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Operational Command Headquarters at Galveston, beamed up to an orbiting
communications station and relayed out over the laser link to Jupiter Five.
Hours passed while Hunt, Danchekker, Maddson, Caldwell and everyone else at
Houston waited anxiously for something to come in through the open channel to
Galveston. At last the screen came to life. The message on it read:
Shapieron left here seventeen minutes before your transmission came in.
Last seen accelerating flat-out for deepspace. All contact now broken. Sorry.
There was nothing more that anybody could do.
"At least," Hunt said as he turned wearily from the screen toward the circle
of dejected faces in Caldwell's office, "it's nice to know that it will all
have been worth it when they get there. At least they won't have any nasty
surprises waiting at the end of this voyage." He turned back and gazed
wistfully at the screen once more, then added: "I suppose it would have been
even nicer if they knew it too."
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