It was fifty years to a day since the _Pedagogue_ had first gone into
orbit about Rigel. Five decades have passed. Half a century.
Of the original crew of the _Pedagogue_, six now gathered in the lounge
of the spaceship. All of them had changed physically. Some of them
softer to the point of flabbiness; some harder both of body and soul.
Barry Watson, Natt Roberts, Dick Hawkins, of the Texcocan team.
Martin Gunther, Peter MacDonald, Fredric Buchwald, of the Genoese.
The gathering wasn't so large as the one before. Only Taller and the
scientist Wiss attended from Texcoco; only Baron Leonar and the son of
Honorable Russ from Genoa.
From the beginning they stared with hostility across the conference
table. Even the pretense of amiability was gone.
Watson rapped finally, "I am not going to dwell upon the measures you
have been taking that can only be construed as military ones aimed
eventually at the Texcocan State."
Martin Gunther laughed nastily. "Is your implication that your own
people have not taken the same measures, in fact, inaugurated them?"
Watson said, "As I say, I have no intention of even discussing this.
Surely we can arrive at no agreement. There is one point, however that
we should consider on this occasion."