"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:
ARIADNE 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. SHIP OVERDUE NOW FIFTY MINUTES. OBVIOUSLY SOMETHING WRONG. CAN YOU HELP?
Walt smiled in a grim fashion. "Help!" he said. "We go on and on for years and years with no trouble—and now we've lost the third ship in a row."
"They claim that those things always run in threes," said Arden. "What are we going to do?"
"I don't know. We'll have to do something. Funny, but the one reason we must do something is the same reason why something can be done."
"I don't get that."