Rocket to Limbo

But for a race to reach space without it—incredible!

You see it here.

Yes. Bitter disappointment. Yes, we see it here.

Then they found the cradles.

The spark of the Strength was there. Excited and eager, the alien creatures tore their way through bulkhead and deck, following the spark until they found the infants. The spark was feeble, barely perceptible, but it was there.

The records were sporadic then, as Lars and Peter sat by the viewscreens. It took months and years of teaching and training for the alien creatures to nurse the spark of Strength in those Earthling babies into a flame.

It could not have grown strong by itself. In Earthmen it was not a full-blown power but only a potential. It was weak. It had to be trained. As Earthmen on Earth grew from childhood into manhood, the unused potential faded until it was unrecoverable. To Earthmen, untrained, the spark of the Strength brought only confusion and pain, so it was buried deep in his mind, and lost, because he never suspected what it was or how to use it.

But the infants from the Star Ship were trained. They grew and developed as no human children ever had. There was nothing to quench the strong, cool flame in their minds, and it grew.

Their Strength, the extra-sensory powers of their heritage, grew strong as they grew.

When the work was done, the alien creatures left Wolf IV. The city was built, the City-people were safe, but there was still danger. If Earthmen were to come, without knowing of the Strength, they might destroy the aliens’ work.

Fear and hatred could cripple the City-people. The aliens knew this, and taught the City-people what to do. There could be no contact with Earth, not now. Some day contact could be made, but only when Earthmen from Earth could be taught to use their Strength as the City-people could.

Sometime an Earthman would come to Wolf IV, an Earthman old enough to understand Earthmen, and the minds of Earthmen, but still young enough for his Strength to be trained.

Only then could the gulf between the City-people and the men of Earth once more be bridged.

They finished the tapes, and stared at each other, and sat in silence for a long time. Then Lars felt a flicker of thought in his mind.

Lars? Can you hear me?

Yes, Perfectly.

Did you understand it, Lars? We’re the ones. We of all the crew were still young enough to be trained.

Yes. And old enough to cross the gulf. We can make Earthmen understand what the Strength is and how to use it. Is that right? Is that what we have to do?

There was no hesitation in Peter s reply. Yes. That’s what we have to do.

Chapter Fifteen The Sleepers Awake

Commander Walter Fox waited, stamping the floor impatiently as he stared through the window at the city below. The City-people had taken good care of their charges.

The Commander’s cheeks and arms had filled out somewhat, and the tired lines around his eyes were softer now. He felt the difference, and knew, somehow, that what had seemed like a moment’s deep, dreamless sleep had been far longer than a moment.

Already the other men were being awakened, the remainder of his crew, and the ones from the Planetfall who had slept so long. Commander Fox did not know what had happened, but the City-people had been kind. There had been no sign of hostility. Indeed, they had seemed overjoyed as they crowded around to see the sleepers walking up from the vault, as though a great day had somehow arrived in their lives.

Presently a tall man from the city came to him and led him across the archway, into the silvery ship lying on the ramp—his own ship, the Ganymede. He found Lars and Peter waiting in the control room, and clasped their hands tightly. “You made contact, then,” he said.

“Yes. Contact was made. But these people are not the aliens. They’re Earthmen like us but with a very great difference.”

Carefully, with all the details, they told him of the Place of the Masters and what they had found there. They told him of their period of training with the City-people. They told him of the Strength and what it meant to mankind that these children of the Argonaut had developed it.

The Commander listened silently as the story unfolded. At last he said, “Then this Strength is extra-sensory power.”