In answer Hartnell handed him a sheaf of his notes, hastily written in pictographs. The captain examined them for a moment, and then handed them to the other aliens. They chattered together for a while, and then the captain wrote:
“Your theory is correct, I believe that we can grant you a stay on the strength of it.”
Hartnell and Chilko sat back and broke into wide grins.
“However, there are a few complications,” the captain continued.
The scientists sat forward again.
“In order to delay the Test we must contact our central office. As you know, our spaceship has been unfortunately destroyed. We have no way of communicating with the proper authorities.”
“Can’t we help you?” Hartnell asked. “I am sure that we could build a transmitter for you, if you would but give us enough information to do so.”
The captain did not answer immediately; instead he conferred with his crew again for several minutes. Finally he wrote:
“We have decided that, since your case is unique in the point that we accidentally lost our means of communications—for which you cannot be blamed—we would not be committing a breach of regulations in giving you enough information to build the necessary transmitter.”
Within five days, ten of the best electronics men available had assembled the aliens’ transmitter from schematics drawn for them by the captain. It was not a particularly large affair, being small enough to fit inside an army radar van. It did require, however, almost the entire output of the U.N.’s power plant to run it.