The last door slid open. They were in the central chamber, with Leighton's master controls and Leighton himself. The scientist bustled over to meet them, moving his warped body across the polished stone floor with surprising speed and agility.

«Are you trying for a controlled return this time?» Blade asked the scientist.

Leighton shook his white-fringed head. «Hardly. The gear hasn't been adequately tested yet, not by any means.» Blade wondered about that, since Leighton's idea of a «hasty testing program» was three or four hundred complex experiments. However, there was never any point in arguing with the scientist on something in his own field. Leighton regarded anybody who did so as a fool, and he did not suffer fools gladly.

Blade realized that Leighton was going on. «Besides, you gentlemen up there»-he jerked a gnarled thumb toward the ceiling-«have neglected to establish a priority system for controlled returns. Where the devil do you want him to go? If you don't say anything on the subject, you know perfectly well he's going back to the Dimension of the Ice Dragons and the Menel. I don't care what you gentlemen think, the discovery of a nonhuman sapient race is the most important thing to come out of this project to date!»

«I'm quite aware of that,» said J. Blade thought his voice was a little chillier than usual. Obviously the old man was in no mood for an argument with Lord Leighton just before Blade went off into Dimension X. «But keep in mind that there are only so many of us gentlemen. Each of us can spend only so much time chasing all the hares you keep starting. So inevitably some things don't get done when you would like them to be done. If you could restrain yourself from asking for any new subprojects for about two years. .» J laughed. «But that would be like asking the sun to stop in the sky.»