Arden drew the tape from the machine:
MESSAGE BEING HELD FOR ARRIVAL OF SOLAR QUEEN.
Walt looked at his watch and checked the course constants of the Solar Queen. He called the beam-control dome and asked for the man on the Solar Queen beam.
"Benny," he said, "has the Solar Queen arrived yet?"
"Sure," answered Benny. "According to the mechanical mind here, they've been on Mojave for twenty minutes."
"Thanks." To Arden he said: "Something's strictly fishy."
Arden sat at the machine and pounded the keys:
SOLAR QUEEN DUE TO ARRIVE AT 19:06:41. IT IS NOW 19:27:00. BEAM CONTROL SAYS TRANSMISSIONS ENDED BECAUSE OF COINCIDENCE BETWEEN TERRA BEAM AND STATION-TO-SHIP BEAM. PLEASE CHECK.
Arden fretted and Walt stamped up and down the room during the long minutes necessary for the message to reach Terra and the answer to return. It came right on the tick of the clock:
HAVE CHECKED COURSE CONSTANTS. SOLAR QUEEN OVER-DUE NOW FIFTY MINUTES. OBVIOUSLY SOMETHING WRONG. CAN YOU HELP?