed. He listened
carefully, reviewed their work, edited it, and made notes for follow-up
comment. Then, at the end of the day, he would hold a final meeting with
them, outline what he wanted the next day, and reject spools that he
felt were not satisfactory. For older children's studies, the three
cadets and Jeff had divided their work into four classifications. Roger
covered electronics, astrophysics, astrogation, and allied fields. Astro
took charge of rockets, missiles, power machinery, and applied uses of
atomic energy. Jeff's work was biological, bacteriological,
mineralogical, and geological. Tom covered social studies, government,
economy, and history.