"Romeo." The commo picked up the small hand mike. All eyes in the room centered on the silent speaker on the wall.
"Starfrost. This is Mother. How do you read me, over?"
The speaker remained silent.
"Starfrost. Can you read me. Over!"
The Secretary looked at Wade. His face was tight and drawn. "What do you think, Wade. Are we getting through?"
"It's hard to say. He's moving pretty fast. He could outrun the signal. We've never had a practical voice test."
Lowe's face had a worried expression covering it. "Didn't you have communications with the test rocket?"
"That was unmanned ... remember?"
"This silence doesn't worry you?" the Secretary asked with amazement.