Taj Lamor looked out across the void of space toward a fading point of
yellow light. Far in the distance it glowed, and every second moved it
many more miles farther from him. They had lost their struggle for life
and a new sun, he had thought when he turned back, defeated, from that
distant sun. But time had brought new hope.
They had lost many men in that struggle, and their dwindling resources
had been strained to the limit, but now there was hope, for a new spirit
had been born in their race. They had fought, and lost, but they had
gained a spirit of adventure that had been dormant for millions of
years.
Below him, in the great dim mass that was their city, he knew that many
laboratories were in the full swing of active work. Knowledge and its
application were being discovered and rediscovered. New uses were being
found for old things, and their daily life was changing. It was again a
race awake, rejuvenated by a change!
As the great sea of yellow fire that was that strange sun had faded
behind their fleeing ships, leaving their dead planets still circling a
dead sun, he had thought their last chance was gone forever. But hope
had reawakened, with the birth of new ideas, new ways of doing things.
Tordos Gar had been right! They had lost--but in the losing, they had
won!
Taj Lamor shifted his gaze to a blazing point of light, where a titanic
sea of flame was burning with a brilliance and power that, despite the
greater distance, made the remote yellow sun seem pale and dim. The
blue-white glow told of a monster star, a star far brighter than the one
they had just left. It had become the brightest star in their heavens.
On their ancient star charts it was listed as a red giant, named
Tongsil-239-e, which meant it was of the fifth magnitude and very
distant. But in the long ages that had passed since it was classified,
it had become a mighty sun--a star in its prime.
How were they to reach it? It was eight and one half light years away!
Their search for the force that would swing a world from its orbit had
at last been successful. The knowledge had come too late to aid them in
their fight for the yellow sun, but they might yet use it--they might
even tear their planets from their orbits, and drive them as free bodies
across the void. It would take ages to make the trip--but long ages had
already passed as their dark planet swung through the void. What
difference would it make if they were or were not accompanied by a dead
star?
True, the star that was now their goal was a double star; their planets
could not find orbits about it, but they might remedy that--they could
tear one star free and hurl it into space, making the remaining sun
suitable for their use.
But they _would_ escape this dead sun.