THE STARS ARE OURS

Three worlds-and a yellow sun. Dard wished that he knew more, that his education was better than a collection of scraps and patches. Back on earth under Pax it was a feat to be able to read and write-he had entertained some pride in his learning. But now-he felt that to be nothing at all!

"Why did you waken me?" he asked. "I can't help with the ship. You said that Kordov and you-" He was trying to remember. There had been a third man to be aroused early-

Kimber's attention was again given to the screen. Now he answered quickly:

"You were available and you can help Kordov. Lui didn't make it."

Lui Skort-that young medico who had been so enthusiastic about Lars' drug! He bad been that third man.

"What- what happened?"

"We can't tell now. All of this-the ship, her course, the freeze boxes were constructed on hope alone. We had no way of testing anything properly. The ship awakened Kordov and me. But Lui-"

"How long have we been cruising in deep space?"

"At least three hundred years-maybe more. Time in space may be different from planet time. That is one of the points scientists have argued about. We have no accurate way of telling."

"Was it only Lui's box that failed?"

Kimber's face was grim now as it had been on that night they fought their way back to the Cleft.

"Until we land and start to rouse the whole company we can not tell. The freeze boxes must not be opened until their occupants are ready for revival. And the ship is too small to do that before landing-"

Coffins! Coffins were what they resembled, and coffins they might he for the whole inert cargo the star ship carried! Perhaps the three of them were the only survivors.

"We can hope for a high percentage of survivals," Kimber continued. "Lui's box had the special controls-that may have been the trouble, But out of four, three ff us are all right. Kordov-"

"Yes- and what does Kordov do?" asked the hearty voice behind them.

The stocky First Scientist elbowed his way between the two swinging seats and handed the occupant of each a round plastic bulb from which a tube projected. He cradled a third in his own hand as he settled in the other chair.

"Kordov," he answered his own question, "continues to see after your puny bodies, my friends. And you should be glad of his personal interest in them. You will now consume what you hold in your paws and be thankful!" He inserted the bulb tube in his mouth and took a smacking suck.

Dard discovered that he had to drink the same warm salty stuff that had been given to him on his first awakening. And it satisfied him completely. But he only took one.experimental drag before he demanded:

"I heard about Lui. How many others?"

Tas Kordov wiped his mouth with the back of his square hand.

"That we can not tell. We dare not investigate the boxes too closely until a landing has been made. Yes; all of us want an answer to that question, young man. How many-? We can hope that most came through. I propose to open two more from the crews' quarters-there are men in them whose skills we need. But-for the rest-their slumbers must continue until we have the new world to offer them. And that too," he waved at the visa-screen," presents problems. We have found the proper sort of sun. But remember Sol had nine planets, on only one of which mankind could live at ease: Here are three planets-perhaps a Mars, a Venus, a Mercury, and no Terra. Which one do you think we should try, Sim?"

The pilot drank before he replied. "Judging by the charted orbits, I'll settle for the middle one. It's closer to Sol II than Terra was to Sol I, hut it has the nearest approach to a Terran orbit."

"I don't knew anything about astronomy," Dard ventured."You expect this sun to produce an earth-type planet because it is a 'yellow' one, but if one of those three worlds is another Terra-what about intelligent life on it? Couldn't the same general conditions have produced the same type of dominant life form?"

Kordov leaned forward, disturbing the precarious balance of his swinging seat.

"Intelligent life-maybe. Humanoid of Man-only perhaps. If on one planet the primate is the ruling form, on another it may be the insect or the carnivora."