"I do," Tom said fervently. "You've got those space flight experts
absolutely insane with curiosity. They'll want to hear the whole story.
Will you give it to them?"
The man shrugged. "It doesn't matter, I suppose. I presume the engines
have been dismantled?"
"Made inoperable, yes. It would have been a great trick, if you could
have done it."
Livia spoke sadly. "It was the only thing we could have done. There's no
place on this Earth where we could have erected a spaceship without
being observed. So we created this building. In time, we would have
perfected the mechanism and left this silly planet of yours."
"That's what I don't understand," Tom said. "What about Antamunda--and
the survivors--"
"There's no longer an Antamunda," John Andrusco said hollowly. "The
story we told you was true in its essence, but not, I'm afraid complete.
You see, the exodus that took place five hundred years ago was a total
exodus. The entire population of our world--a handful, a pitiful ragged
thousand--left Antamunda for this planet. We thought to make it our new
home, for all eternity. But in time, we learned that we had emigrated to
an extinction just as certain."
"What do you mean?"
"This world is cursed to us, Mr. Blacker. I can't tell you why. We breed
slowly, infrequently--you might even say, thoughtfully. And on your
planet, but one child in a thousand has survived the rigors of
childbirth on Earth." He looked at Livia, and the woman lowered her eyes
in remembered sorrow.
"That's why we had to leave," Andrusco said. "To repopulate elsewhere.
We chose the planet Mars, and we were determined to make it our home
before your world claimed it. Our scientists and technicians have worked
on nothing else but this flight since the beginning of the last century.
This building--this vessel--was the culmination of our plans. In another
few years, we would have been ready. The dream would have been
realized."
* * * * *
Tom walked to the window of the office, and looked out at a bank of
swift-moving clouds drifting past the spire of the Homelovers Building.
"I'm afraid that's the saddest part," he said. "The atomic engines in
the basement have been examined, Mr. Andrusco. The best opinions say
that they're pitifully inadequate. The men who studied them say that you
would never have made the journey in safety."
"That can't be true! In time--"
"In time, perhaps. But since your landing here, your scientists have
forgotten a great deal about space flight. I'm afraid you would have
never reached that Promised Land ..."