"You forbid...?" McKelvie exploded, but Morrow intercepted smoothly.
"Gordon. I'm sure the senator would like a tour of the station. Will you escort him?"
McKelvie's face reddened and Max opened his mouth to object.
"Gordon!" Morrow said sharply. Max closed his mouth and guided the grumbling congressman up the tube.
"Twenty minutes to blastoff," Bert reported.
"Right," Kevin acknowledged absently. He studied taped data moving in by radio facsimile from the mammoth electronic computer on Earth.
"Our orbit's true," he said with satisfaction and wiped a sweaty palm on his trousers. "Get the time check, Bert." Beeps from the Naval Observatory synchronized with the space station chronometer.
"Alert Kramer."
"He's leaving the airlock now," Bert said. From the intercom, Morrow listened to periodic reports from crew members as McKelvie and Gordon progressed in their tour.