Rocket to Limbo

“Magnified a thousand times from what we know it,” said Lars. “It is a staggering power, so great it puts the Koenig drive in the kindergarten class. But it isn’t the things that it can do that count so much. It means men can understand each other completely. It means they can move with complete freedom, accomplish things they have never dreamed

of. Remember that these City-people have been limited by isolation. Wait until they have been taught of the universe around them, of Earth, and the stars!”

“And Earthmen can be like that?”

“Every Earthman has some vestige of the Strength. The young ones can still be trained. That’s our job. To show Earthmen what they have had in their grasp all these centuries and never seen.”

Fox nodded slowly. “And the aliens?”

“The Masters were aliens.”

“You never actually confronted them, then.”

Lars shrugged. “Yes and no. They left Wolf IV when their work here was done. This was not their native home. But they left something else behind.”

Lars unfolded the chart, a glimmering metallic thing that glowed with star-dots. “This will tell us where they came from and to where they returned. Sometime we will confront them, if we want to. But we know already the most important thing—that they are good. We need never fear aliens again. They have shown us the potential we have if we want to learn to use it.”

“And now?”

“We have to learn to use it, of course,” said Peter, who had been sitting silent. “We have to go home. Ambassadors, you might say, Lars and I.”

Fox nodded again, trying to absorb the things they were saying. “But the others—the deserters—”

“Does it matter about the deserters?” Peter said. “The Ganymede has completed her mission. Does anything else matter?”

Fox was hesitant. “A clean slate, then?”

“Why not? Salter can’t hurt anybody now.”

“All right. A clean slate.”

The ship rose slowly, leaving the gray ragged surface of the planet far behind. No fire from its jets. No roar from its motors. A greater power lifted it like a feather, until distance allowed the Koenig drive to be started. Behind the Ganymede the Planetfall rose also. Together they flickered and vanished into the envelope of power that would carry them home. They had reached Limbo, and survived.

And now, returning, they carried a new heritage for Earthmen. There would be many ships, and many men, before they learned to use the Strength, but they would learn it.

They knew now that a universe was waiting for them.