Live from the JSA Podcast Studio, presenting Data Movers, showcasing the leaders behind the headlines in the telecom and data center infrastructure industry. Hey everybody, welcome to our podcast series, Data Movers. I'm your host, Jamie Scott-Okitaya, CEO and founder of JSA. Along with my fabulous co-host, top B2B social media influencer, Mr. Evan Kristal. Hey Evan. Hey Jamie and hey everyone, welcome to Data Movers, where we sit down with the most influential men and women of today's leading telco and data center world, supporting the network infrastructure requirements of our modern world. Speaking of brave new world, Jamie, I think we're traveling again, if I understand correctly. Do you have any events coming up? I do, I do. I'm actually on a plane on Sunday night, Mother's Day. I'm taking off to go to ITW, International Telecoms Week, and that is happening in Maryland near DC. And I'm very excited. We're actually on Monday, May 9th, launching the greener data movement. So we have a round table and a cocktail reception at ITW, that we're really proud to support and promote. So again, getting the industry to think greener is really part of our mission here at JSA. And I know a lot of conversations having here on our Data Movers podcast, as well as of course, what we'll have today. Wow, that's super exciting. And I guess you'll have maybe a book signing, or what can we expect at the big party at ITW? Well, first, yes, there will be a table in the back where our authors are invited to sit down and sign any of the books that are being sold on site. We have over 600 books coming. So please, please buy some so we don't have to lug them home. But also, we will be signing greener teenies, apple martinis, so our signature drink as well. Awesome. Well, I look forward to trying that. But speaking of awesome stuff, we have a great guest today. Yes, absolutely. He's so excited. I have to say such a wonderful person to introduce you guys to. If you don't know him already, to our fabulous industry, we are talking to Andrew Roof. He's the director of sales and marketing for Janitsa, North America. Hey, Andrew. Hey, Juan, yeah. Hey, thank you for having me on the JSA podcast here. Excited to talk with you guys and to everyone out there. So thank you. We are so honored. And you know what? Let's just start with a very easy one, a low hanging fruit. You, of course, worked with so many exciting companies across the tech fields in industry spanning, oh my gosh, electronic manufacturing, aerospace, semiconductor, IT, renewables and the environment.  Well, I think that's that's it right there is, Janitsa is a power monitoring company. So power is everywhere, especially in the tech world. And being able to work for the company that keeps me involved in multiple different industries, like the semiconductor, like data centers, like renewables. I absolutely love all of it. So it's a different pitch to each different segments, the different style of how you're working with different companies against the different market segments. And so it keeps it exciting and fun. And I get to work with a great company here as well. So that's it in a nutshell, it's mostly just being able to diversify across different industries, I think is a big appeal for me. Awesome. And I learned Janitsa is a German-based company and proudly has a made in Germany label. Isch kann at was Deutsch auf Deutsch mit dem Unterreden oder in this kind of English? No, I guess not. I guess we have to do it. I've been picking up words too, not as sensitive as that. But yeah, perfect. OK, so maybe next time we'll do a German version. But how does that background and the made in Germany label translate into the US market? What's the story there? I understand that maybe even a family sort of run business. And tell us about branching out in the US. Yeah, so it is a second generation family business. It actually started back in the 60s. And originally was a power factor correction manufacturer as well as a switchboard manufacturer and grew from there from the original founder and owner. And then his son Marcus Janitsa took it over kind of in the 80s and started focusing on power monitoring equipment, so essentially meters, and has grown business from there. And so really, it's been a European-based organization but has essentially branched out quite a bit within the last five to 10 years to different segments around the world. So North America being one of those. And in fact, I'm one of the first couple employees for North America are branched over here. And it was really the customers that we're working with were large global clients. And so it was a natural transition for the company to migrate and start an office here in North America and start running operations here in North America as well. And so since then, we've been growing exponentially quite a bit here in North America and South America, Australia, Africa, Asia, it's been blowing up everywhere for us. But yeah, again, back to your question there. So the main in Germany label is the fantastic ones especially it resonates really well for North America because when you think made in Germany, you think of that high quality, really well engineered products. So you think the BMWs, the Mercedes kind of cars and the well-designed and works for a long time kind of a product that comes from that label. And it really makes sense with Geniza Brand as well. Yeah, for sure, well-designed. And you guys are really focusing on what the marketplace needs. Energy management, of course, being Geniza's bread and butter. And of course, on our end, data centers are being our bread and butter here at Data Movers, our listeners. So could you tell us how Geniza helps data center clients better manage energy? Well, I think the number one thing that we provide is visibility. And what I mean by that is visibility of your power distribution in a facility. So for a data center, for example, you're using up quite a bit of power and you need to have that power constantly flowing to essentially your money making assets, which is those server racks that are out there in the data homes. And if power is not flowing out there, then that's not a great for their business there. So having that visibility of the power distribution is what we provide for data centers and in multiple ways. One is just seeing the flow of power going through the facility, that's the easy one. But we really dial down a little bit deeper into the power quality side of things too. And I won't try to get into technical for you guys, but really the power quality makes a big impact on servers. They're very sensitive to the quality of power that's going through the facility. And if the quality is not where it should be, you're gonna have damage, you're gonna have some server issues or even heating up components that are unnecessary, too much heat going to them that might fail. So preventing failures, preventing downtime is really the goal of the products that we sell to the data center markets there. And it goes back to that, that visibility standpoint and the health of your power systems in your facility is what we provide. Very cool, literally, very cool. So you helped data centers cut back on energy usage, but you also worked in renewable energy before Iaditza. So tell us, where is this world of greener energy, sustainability, where are we headed over the next one or two years? It's so important. It really, especially for data center, they use so much power to run their facilities. And you really don't know where that power is coming from. Are you sourcing that power from a cold factory or a natural gas power plant? Or you sourcing that from a renewable source, such as a wind, solar or hydro power station there. And so having that understanding of sustainability and where you're purchasing that power is important for data centers because the amount of power you're producing is a factor of how much pollution is out there from the power plants. And so there's a lot of good options that data centers have. One of them is just working with the utilities within your area to understand how many renewable resources they're purchasing into their grid and supplying to you. Another option for them would be to just go out and purchase power directly from the renewable source and having a power purchase agreement created, specifically for your facilities. And there's quite a few renewable organizations building wind and solar power plants every day. It's constantly getting added to the grid and there's a lot of good sources for purchasing green power out there. So within the facility though, there's also quite a bit more that you can push for sustainability in terms of what type of backup power that you decide to use, whether it's a diesel or natural gas. But there's also, I was reading about there some data centers that are experimenting with hydrogen backup power as well, which would be fantastic to see in the future here. Love all those ideas, Andrew. Yes, yes, yes. You know what? And we were talking earlier about travel, events coming on line again. We actually, we just saw Janitsa recently at DCD Connect in New York. And you guys were there demoing the latest updates to your network analysis software, GridViz 8.0. Yeah. So what were the attendees? So your demo, most impressed with, what was the response there? Yes, specifically with the newest version, the 8.0 that you mentioned there, there's a lot more key features of adaptability towards, let's use the data centers for example, a lot more adaptability towards a data center operation. And what I mean by that is GridViz allows people to not just visually see the power in their facilities, but you can create your KPIs, you can create your specific dashboards customized towards your operation. And on top of that, we have customized alarms that you can create. We have alerts, specific alerts to keep your system, your operations flowing well. And then one of the biggest features we added to 8.0 is what we call the report editor. Every organization out there is gonna have some custom report that they need to continue their operations full and correctly. And so we've created this report editor so you can actually customize drag and drop different bar graphs, line graphs, different data points that you wanna put on there, tables, whatever it might be, and create that custom report. And so I think that was the biggest eye-opener for clients when we were demoing the system is just how easily adaptable that the system can be towards the operation of every different facility out there. And on top of that, we actually have the ability to pull in multiple facilities into one system. And so when the administrator is logging in, he only has to log into one system versus an individual site every time. And then we could pull all that information in and compare all the data points that are collected out of a facility into one system there too. Very cool. I know the Hanover Mesa in Germany is the biggest trade fair in Europe. I'm sure you guys will be there. It's coming up in June. It'll be fun to see what new stuff you're announcing as well. But let's switch gears. We have our rapid fire section where we try to embarrass you by asking you some fun questions. No, just kidding, we're not really trying to embarrass you. But tell us the first thing that comes to mind. Give us a fun fact that might surprise us. I hope to surprise you, but maybe not. I've been in the technology field for a while. So that's kind of my natural focus of life. And so here at my home, I really love adapting my home into a technology hub. And what I mean by that is all the cool tools that are out there for a smart home, I've just been totally geeked out on for a while. And so the smart HVAC systems and thermostats and lighting systems that I've integrated has been kind of a bit of a hobby but also a fun adventure for the family to do. I even have a smart ceiling fan. I can go onto my phone right now and actually change the settings on, turn on, off, all that kind of stuff. So that's kind of been a bit of a hobby for me. Yeah, I could understand that with your tech sense of it. The ceiling fan, that's a new one. So I'm looking into that one, absolutely. All right, so if you could have lunch with a famous person in history, who would it be? And why? I would probably pick Leonardo da Vinci, if of course we could speak the same language, but really it's that inventor's mentality of going out there and creating new things and just the ideas that he had over the years has been fantastic. I was growing up, learning about him in school and stuff, it was kind of an inspiration. People actually got great, amazing things out there and he did it. So that was a big inspiration for me growing up as well. But I would probably pick him out there as someone I would love to meet. Great pick. Awesome, I agree. And if you were to give Leonardo your smartphone, you'd probably blow him away. What would he say? Oh, yeah, easily, yeah. As the most used app on your smartphone, like on your home screen. The most used one, unfortunately it'll probably be the generic stuff. So the emails, the calendars, those kinds of things, sales. So I'm constantly on those two things, but aside from work related apps, it would probably be social media, the Twitter, I like going through Twitter a bit, the LinkedIn as well. I respect you already. This is amazing. Yeah, it's a high and low kind of fluctuation. Sometimes I'm really into it for a while, then I'll get away from it, but then I always find it, going back to it's always fun to do. Sometimes I'm really into Twitter and sometimes I'm really, really into Twitter. So I flubbed you. Yeah, exactly, yeah. Flubbed you, Kevin. Yeah. So, all right, come on, let's dig just a little deeper here. What is your hidden talent that you have? Surprise us. Hidden talent, I mean, I don't know if I'd call it the talent or more just a hobby, if anything. I'm kind of a person that's a jack of all trades. So there's quite a bit out there that I explore here and there. The family I think would be a hobby of mine and just kind of being a person that adapts well in many of different environments, I think would probably be my biggest talent that I would have up there. So any environment that I'm in, whether it's a big trade show or on stage, I give a presentation or just hanging back with family, it's very adaptable in my personality here. So I guess that would probably be my biggest talent, it's just the adaptability. I love that answer, yeah. Yeah, very good, very good. That would make a great college essay. I'm gonna give that to my son. There you go. He's gonna be flying to colleges next year. So that's a really, it's a good one. And if you were to write a book, what would it be about? And you're not allowed to say energy management for dummies. That's already taken. But what other book would you write? There's two different topics that probably come to mind. One, I would like to do a book on the modern sales cycle, sales person. Cause it's different. You're not at behind a desk on the phone all the time with a row of decks, just flipping through the phone. And there's so many technology tools and a different way that you're reaching out to people. I would probably do kind of a self-help kind of sales, modern sales cycle type of book. The other one would probably be a science fiction one. Maybe something around a utopian empire kind of scenario or one where, you know, imagine life if money wasn't ever invented kind of scenario, something completely out there, inventive right there. Oh, I love that. I love it. All right. Well, you didn't embarrass yourself at all. Very disappointed. But thanks. Yeah. Thanks so much for joining us. We can't wait to see all of your upcoming releases and functionality. It's really so important. What you're doing, particularly in this time of high energy costs and climate change, there couldn't be a more important topic. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And Genetza brings that transparency and flexibility that really our data centers really need right now to make a dent in that carbon emissions reduction. So thank you for what you do. We so appreciate you. And hey, viewers, listeners, if you are enjoying today's Data Movers podcast, as much as we did, go ahead and check us out, jsa.net slash podcast for upcoming Data Movers episodes. We release every other week on Wednesday mornings. And be sure to follow us on Twitter. Yeah, thank you for having us. You'll see our tweets and we'll pick up the conversation there where Jay Scott and Evan Kirstel on Twitter and on Snapchat. Just kidding, we're not on Snapchat, but in any case, we'll look forward to happy networking, right, Jimmy? Yes, absolutely. Andrew, always a pleasure. Thank you, my friend. We want to have you back. You want to hear more? Definitely. And as always, think green guys, stay safe and happy networking.


Section 1 of Conquest Over Time. This is a LibreVox recording. All LibreVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibreVox.org. This recording is by Mark Smith of Simpsonville, South Carolina. Conquest Over Time by Michael Shara. Section 1. When the radiogram came in it was 1028 ships time and old 29 was exactly 3.4 light years away from Diomed 3. Travis threw her wide open and hoped for the best. By 4.10 that same afternoon, minus 3 burned out generators and fronting a warped iron screen, old 29 touched the atmosphere and began homing down. It was a very tense moment. Somewhere down in that great blue disc below, a Mapping Command ship sat in an open field, sending up the beam which was guiding them down. But it was not the Mapping Command that was important. The Mapping Command was always first. What mattered now was to come in second, any kind of second, close or wide, mile or eyelash, but second come hell or high water. The clouds peeled away. Travis staring anxiously down could see nothing but mist and heavy cloud. He could not help sniffing the air and groaning inwardly. There is no smell quite as expensive as that of burned generators. He could hear the old man repeating over and over again, as if all space was not one of the richest companies in existence. Burn generators, boy, is burned money! And don't you forget it! Fat chance me forgetting it, Travis thought gloomily, twitching his nostrils, but a moment later he did. For Diomed III was below him, and Diomed III was an open planet. It happened less often nowadays that the Mapping Command ran across intelligent life and it was even less often that the intelligent life was humanoid. But when it happened it was an event to remember. For space travel had brought with it two great problems. The first was contact, the second was trade. For many years man had prohibited contact with intelligent humanoids who did not yet have space travel on the grounds of the much-discussed maturity theory. As time went by, however, and humanoid races were discovered which were biologically identical with man, and as great swarms of completely alien, often hostile races were also discovered, the maturity theory went in to discard. A human being, ran the new slogan, is a human being, and so came the first great contact law which stated that any humanoid race, regardless of its place on the evolutionary scale, was to be contacted, to be accepted, yea, welcomed, as the phrase went, into the human community. And following this, of course, there came trade. This was the businessman who had started the whole thing in the first place. Hence the day of the open planet. A humanoid race was discovered by the Mapping Command, the MC made its investigation and then sent out the word. And every company in the galaxy, be it monstrous, huge, or piddling small, made a mad rush to be first on the scene. The government was very strict about the whole business, the idea being that planets should make their contracts with companies rather than the government itself, so that if any shady business arose the company at fault could be kicked out, and there would be no chance of a general war. Also, went the reasoning, under this system there would be no favourites. Whichever company, no matter its resources, had a ship closest at the time of the call, was the one to get first bargaining rights. Under this setup it was very difficult for any one company to grow too large or to freeze any of the others out, and quite often a single contract on a single planet was enough to transform a fly-by-night outfit into a major concern. So that was the basis of the open planet, but there the real story has only begun. Winning the race did not always mean winning the contract. It was what you found when you got down that made the job of contact man one of the most hazardous occupations in history. Each new planet was holy and completely new. There were no rules, and what you learned on all the rest meant nothing. You went from a matriarchy which refused absolutely to deal with men, the tenth ship to arrive had a lady doctor and therefore got the contract, to a planet where the earth was sacred and you couldn't dig a hole in it, so mining was out, to a planet which considered your visit the end of the world and promptly committed mass suicide. The result of this was that a successful contact man had to be a remarkable man to begin with, a combined speed demon, sociologist, financier, diplomat, and geologist all in one. It was a job in which successful men not only made fortunes, they made legends. It was that way with Pat Travis. Sitting at the view-screen, watching the clouds whip by and the first dark clots of towns beginning to shape below, Travis thought about the legend. He was a tall, frail, remarkably undernourished looking man with large, soft brown eyes. He did not look like a legend and he knew it, and being a man of great pride, it bothered him. More and more, as the years went by, his competitors blamed his success on luck. It was not Pat Travis that was the legend, it was the luck of Pat Travis. Over the years he had learned not to argue about it and it was only during these past few months when his luck had begun to slip that he mentioned it at all. Luck no more makes a legend, he knew, than raw courage makes a fighter. But legends die quick in deep space and his own had been a-dying for a good long while now, while other lesser men, the luck all theirs, plucked planet after planet from under his nose. Now at the view-screen he glanced dolefully across the room and his crew. The curly-headed young Dowlinger and the profound Mr. Tripp. In contrast to his own weary relaxation, both of the young men were tensed and anxious, peering into the screen. They had come to learn under the great Pat Travis, but in the last few months what they seemed to have learned most was luck. If you happened to be close you were lucky, and if you weren't, you weren't. But if they were to get anywhere in this business, Travis knew, they had to learn that luck, more often than not, follows the man who burns his generators. He stopped thinking abruptly as a long yellow field came into view. He saw silver flashing in the sun and his heart jumped into his throat. Old Twenty-Nine settled fast. One ship or two. In the distance he could see the gray jumbled shapes of a low-lying city. The sun was shining warmly, it was spring on Diomed III, and across the field a blue river sparkled but Travis paid no attention. There was only one silver gleam. Still he waited, not thinking, but when they were close enough he saw that he was right. The mapping-command ship was alone. Old Twenty-Nine, burned generators and all, had won the race. "'My boys,' he said gravely, turning to the crew. "'Pat Travis rides again!' But they were already around him, pounding him on the back. He turned happily back to the screen for the first time beginning to admire the view. By jing he thought, what a lovely day!' That was his first mistake. It was not a lovely day. It was absolutely miserable. Travis had his first pang of doubt when he stepped out of the ship. The field was empty, not a native in sight. But Dahlinger was out before him, standing waist-high in the grass and heaving deep lung-folds of the flower-scented air. He yelled that he could already smell the gold. "'I say, Trav,' Tripp said thoughtfully, from behind him. "'Where's the fatted calf?' In this life,' Travis said warily, one is often disappointed. A figure climbed out of a port over at the mapping-command ship and came walking slowly toward them. Travis recognized him and grinned. "'Hey, Hort!' "'Hey, Trav,' Horton replied from a distance. But he did not say anything else. He came forward with an odd look on his face. Travis did not understand. Ed Horton was an old buddy, and Ed Horton should be happy to see him.' Travis felt his second pang. This one went deep. "'Anybody beat us here?' "'No, you're the first, Trav.' "'Dahlinger whooped.' Travis relaxed slightly, and even the glacial Tripp could not control a silly grin. Horton caught a whiff of air from the open lock. "'Burn generators. You must have come like hell.' His face showed his respect. Between burning a generator and blowing one entirely there is only a microscopic distance, and it takes a very steady pilot, indeed, to get the absolute most out of his generators without also spreading himself and his ship over several cubic miles of exploded space. "'Like a striped tailed ape!' Dahlinger chortled. "'Man, you should see the boss handle the ship. I thought every second we were going to explode in technicolor.' "'Well,' Horton said feebly. "'Burn generators. Shame.' He lowered his eyes and began towing the ground. Travis felt suddenly ill. "'What's the matter, Horton?' Horton shrugged.  Now Dahlinger and Trip both realized it and were suddenly silent. "'Well, if only you'd taken a little more time. But not you, not old Pat Travis.  It ain't my fault.' "'Hort, straighten it out. What's not your fault?' Horton sighed. "'Listen, it's a long story. I've got a buggy over here to take you into town. They're putting you up at the hotel so you can look the place over. I'll tell you on the way in.' "'The heck with that,' Dahlinger said indignantly. "'We want to see the man.' "'You're not going to see the man, sonny,' Horton said patiently. "'You are, as a matter of fact, the last people on the planet the man wants to see right now.' Dahlinger started to say something, but Travis shut him up. He told Trip to stay with the ship and took Dahlinger with him. At the end of the field was a carriage straight out of the seventeenth-century England, and the things that drew it, if you closed your eyes, looked reasonably similar to horses. The three men climbed aboard. There was no driver. Horton explained that the horses would head straight for the hotel. "'Well, all right,' Travis said. "'What's the story?' "'Don't turn those baby-browns on me,' Horton said gloomily. "'I would have warned you if I could, but you know the law says we can't show favoritism.' Travis decided the best thing to do was wait with as much patience as possible. After a while Horton had apologized thoroughly and completely, although what had happened was certainly not his fault, and finally got on with the tale. "'Now this here planet,' he said cautiously, "'is wacky in a lot of ways.  Just plain Mert. And they live and house as strictly from Dickens. All carriages, no sewers, narrow streets, stuff like that. With technology roughly equivalent to seventeenth-century. But now, see there? See that building over there?' Travis followed his pointing finger through the trees. A large white building of blinding marble was coming slowly into view. Travis's eyes widened. "'You see? Just like the blinking Parthenon, or Acropolis, whichever it is. All columns and frescoes. In the middle of a town looks just like London. Makes no sense, but there it is. And that's not all. Their government is Grecian, too, complete with Senate and citizens. No slaves, though. Well, not exactly. You wouldn't call them slaves. Or could you? Heck of a question that!' He paused to brood. Travis nudged him. "'Yes, well, all that is minor, next to the big thing. This is one of two major countries on the planet. There's a few hill-tribes, but these make up about ninety percent of the population, so you have to deal with these. They never go to war—well, maybe once in a while, but not very often. So no trouble there. The big trouble is one you'd never guess, not in a million years.' He stared at Travis unhappily. The whole planet's run on astrology. He waited for a reaction. Travis said nothing. "'It ain't funny,' Horton said. When I say run on astrology, I mean really run. Wait'll you hear.' "'I'm not laughing,' Travis said. "'But is that all? In this business you learn to respect the native customs, so if all we have to do, I ain't finished yet.' Horton said ominously. "'You don't get the point. Everything these people do is based on astrology. And that means business too, lad, business too. Every event that happens on this cockeyed world, from a picnic to a wedding to a company merger or a war, it's all based on astrology. They have it down so exact they even tell you when to sneeze. You ought to see the daily paper. Half of its solid astrological guidance. All the senators not only have astrologers, they ARE astrologers. And get this. Every man and woman and child alive on this planet was catalogued the day he was born. His horoscope was drawn up by the public astrologer, a highly honoured office, and his future laid out according to what the horoscope said. His horoscope indicates a man of stature and responsibility. He becomes, by God, a man of stature and responsibility. You have to see it to believe it. Kids with good horoscopes are sent to the best schools. People fight to give them jobs. Well, take the courts, for example. When they're trying a case, do they talk about evidence? They do not. They call in a legal astrologer. There's all kinds of branches in the profession. And this joker, all by himself, determines the guilt or innocence of the accused. By checking the aspects. Take a wedding. Boy meets girl. Boy likes girl. Does boy go see girl? No. He heads straight for an astrologer. The girl's horoscope is on file in the local city hall, just like everybody else. The astrologer compares the charts and determines whether the marriage will be a good one. He is, naturally, a marital astrologer. He gives the word. If he says no, they don't marry. I could go on for hours, but you really have to see it. Take the case of people who want to have children. They want them born, naturally, at the time of the best possible aspects, so they consult an astrologer and he gives them a list of the best times for a baby to be conceived. These times are not always convenient. Sometimes it's 4.18 in the morning, and sometimes it's 2.03 Monday afternoon. Yet this is a legitimate excuse for getting out of work. A man goes in, tells his boss it's breeding time, and off he goes without a penny docked. Build a better race, they say. Of course, the gestation period is variable, and they never do hit it right on the nose, but also there are still the natural accidents, so quite a few are born with terrible horoscopes. Holy smoke, Travis muttered. The possibilities of it blossomed in his mind. He began to understand what was coming. Now you begin to see. Horton went on gloomily. Look what an earth man represents to these people. We are the unknown, the completely capital U unknown. Everybody else has a certain definite quantity. His horoscope is on file, and every man on Mert has access to all his potentialities, be they good, bad, or indifferent. But not us. They don't know when we were born, or where, and even if they did it wouldn't do them any good, because they haven't got any system covering Mars and Jupiter, the planets at home. Everybody else is catalogued, but not us. And just because they believe so thoroughly in their own astrology, they've gotten used to the idea that a man is what his horoscope says he is. But us? What are we?  The only thing they can do is check with one of the branches, what they call horary astrology, and make a horoscope of the day we landed. Even if that tells them nothing about us in particular, at least it tells them, or so they believe, all about our mission to Mert. Because the moment our ship touched the ground was the birth date of our business here. He paused and regarded Travis with woeful sympathy. With us, luckily, it was all right. The mapping command just happened to hit here on a good day. But you? Travel, buddy. For once you came just too damn fast. Oh, my God! Travis breathed. We landed on a bad day. Bad! Horton sighed. Man, it's terrible. End of Section 1. Section 2 of Conquest Over Time. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain and is read by Mark Smith of Simpsonville, South Carolina. Conquest Over Time by Michael Schara. Section 2. You see, Horton said as they drove into the town, not a soul on the streets. This is not only a bad day. This is one for the books. Tomorrow you see there is an eclipse, and to these people there is nothing more frightening than an eclipse. During the entire week preceding one they won't do a darn thing. No business, no weddings, no anything. The height of it will be reached about tomorrow noon. Their moon, which is a tiny little thing, not much bigger than our first space station, is called Felda. It is very important in their astrology, and for all practical purposes the eclipse is already in force. I knew you were riding in down the base so I checked it out. It not only applies to you, other things cinch it. He pulled a coarse sheet of paper from his pocket and read from it in a wishful voice. With huck, planted of necessity, transiting the twelfth house of endings and things hidden, squaring bonkin, planted of gain, in the ninth house of travellers and in distant places, it is unquestionable that the visit of these persons bodes ill for mert. If further proof is needed one need only examine the position of diamet, which is conjunct huck, and closely squared to lindle, in the third house of commerce, etc., etc. You see what I mean? On top of this yet an eclipse. Trav you haven't got a prayer. If only you hadn't been so close. Two days from now would have been great. Once the eclipse ends. Well, listen, Travis said desperately. Couldn't we just see the guy? Take my advice. Don't. He has expressed alarm at the thought that you might come near him. Also his guards are armed with blunderbusses. They may be a riot to look at, but those boys can shoot, believe me. Give you a contract? Trav, he wouldn't give you a broom to sweep out his cellar. At that moment they drew up before an enormous marble building vaguely reminiscent of a Theban palace. It turned out to be the local hotel. Horton stepped on the threshold and handed them two of the tiny Langkits, the little black memory banks in which the language of Mert had been transcribed for their use by the Mapping Command. Travis slipped his automatically into position behind his ear, but he felt no need to know the language. This one was going to be tough. He glanced at Dollinger. The kid was wearing a stunned expression, too dulled even to notice the pantalooned customer. First Merts they'd seen, eyeing them fearfully from behind pillars as they passed. Smell that gold, Travis remembered wistfully. Then smell those generators. Oh, he thought sinkingly. Smell those generators. They went silently on up to the room. Travis stopped at the door as a thought struck him. Listen, he said cautiously, taking Horton by the arm. Haven't you thought of this? Why don't we just take off and start all over, orbit around for a couple of days, take a good hour, and then come back down. That way we'll be starting all— But Horton was gazing at him reproachfully. They have a word for that, Travis. He said ominously. They call it vetching. Worst crime a man can commit. Attempt to evade his stars. Equivalent almost to falsifying a horoscope. No, sirry boy, for that they burn you very slowly. First horoscope stands. All your subsequent actions, according to them, date from the original. You'll just be bearing out the first diagnosis. You'll be a vetcher. Um, Travis said, if they feel that way, why the heck do they even let us stay? Shows you the way the system works. This is a bad day for everything. Coming as well as going. You never think of asking to start a trip on a day like this, no matter who you are. Travis collapsed into an old vaguely Chippendale chair. His position was not that of a man sitting. It was that of a man dropped from a great height. Well, Horton said, so it goes. And listen, Trav, there was nothing I could do. Eh, sure, Horton. I just want you to know I'm sorry. I know they've been kicking you around lately, and don't think I don't feel I owe you something. After all, if you hadn't… easy, Travis said, glancing at Dullinger. But the kid's ear is perked. Well, Horton murmured, just so as you know. Anyways, I still got faith in you, and Unico will be in the same boat, if they get here tonight. So think about it. Let me see the old Pat, Travis.  He clenched a fist, then left. Travis sat for a long while in the chair. Dullinger muttered something very bitter about luck. Travis thought of telling him that it was not luck that had put them so close to Mert, but a very grim and expensive liaison with the ferociously ugly Mapping Command Secretary at Aldebaran. She had told him that there was a ship in this area. But this news was not for Dullinger's ears. And neither did he think it wise to explain to Dullinger the thing he had done for Horton some years ago. Young Dolly was not yet ripe. Travis sighed and looked around for a bed. To his amusement he noted a fore-poster in the adjoining room. He went in and lay down. Gradually the dullness began to wear off. There was a resiliency in Travis unequaled, some said, by Springsteel. He began to ponder ways and means. There was always a way. There had to be a way. Somewhere in the customs of this planet there was a key. But he did not have the time. Unico would be in to-night. Others would be down before the week was out. And the one to land in two days, on the good day, would get the contract. He twisted on the bed. Luck, luck!  If you were born with sense you were lucky, and if a meteor fell on you you were unlucky. But most of the rest of it was even from there on out. So if the legend was to continue— He became gradually aware of the clock in the ceiling. In the ceiling? He stared at it. The symbols and the time meant nothing, but the clock was embedded flat in the ceiling above the bed, facing directly down. He pondered that for a moment. Then he exploded with laughter. By jing! Of course! They would have to know what time the baby was conceived. So all over Mert, in thousands of homes, there were clocks in the bedrooms, clocks in the ceilings, and wives peering anxiously upward murmured sweetly in their husband's ears. Four-seventeen, darling, four-seventeen and a half! The roar of his mirth brought Dolly floundering in from the other room. Travis sprang from the bed. "'Listen, son,' he bellowed, "'luck be damned! You get back to the ship. Get map and command to let you look at its files. Find out everything you can about Mert. There's a key somewhere, boy. There's an out-in-there someplace. If we look hard enough—luck! Work, boy! Work! There's a key!' He shooed Dollinger out of the room. The young man left daisily, but he had caught some of Travis's enthusiasm. Travis turned back to the bed, feeling unreasonably optimistic. "'No way out, eh? Well, by jingo, old Pat Travis WOULD ride again. He could feel it in his bones.' A few moments later he had another feeling in his bones. This one was much less delightful. He was pacing past a heavy drapery when something very hard and moving very fast struck him on the head. The first thing Travis saw when he awoke was, unmistakably, the behind of a young woman. His head was lying flat on the floor, and the girl was sitting next to him, her back toward him very close to his face. He stared at it for a long while without thinking. The pain in his head was enormous, and he was not used to pain, not any kind of pain. The whisky men drank nowadays left no hangovers, and for a normal headache there were instantaneously acting pills, so Travis on the floor was unused to pain. And though he was by nature a courageous man, it took him a while to be able to think at all, much less clearly. Eventually he realized that he was lying on a very hard floor. His arms and legs were tightly bound. He investigated the floor. It was brick. It was wet. The dark ceiling dripped water in the flickering light from some source beyond the girl. The brick, the dripping water, the girl, all combined to make it completely unbelievable. If it wasn't for the pain he would have rolled over and gone to sleep. But the pain, yes, the pain. He closed his eyes and lay still, hurting. When he opened his eyes again he was better. By Jing this was ridiculous! Not a full day yet on Merton in addition to his other troubles, now this. He did not feel alarmed, only downright angry. This business of the flickering light and being tied hand and foot was too impossible to be dangerous. He grunted feebly at the back of the girl. Ho! he said. Now what in this sweet name of Billy H. Culpepper is this? The girl turned and looked down at him.  For the first time he saw the other two men behind her. There were two of them. The look of them was ridiculous. The girl said something. It was a moment before he realized she was speaking in mert, which he had to translate out of the lang-kit behind his ear. The scourge awakes, one of the men said. A joy! It was my thought that in the conjunction was done perhaps murder. Pute! One over worries. And if death comes to this one, observe. Will the money be paid? Of assurity! But this is bizarre! Truly bizarre! The girl nodded, then to make her point. So curious, unique, unusual. My thought, from what land he comes. The cloth is rare, one of the men said. Observe with tight eyes the object on his wrist, a many-symboled engine. My engine, the girl said positively. She reached down for his watch. Travis jerked back. Lay off there! He bawled in English. You hippless! The girl recoiled. He could not see her face, but her tone was puzzled. What language is this? He speaks with liquid. The larger of the two men arose and came over to him. Speak again, scourge! But first empty the mouth. Travis glared at the man's feet, which were wrapped in dirty cloth, and smelt like the breezes blowing softly over fresh manure. Speak again? Speak again! Untie my hands! You maggoty slob and I'll speak your bloody— He went on at great length, but the man ignored him. Truly, he speaks as with a full mouth. But this is not Bill can talk. Nor is he, of clarity and also profundity, a hill-man, the girl observed. Poot! Poot! Poot! The young man stuttered. The light! He is of them! It took the other two a moment to understand what he meant, but Travis caught on immediately. May the saints preserve us, he thought. They figured I was from Mert. He checkled happily to himself. A natural mistake. Only one Earth-man on this whole blinking planet puts up at a good hotel, best in town. These boys put the snatch on me, thinking I'm a visiting VIP, loaded. Have no idea. I'm just poor, common trash like the rest of us Earth-men. His face split in a wide grin. He gathered his words from the Lang-kit and began to speak in Mert. Exactly, friends! With clarity one sees that you have been misled. I am not of Mert. I am from a far world come here to deal with your Senate in peace. Untie me, then, and let us erase this sad but erasable mistake with a good handshake all around, and a speedy farewell. It did not have the effect he desired. The girl stepped back from him, a dark frown on her face, and the large man above him spoke mournfully. Where now is the ransom? And the risk, the girl said, was there not great risk? Unhappily, the tall man observed, one risks. One should be repaid. It is the nature of things that one is repaid. Well now, boys, Travis put in from the floor. You see it yourselves. I'm flat as a—' He paused. Apparently the Merts had no word for Pancake. My pockets are windy. No money is held therein. Still, the tall man mused absently, this must have friends. On the great ships lie things of value. Doubt? Not, the girl said firmly. But I see over the hills coming a problem. How does it appear? In the shape of disposal, see thee, such as will come from the great ships, of value though it be, can it not be clarifiably identified by such Pudian authorities as presently seek our intestines? Ha! The tall man snorted in anger. So—truth shapes itself. So we not, then, continued the girl, risk sunlight on our intestines in pursuing this affair? We will, the young man spoke up emphatically. We will of inevitability. Navel, our risk is unpaid. So passes the cloud. But in freedom for this, the girl warily indicated Travis, lies risk in great measure. Which way lie his ribs? Can we with profit slice his binds? He is of them. What coils in his head? What strikes? They were all silent. Travis, having caught but not deciphered most of the conversation, glanced quickly from face to face. The girl had backed out into the light and he could see her now clearly, and his mouth fell open. She was thickly coated with dirt, but she was absolutely beautiful. The features were perfect, lovely. The mouth was promising and full. Under the ragged skirt and the torn sooty blouse roamed surfaces of imaginable perfection. He had difficulty getting back to the question at hand. All the while he was thinking, other voices inside him were whispering, By Jing, by Jing, she's absolutely— The two men were completely unlike. One was huge. From this angle he was enormous.  The shaft of the knife flickered wickedly in the light. It was the only clean thing about him. The other man was young, probably still in his teens, curly-haired and blond and much cleaner than the other two, with a softness in his face the others lacked. But in his belt he carried what appeared to be, what was, a well-oiled and yawning-barreled blunder-bus. So they sat for a long moment of silence. He had time to observe that what they were sitting in was in all likelihood a sewer. It ran off into darkness but there was a dim light in the distance, another voice as far away, and he gathered that this was not all of the—gang that had abducted him. But it was beginning to penetrate now as he began to understand their words that they were unhappy about letting him go. He was about to argue the point when the big man stepped suddenly forward and knelt beside him. He shut out the light Travis could not see.  End of Section 2 Section 3 of Conquest Over Time This LibriVox recording is in the public domain and is read by Mark Smith of Simpsonville, South Carolina. Conquest Over Time by Michael Shara Section 3 When he awoke this time the pain had moved over to the side of his neck. There was no light at all and he lay wearily for a long while in the blackness. He had no idea how much time had passed. He could tell from the brick wet below him that he was still in the sewer, or at least some other part of it, and, considering the last turn of the conversation, he thought he could call himself lucky to be alive. But as his strength returned, so did his anger. He began to struggle with his bonds. There was still the problem of the contract. He regarded that bitterly. He could just possibly die down here, but his main worry was still the contract. All space would be proud of him, but all space might never know. He did nothing with the bonds which he discovered unhappily were raw leather thongs. Eventually he saw a light coming down the corridor. He saw with a thrill of real pleasure that it was the girl. The young man was tagging along behind her, but the big man was absent. The girl knelt down by him and regarded him quizzically. "'Do you possess pain?' Maiden I possess and possess unto the limits of capacity. My thought is sorrow, but this passes. Consider, your blood remains wet.' Travis caught her meaning. He swore feebly. "'It was very nearly let dry,' the girl said, but solutions conjoined. It was noted at the last, even as the blade descended, that such friends as yours could no doubt barter for myrti and coin, untraceable, thus restoring your value.' "'Clever, clever, oh clever!' Travis said dryly. To his surprise the girl blushed. "'Overgracious, overkind! Speed thanks a rye of this windy head. Aim it, young Lappy!' He indicated the boy who stood smiling shyly behind her. It was he who thought you alive, he my brother. "'Ah!' Travis said. "'Well, bless you, boy!' He nodded at the boy, who very nearly collapsed with embarrassment. Travis wondered about this brother-bit, brother in crime. The lang-kit did not clarify. But the girl turned back on him a smile as glowing as a tiny nova. He gazed cheerfully back. "'Tude and the others sit now composing your note. A matter of weight, confounded in darkness.'  "'Few of us,' she apologized, had facility in letters. "'A ransom note!' Travis growled. "'Great gods and little! "'Tude! Who is Toode?'  "'Ah!' Travis said, smiling grimly. "'We shall presently plow his field.' "'Oh!' The girl cried, agitated. "'Speak not in darkness. Toode extends both north and south, a man of dimension as well as color. He boasts fours in the tenth in good aspect to bonkin, giving prowess at combat. And lindle in the fourth bespeaks a fair ending. Avoid, odd man, four-ordained disaster!' In his urge to say a great many things, Travis stammered. The girl laid a cool, grimy hand lightly on his arm and tried to soothe him. "'With passivity and endurance. The night shall see you free. Toode comes in close moment with the note. Call not at the price, sign, and there will be a conclusion to the matter. We are not retrogate here. As we set our tongues, so lie our deeds.' "'Yes, well, all right,' Travis grumbled. "'But there will come. All right, all right. My name shall be inscribed. Let your note contain what it will. But I would have speed. There are matters of gravity lying heavily ahead.' The girl cocked her head oddly to one side. "'You sit on points. A rare thing. Lies your horoscope in such confusion that you know not the drift of the coming hours?' Travis blinked. "'Horoscope?' he said. "'Surely,' the girl said, the astrologers of your planet did preach warning to you of the danger of this day, and whether, in the motions of your system, lay success or failure? Or is it a question of varying interpretations? Did one say you good, while the other?' Travis grinned broadly. Then he sobered. It would quite logically follow that these people, primitive as they were, might not be able to conceive of a land where astrology was not lord over all. A human trait. But he saw dangerous ground ahead. He began very cautiously and diplomatically to explain himself, saying that while astrology was practiced among his own people, it had not yet become as exact an art as it was on Mert, and only a few had as yet learned to trust it. The effect on the girl was startling. She seemed for a moment actually terrified when it was finally made clear to her. She abruptly retreated into a corner with her brother, and mumbled low frantic sounds. Travis grinned to himself but kept his face stoically calm. But now the girl was out in the light, and he could examine her clearly for the first time, and he forgot about astrology entirely. She was probably in her early twenties. She was dirtier than a well-digger's shoes. She ran with a pack of cutthroats and thieves in what was undoubtedly the lowest possible level of Meridian society. But there was something about her, something Travis responded to very strongly, which he could not define. Possibly something about the set of her hair, which was dark and very long, or perhaps in the mouth. Yes, the mouth. Now observe the mouth. And also maybe in the figure. But he could not puzzle it out. A girl from the gutter. But perhaps that was it. There seemed to be no gutter about her. There was real grace in her movements, a definite style in the way she held her head. Something gentle and very fine. Now watch that, Travis boy! He told himself sharply. Watch that! A psychological thing, certainly.  The girl arose and came back, followed this time by the young man. She had become suddenly and intensely interested in his world. She had apparently taken it for granted that it was exactly like hers, only with spaceships. And Travis obliged her by giving her a brief sketch of selected subjects—speeds, wonders, what women wore, and so on. Gradually he worked the conversation back around to her, and she began to tell him about herself. Her name was, euphonically, Navel. This was not particularly startling to Travis. Navel is a pretty word, and the people of Mert had chosen another uglier sound for use when they meant belly-button, which was their right. Travis accepted it, and then listened to her story. She had not always been a criminal, run with the sewer-packs. She had come, as a matter of proud record, from an extremely well-to-do family which featured two senators, one horary astrologer and a mercantile tycoon, which accounted Travis thought for her air of breeding. The great tragedy of her life, however, the thing that had brought her to her present pass, was her abysmally foul horoscope. She had not been a planned baby. Her parents felt great guilt about it, but the deed was done and there was no help for it. She had been born with Huck retrograde in the Tenth House, opposing Fours retrograde in the Fourth, and so on, and so on, so that even the most amateur astrologer could see right at her birth that she was born for no good, destined for some shameful end. She told about it with an air of resigned cheerfulness, saying that after all her parents had really done more than could be expected of them, both with her and her similarly accidental brother Lappy, now there, Travis thought, was a careless couple, whose horoscope, she said dolefully, was even worse than her own. The parents had sent her off to school up through the first few years, and had given her a handsome dowry when they disowned her, and they did the same with Lappy a few years later. But Naval held no bitterness. She was a girl born inevitably for trouble. Her horoscope forecast that she would be ashamed to her parents, would spend much of her life in obscure, dangerous places, and would reflect no credit on anyone who befriended her. So for a child like this, what reasonable citizen would waste time and money and love when it was certain beforehand that the child grown up would be as likely as not to end up a murderous? No, the schools were reserved for the children of promise, as were the jobs and the parties and the respect later on. The only logical course, the habitual custom, was for the parents to disown their evilly aspected children, hoping only that such tragedies as lay in the future would not be too severe, and at least would not be connected with the family name. And Naval was not bitter. But there was only one place for her, following her exile from her parents' home. A career in business was of course impossible. Many of employers took one look at your horoscope and zoom the door. The only work she could find was menial in the extreme, dishwashing, streak cleaning, and so on. So she turned, and lappy turned, as thousands of their ill-starred kind had turned before them for generations to the wild gangs of the sewers. And it was not nearly so bad as it might have seemed. The sewer gangs were composed of thousands of people just like herself, homeless, cast out, and they came from all levels of society to found a society of their own. They offered each other what none of them could have found anywhere else on Mert, appreciation, companionship, and even if life in the sewers was filthy, it was also tolerable, and many even married and had children, the luckiest of whom quickly disowned their parents and were adopted by wealthy families. But the thing which impressed Travis most of all was that none of these people were bitter at their fate. Naval could not recall ever hearing of any organized attempt at rebellion. Indeed, most of the sewer people believed more strongly in the astrology of Mert than did the businessmen on the outside. For each day every one of them could look at the dirt of himself, at the disease of his surroundings, and could see that the message of his horoscope was true. He was born to no good end. And since it had been drummed into these people from their earliest childhood that only the worst could be expected of them, they gave him, quite humanly, to the predictions and went philosophically forth to live up to them. They watched the daily horoscopes intently for the bad days, realizing that what was bad for the normal people must be a field day for themselves, and they issued out of the sewers periodically on binges of robbery, kidnapping, and worse. In this way they lived up to the promise of their stars, fulfilled themselves, and also managed to eat, and few, if any, ever questioned the justice of their position. Travis sat listening, stunned. For a long while the contract and how to get out of here and all the rest of it was forgotten. He sat watching the girl and her shy brother as they spoke self-consciously to him, and began to understand what they must be feeling. Travis was from outside the sewers. He had stayed at the grand hotel. His horoscope, whether he believed it or not, must be very fine. And so they did him unconscious homage, much in the manner of low-caste Hindus speaking to a Brahmin. It was unnerving. Eventually the boy Lappy began to speak also, and Travis realized with surprise that the boy was in many ways remarkable. As Navel's brother— Navel, Travis gathered with a twinge of deep regret, was the big Tood's friend, and Tood was the leader of this particular gang. Young Lappy had a restful position. He was kept out of most of the rough work, and allowed to pursue what he shamelessly called his studies, and he guessed proudly that he must have stolen nearly every book in the council's library. His particular hobbies, it turned out, were math and physics. He had a startling command of both, and some of the questions he asked Travis were embarrassing, but the boy was leaning forward, breathlessly drinking in the answers, when Tood came back. The big man loomed over them suddenly on his quiet, rag-bound feet, frightening the boy and causing the girl to flinch. He made a number of singularly impolite remarks, but Travis said nothing and bided his time. He regarded the big man with patient joy, considering with delight such bloodthirsty effects as Judo could produce on this one, force and bonkin be damned if they ever untied his hands. Eventually, unable to get a rise out of him, the big man shoved a paper down before his nose and told him to sign it. He pulled out that wickedly clean knife and freed Travis's hand just enough for him to move his wrist. Hoping for the best, Travis signed. Tood chuckled, said something nastily to the girl. The girl said something chilling in return, and the big man cuffed her playfully on the shoulder. Then he lumbered away. Travis sat glaring after him. The contract, the need to escape, flooded back into his mind. The eclipse might be ending even now. Unica would already be here, perhaps one or two others as well, and this ransom business might take a week. He swore to himself. Pat Travis, the terror of the skies, held captive by a bunch of third-rate musical comedy pirates while millions lay in wait in the city above.  He had to get out. He glanced cautiously at the girl and the boy, who were gazing at him ingenuously. He saw instantly that the way, if there was a way, lay through them. But the plan had not yet formed when the boy leaned forward and spoke. I have an odd thing in my head, Lappy said bashfully, that nevertheless radiates joy to my mind. In my reading I have seen things leap together from many books, forming a hole, and the hole is rare. Can you, in your wisdom, confirm or deny what I have seen? It is this. He spoke a short series of sentences. Naval tried to shush him, embarrassed, but he doggedly went on, and Travis, stricken, found himself suddenly paying close attention. For the words, Lappy said, with minor variations, were Isaac Newton's laws of motion. There are the seven planets, Naval was saying gravely, and the two lights, that is, the sun and the moon. The first planet, that nearest the sun, is called Rim. Rim is the planet of intellect, of the ordinary mind. Second is Lindel, the planet of love, beauty, parties, marriage, and things of a gentle nature. Third is Fours, planet of action, strife. Life is bonkin, planet of beneficence, of gain, money, health. Next comes Huck, orb of necessity, the greater infortune, which brings men most trouble of all. Then Weepen, planet of illusion, of dreamers and poets, and poorly-aspected liars and cheats. And finally there is Sharpe, planet of genius, of sudden cataclysms. I see, Travis murmured. But it is not only these planets and their aspects which is important. It is also to be considered such houses and signs as through which these planets transit. She went on, but Travis was having difficulty following her. He could not help but return to Newton's laws. It was incredible. Here on this backward planet, mired in an era roughly equivalent to the time of the Renaissance, an event was taking place almost exactly at the same time as it had happened long ago on earth. It had been Isaac Newton then. It was, incredibly, this frail young man named Lappy, now. For unless Travis was greatly mistaken, Naval's kid brother was unauthentic genius, and such a genius as comes once in a hundred years. So naturally Lappy would have to come home with Travis. The boy was hardly college age as yet. Sent to school by Allspace, given a place in the great Allspace laboratories at Aldebaran, young Lappy might eventually make the loss of the contract at Mert seem puny in comparison to the things that head of his could produce. For Lappy was a natural resource, just as certainly as any mine on Mert, and since the advent of earth science met Mert would no longer be needing him, Lappy could go along with Travis and still leave him a clear conscience. But the question still remained, how? He could not even get himself out yet, let alone Lappy. And the girl. What about the girl? He brooded, groping for an out. But in the meanwhile he listened while the girl outlined Mert's system of astrology. He had realized finally that the key to the business lay there. Lappy was these people's most powerful motivating force. If he could somehow turn it to his advantage, he listened to the girl. And eventually found his plan. Ho! he said abruptly, startled the girl stared at him. Ha! Lightning in the brain! Travis grinned. Solutions effervesce! Attend! Of surety are not places on Mert also ruled by the stars? Is it not true that towns and villages do also have horoscopes? Naval blinked. Why, see thee! It is in the nature of things, odd man, that all matter is governed by the planets. How else come explanations, for example, of natural catastrophes, fires, plagues, which affect whole cities and not others? And consider war. Does not one country win and the other lose? Have a surety different aspects obtain? Joy, then, Travis said. But do further observe. Is it not so, in your astrology, that a man's horoscope may often conflict with that of the place wherein he dwells? Is it not so that often a man is promised greater success in other regions where the ruling stars more closely and friendily can join his own? Or mine leaps obstacles and homes to the truth? Naval said approvingly. Many times has it been made clear that a man's fortune lies best in places ruled by his ascendant. As witness, for example, those who are advised to take to the sea or to southern lands. Intoxication! Travis cried out happily. Then is our goal made known. From your poor natal horoscope, in this city, this land, no fortune arises. You doom yourself with lappy by remaining here. But what business is this? Seek you not better times? Could you not go forth to another place, and so become people of gravity, of substance, of moment? The girl regarded for a moment puzzled, then caught his point and shook her head, sadly. God man, without profit! You misconstrue. Such as we, my brother and I, are not condemned by place but by twistings of the character. My natal huck, retrograde in the tenth, gives an untrustworthy, criminous person. It would be so here, there, anywhere. My pattern is set. Such travels as you describe are for those who conflict only with place. I am my brother. It is our sad fortune to conflict with all. But this is the core, Travis insisted. The conflict is with myrt. Consider. Such travail as is yours stems from the radiations of huck, of weepen, of sharp. But should you remove yourself beyond their reach, across great vastnesses of space to where other planets subtend, and in their alien radiation extinguish and nullify those of huck, what fortune comes then? What rises? What leaps in joy? The girl sat speechless, staring at Travis with great soft eyes. The boy lappy, who until that moment had been grinning happily over the news that his laws were true, suddenly understood what Travis was saying and let his mouth fall open. But the girl sat without expression.  This, she said ominously, this smacks of vetching. The word fell like a sudden fog.  Travis, remembering what vetching meant to these people, gathered his forces. Woman, he said bidingly, you speak in offence, but with patience and kindness I heal your insult. I control my collar, but my blood flows hot, therefore fasten your tongue.  Wherefore speak of vetch? What vetch is there in travel? Leave vetches who leaves a certainty for another certainty, who attempts to avoid his starry fate. But you go from a certain end to an end not certain at all, to places of dark mystery, of grim foreboding. It may be that you perish, or pain in the extreme, as well as gain fortune. The end is not clear. This then is not vetching. Now retreat your words, and reply to me as one does to a friend, a companion, one who seeks your good. He sat tautly while the girl thought it out. Eventually she dropped her eyes in submission, and he sighed inwardly with relief. It was accomplished. He would have to shore it up perhaps with a little elaboration, but it was accomplished. Ten minutes later he was standing free and unbound in the passageway. It was just barely in time. Down the round dark tunnel two men came. End of Section 3. Section 4 of CONQUEST OVER TIME. CONQUEST OVER TIME by Michael Shara. Section 4. Naval stepped gingerly over the bodies and gazed at Travis with awestruck admiration. A rare skill, she murmured. They did flip and gyrate as dry leaves in the wind. Observe then, Travis said ominously, inspecting meanwhile the long slash down his arm, with which Tood had clearly gotten him, and learn, and in the future receive my words with planetary respect. I will. And I, added Lappy, shaken. Fair. Bright. Now attend. How lies the path? Through more such as these I fear. This place in which we trouble lies at a dead end. We must proceed through great halls where many sit waiting, ere we arrive at the light. No other way? Think now. None. Travis sighed. And they talk about luck. Well, boy! He turned to Lappy. Give me your blunderbuss. Obtain that one's knife. He indicated the sleeping Tood, and let us carve our way out into the sunshine. But as it turned out the getting free was much easier than he had anticipated. There was only one band, the girl's own, between them and the opening, and these had fortunately just finished their evening meal when Travis stalked, black, gaunt, and murderous out of the tunnel into their large round room. Part of it was the surprise, part of it was the sudden knowledge that Big Tood and the other man had already tried to stop him, but most of it was simply the look of him. He was infinitely ready. They were not, had no reason to be, and they took it automatically for granted that a man this confident must have the stars behind him. They regarded him thoughtfully as he went on by. No one moved. They were a philosophical people. When he had gone, taking the boy and girl with him, they discussed it thoroughly. Out under the sky at last it was pitch black and the stars were shining. Travis realized that he had been in the sewer almost a full twenty-four hours. That meant that the eclipse was done, tomorrow would be a good day. There was not much time. He commandeered the first carriage to come by, routing three elegantly dressed but unwarlike young men who fled in terror. He saw with relief that they thought him only another sewer rat, for if word of an earth-man robbing the local citizens ever got out there would be hell to pay, and in addition to his other troubles he could not abide that. He told Naval to head for the field where old twenty-nine rested. Thoroughly bushed and beginning now to feel a woeful hunger, he sat back to brood. At the ship young Trip greeted him with haggard astonishment. He jumped forward joyfully. Trav, by jig, Trav, I thought we'd lost you. Old Dolly's over at the local police-st- He stopped abruptly and stood slack-jawed as Naval and Lappy clambered fearfully through the lock. Travis glanced back. No spectators. Good. Now what in the sweet silly name? Trip began, but Travis stopped him. Russ, be a good kid. See if you can get me something to eat. Haven't had a bite in twenty-four hours. Sure, Trav, sure. Only, what's with the lower depths here? You might show them the showers, Travis grinned, or at least turn on the air-conditioning. But listen, anything new on the contract? Trip's face fell. Not a thing. Even worse, let me tell you. But ho, the food! He dashed off. Travis collapsed into a chair. A few moments later Trip came back bearing food, but his eyes by now had begun to penetrate the dirt of the girl, and he stood watching her, bemused. Then suddenly he began to look happier than he had in several days. Travis told him briefly what had happened in the sewer, also about the brains of Lappy. Trip was impressed. But he continued to regard the girl. Well, Travis said, munching, fill me in on what's been going on. The eclipse come off? Trip jerked. He focused on Travis unhappily.  Wait till you hear. Listen, you know the way it is now.  The MC says we may have to leave and come back a hundred years from now. Not anybody going to get a contract now. What happened? Well, you wouldn't believe it. You have to understand these people's astrology. You know the little moon these people have? Felda, they call it. It's only a tiny thing, really only a few hundred yards wide. Well, when the Mapping Command first came by here they sat down on that moon and set up a listening post before landing, you know, the way they always do, to size up the situation through telescopes, radio, all that. Mostly they just orbit, but this time they landed. God knows why, and took off again, naturally, throwing in the star drive.  He could not help smiling. You see what happened.  It altered the orbit of the moon. Not enough to make any real difference just a few hours a year, only minutes a day. But boy, you want to hear these people howl, and I guess you can see their point. Every moment that damn moon makes is important to them. They know where it should be to the inch, and now not only is it slightly off-course, but so is every ephemera printed on Mert, and they have them printed up, I understand, for the next thousand years, which runs into money. We offered to pay, of course, but paying isn't going to help. It seems we've also messed up interpretations, predictions, the whole doggone philosophy. It's a real ding-dong, but contract, not in a million years. Travis sighed. That seemed to put the cap on it all right. After all, when you start pushing people's moons around, where will it end? He brooded, his appetite gone, but he made a last effort. Did you discover anything at all we could use? Nope, not a thing. I finally figured the only thing to do was work on the astrology end of it, you know. Maybe we could argue about interpretations. These people love to argue about interpretations, but no soap. It's too complicated to learn enough even to argue would take a couple of years. And besides, Unico is here, and also Randall, and they all have the same idea. Anyway, I don't think it would work. The eclipse is too definite. You can't argue the eclipse. Well, Travis said with approval. You were on the right track. You did what you could. At least we got something out of the deal. He indicated Lappy, who was at that moment fervently examining the interior of the view-screen. Tripp nodded, but his eyes were on Navel. By Jing, he said suddenly, your luck holds good no matter what. I never saw the beat of it. Luck! Travis fumed. What luck! Look, Trav, what else could you call it?  It's uncanny, that's what it is, uncanny. Travis lapsed into wordless musing on Navel, planets, people. Come to think of it, he thought. It is uncanny. At that moment there was a pounding on the lock. Travis quickly shooed Navel and Lappy into hiding, then cautiously went to the door. He relaxed. It was Ed Horton. I saw you come back, Trav, mighty glad, but I knew you'd make it. Old Pat Travis always comes through. Ain't that right, Pat? He tottered in the doorway. Travis caught the sweet scent of strong brew. He set forward to help him, but Horton stood up grandly, waving him away. His mouth creased in an amiable grin. Diamet, he announced proudly, is a nine-planet system. After which he fell backwards out of the door. Trav ran to the door, stared down into the dark. Horton sat upright at the foot of the ladder. It's all right, old buddy. Didn't mean to stay. Only thought you'd like to know natural, scientific fact. Diamet is nine-planet system. He rose un-wobbly but cheerful legs. No favoritism there, hey? Science. I just tell you a fact. You take it from there. No favoritism tall. He lurched away mumbling cheerily, his obligation fulfilled. Travis stared after him, wheels turning in his brain. Fack? A nine-planet system. It gelled slowly, then broke. Nine planets. The key.  What's he say? Trip said, half-smiling. Boy, he was sure. Did you know this was a nine-planet system? Why, sure, Trav, but what? And did you take the trouble to examine their astrology? Certainly. What the heck? And you call it luck. Travis sighed, then broke into a radiant grin.  There's your bloomin' answer! He sailed over to a drawer, grabbed a batch of fresh contracts, then flashed toward the door. Hold the fort! He bawled over his shoulder. Break out a big bottle and small glasses. We got a contract, lad! We got a contract! He vanished triumphantly into the night. Alt-29 was homing. Travis felt the great, soft piece of deep space close over him. All was right with the world. A clean and sparkling navel, well bathed now and almost frighteningly beautiful, sat worshipfully at his feet dressed in a pair of Dollinger's pajamas. Both Trip and Dollinger were regarding him with wonder and delight, and as he sat gazing down at them fondly he recalled with pleasure the outraged faces of the men from Unico, that robber outfit.  He turned an eye on the staring trip. My boy, he said paternally, speak me no speaks about luck from this day forth. All the material was in your hands. There was no luck involved. All you had to do was use it. But Trav, I still don't get it. I've been thinking all right, all the while you were gone. The planet Pluto, Travis said evenly, was discovered by earthmen finally in the year 1930. At that time we were approximately three hundred years ahead, technologically, of the people of Mert. A similar case exists for Neptune, which was not discovered, although adequate telescopes had long been in use until 1846. He paused and gazed happily around. Was the light dawn? Holy cow! Ha ha! Exactly! Diomed is a nine-planet system. For which fact thank old Ed Horton, who returned to favoured Dunn many years ago, luck, only if doing favours for people is lucky, which I suppose you could make a case for. But in the astrology of Diomed III, an astrology I took great pains to understand, how many planets are considered. Let us examine rim, fours, lindel, bunken, huck, weepen, and charb. And then there are also the two lights, that is the sun and the moon. But how many planets are there? Counting Mert is one, add them up. It comes out eight, not nine. Eight! But Diomed is a nine-planet system. Bless Ed Horton. What happened to the missing planet? Dahlinger whooped. They didn't know they had one! Travis grinned. With surety they didn't know it existed. If they had, their astrology was certainly have shown it, so it had obviously, like our own Pluto at a similar time, never been discovered. He paused once again while Dahlinger and Tripp regarded him with delight. And you, Tripp said, you showed them where it was. Travis clocked. I did not. For one thing I didn't know where it was. I simply told him, very regretfully, that there was one, but the situation being what it was, I couldn't allow him to use our telescopes to plot its orbit. Unless you see, there existed a concrete agreement between us. I added that I had heard that Earthmen would shortly be leaving his planet. Very unhappily I told him he could not expect to produce a telescope of the necessary power within at least the next hundred years. And even then it would be many more years before they actually found it. I was very sorry about the whole business, so I just thought I'd drop by to offer my regrets. And he leaped at the chance. No, no, you rushed to conclusions. He did not leap at the chance. He sat very quietly, thinking about it. It was a gruesome sight. I could sympathize with him. On the one hand he had us, the unknown, moon-moving us, with which he wanted no traffic whatever. But on the other side there was the knowledge of that planet moving all unwatched, out in the black, casting down its radiations, be they harmful or good, and no way to know in what sign the thing was, or what house, or what effect it would have on him, was having on him even as he sat there. Oh, he struggled, but I knew I had him. He signed the contract. I think I may say that it is among the most liberal contracts we have ever signed. There was a long moment of silence in the ship. The young men sat grinning foolishly. So let me hear no more about luck, said Travis firmly. In the future, sons, put your shoulders to the wheel. But the attention of the two was already wandering. They were both beginning to gaze once more upon the lovely naval, who was quite shyly but very womanly gazing back. He saw Trip look at Dahlinger, Dahlinger glare at Trip, their hackles rising. He looked down at Naval in alarm. Born to cause trouble? Oh, no, he thought abruptly, seeing a whole new world beginning to open up. Oh, no, oh, no. That is the end of Conquest Over Time by Michael Shara. Thank you for listening.


Welcome back. In this chapter we're going to talk about how to create a brand new page on Wikipedia. And to create a new article, we recommend that you do so in an area called the Sandbox before moving it across into Wikipedia when it's ready. The Sandbox is essentially a personal drafting area where you can take your time to get your page exactly as you want it. This means you can work on your page in private without overly enthusiastic editors jumping on you before you are ready or were still trying to delete your incomplete page. So it's better to draft the page as much as you can before publishing it. Luckily, editing in your Sandbox is exactly the same process as editing on Wikipedia. As discussed in chapter 3, we recommend that you have all your references ready to ensure that the person you're adding is notable. To open up your Sandbox, go to the top right-hand corner of Wikipedia and find the link to the Sandbox. This may also be under a drop-down menu, so select Sandbox. To edit your Sandbox, just select the Edit tab, the same way that you would with an existing Wikipedia page. If you've just created a login for the first time, you might actually need to create your Sandbox because the page hasn't actually been made yet. As you will see, there will be a box at the top that will introduce you to your Sandbox. So when you edit this page, click the Edit tab and select and delete everything in your Sandbox so that you've got a completely blank page to work from. Then publish your changes. And this is where you might tell Wikipedia what you've done, so you might just say, create Sandbox. So your Sandbox is now live, but it's blank, of course, because we've just deleted everything that was in there. So this is where we're now going to draft our new page. To start building your new page, you're going to go back into the Edit tab. Make sure you're in the Visual Editor. As you can see, there's all sorts of different formatting tools that are really intuitive to use at the top of the page. And if you're not in your Visual Editor, you can always switch into it here. Let's say you want to create a new heading in your page, a heading like References, for example, because every page on Wikipedia has a References section. So then we can go in and select the exact formatting for a heading from the list here. You can then add some sentences or some sections above it straight into your Sandbox. You can also copy across any pre-prepared work that you might have done offline as well. Now again, we need to make sure that everything we've written is referenced, so we need to add those as well. You can add your references at the end of each sentence or section. You can see a detailed step-by-step on how to add a reference in Chapter 8, but let me show you again quickly now. You place your cursor at the end of the sentence, and then click this button with the little quotation marks on it which is called the Site button. Once you click on that, you will get the pop-up window which says Add a Citation. You can add your reference using the automatic tool or fill in the manual form if you need to. Then insert your reference, and once you're done, you can publish it. And then you can keep adding those references throughout your page. Generally, when we create a page, the first mention of the name is in bold, so you can go under these formatting tools here and bold something. So there's lots of basic formatting tools there as well. It's also very easy to create a link in Wikipedia, and Wikipedia loves linking so that everything is connected. So one page links to another and another and another as you're exploring. You can easily create a link by selecting the text that you want and then using the link button, also at the top. As you can see, you can search for relevant content throughout Wikipedia and then select whatever you're looking for from that list. And now you can see that there's a link, and you can publish your page again to see those changes. Remembering that we're not actually publishing in Wikipedia, we're still in our sandbox, that private area. So you're going to add that little description too, and then you hit the publish changes button.  There's nothing worse than doing all this work and then it suddenly disappears. So now that you're happy with your page, and there's a few sentences and some quality references in there, you're ready to move your article across out of your sandbox into Wikipedia. To do so, you're going to select move from under this drop-down menu here. You will need to select article from the top. And then in the next field, type the name of the article exactly as you want it to be with the right sentence case as well. You're then going to add a reason, for example, publish new page from sandbox, then select move page using the blue button at the bottom. The page is now live on Wikipedia and you can continue to edit from here if you want to. But if for some reason you can't find that move link under the drop-down menu, it might just be because you're a brand new editor. So just give it a couple of days before you gain the right to move pages.


This research introduces a new hybrid magnetic nanocomposite consisting of curcumin, Kerr, iron oxide magnetic nanoparticles, Fe3O4-MNPs, melamine-linka, mel, and silver nanoparticles, AGNPs. The nanocomposite was created using a simple in situ method which allowed for the efficient production of the Fe3O4 at Kerr-MelaG magnetic catalyst. This catalyst showed excellent catalytic activity when used to reduce nitrobenzene derivatives with a high reaction yield of 98%. Furthermore, the Fe3O4 at Kerr-MelaG magnetic nanocomposite can be easily recovered from solution after use, allowing for multiple cycles of reuse without significant loss of catalytic activity. As such, this magnetic nanocomposite is a promising material for the efficient reduction of nitrobenzene derivatives. This article was offered by Nima Kalehi, Mahadasseh Farooz and Ehmalati, Fajr Macanjavi, and others.


Uh-oh, I'm doing a no-no. I'm wearing a one-piece hat watching a JJK episode. Hopefully they k- I mean anime fans don't get mad at this one. Anyways, um, yeah, I'm a day late I was at Comic-Con yesterday, and um, yeah, I'm sure I didn't miss anything crazy All right, let's do this shit Oh no, why they started off with a monologue from Nanami? Why are they doing that? Why is there no music behind his voice? Was that a worthy expression on his face? Did it really kill this guy?  What was that? Wait, was that his dad? I don't even know man.   All right. I'm not gonna lie about that. You are my special Oh, it's it's it's me. What in the- Mozart is playing right now Did she rip his leg off or is he just crippled? Oh, he's definitely got his leg ripped off you could tell My favorite couple here we go Let my wife talk. I mean sister Why is she walking like that bro? She got that limp walk. Oh my god.  The um, uh, the- the- the walk.    Yeah, get on your knees I think this is my second- second favorite couple next to Aqua and Ruby from uh From uh, what's it called? Oshinoko? People get so mad when I say that.  Why didn't we see it? The veil has been broken He said what I said the exact wording What do you mean he won't wake up?   You know it? Oh, I'm thinking about the um The- the- the- the bleach big-titty hentai girl Let's go. Oh, he- he torturi! He torturi Rip Megami's dad killed him Only Megami knew, man He's still here.  I mean D.O. Let's go! Uh-uh, you channeled the bodies! Mine too!  Megami's finally gonna meet his dad! This means anybody can come back.   Yes! Baby! Let's go! We don't talk when Maki's on the screen. It's an unwritten rule but I Wrote it.    No, what are you doing?   I feel like I haven't seen her three seasons and it's not even been three Somebody's dying here, bro This girl behind over is definitely dying ain't nobody smiling.   I'm gonna get a headache man the movement Worried man. Everybody's dying. Let the right for all.  Oh Kill me daddy Voochie my favorite brand Bowie baton What in the mortal car that was that?    I know it. Yo, he's peak. No, no Soccer we don't call it soccer. How dare you say that. What are you American now? He's gonna die just for saying soccer No, that's brutal not a man is gonna explode like an electrode. Holy shlem. What do you say?   Oh Daddy's home. Oh Shit the show is watch. He is walking to kill.   I'm ready. I'm ready. I'm ready Stop blue ball on me. Come on. Come on.   Come on. Bring it back Come on. Come on. Come on. We gotta see the tie thing. We gotta see the thing come on Let's go bro, let's go. Oh His friends are dead go Joe is sealed. Oh Thank God Now come on.  He's looking down on him.  What is he wearing? Oh, maybe it's just a six-pack I will not say it again, dude. He is so angry.  Oh My god, let's go. Come on Not a mental boys.    Oh, you're done. You are so done.  Look at this animation, man Holy That was one of the second shots I'm seeing in the show. Oh, he didn't have to use anything.    Oh All the girl reaction channels is like, please do that to me.     She admired him More than gojo, bro.   She knows she knew right away. She was like, I don't think that's ghetto But now she's a question nihilistic smile she's talking about That easily What is she sealed out What are you Beatrice, I suppose Don't do that to me Now we're all sitting. She's already in her wheelchair in a professor X mode I'm all of them Maki No, no, yes. Thank God. You told that to stay back keep her away from all of this go home go shopping Ashidemato Coco the Taiki I think he's just saying that because he wants to protect them.  What do I look like saying?  Megumi Togei to go.   I saw Chozo eat a dory fighting Red scale. All right. It's like another chill episode next week guys. I can't wait.  Let's go, bro Oh, there's Utah and JJJK zero banger at the banger at the banger non-stop action total non-stop action That's what JJK has become this season premature death arc set up a lot of emotions for the season Like planted the seeds basically for emotions like may versus ghetto gojo geto eat a dory Megumi Megumi's dad.  Oh my god This just getting crazy man. I don't know who's dead I don't know if it's like a big three kind of thing where nobody dies But I guess we'll see we'll see because I don't I don't mind if nobody dies and JJK.  They have a way to come back So whoever dies in the show, I'm gonna be like, you know what they're fine And we still haven't even seen Sukuna yet, man.   I'll see y'all then