ilders had just stepped outside for a minute and would be back in
another minute to blast off for the stars.

"A starship," Walden said. "One of the last types."

"There aren't many left," Prior said. "We're lucky to have this one in
our museum."

Eric wasn't listening. He was looking at the ship. The old race's ship.
His ship.

"The old race built strange things," Prior said. "This is one of
the strangest." He shook his head. "Imagine the time they put in on
it.... And for what?"

Eric didn't try to answer him. He couldn't explain why the old ones had
built it. But he knew. He would have built it himself, if he'd lived
then. _We have cast off the planets like outgrown toys, and now we want
the stars...._

His people. His ship. His dream.

* * * * *

The old caretaker showed him around the museum and then left him alone
to explore by himself. He had all the time he wanted.

He studied. He worked hard all day long, scarcely ever leaving the
museum grounds. He studied the subjects that now were the most
fascinating to him of all the old race's knowledge--the subjects that
related to the starships. Astronomy, physics, navigation, and the
complex charts of distant stars, distant planets, worlds he'd never
heard of before. Worlds that to the new race were only pin-pricks of
light in the night sky.

All day long he studied. But in the evening he would go down the winding
ramp to the ship. The well was lighted with a softer, more diffuse
illumination than that of the houses. In the soft glow the walls and the
glass-domed roof seemed to disappear and the ship looked free, pointing
up at the stars.

He didn't try to tell the caretaker what he thought. He just went back
to his books and his studies. There was so much he had to learn. And now
there was a reason for his learning. Someday, when he was fully grown
and strong and had mastered all he needed from the books, he was going
to fly the ship. He was going to look for his people, the ones who had
left Earth before the new race came....

He told no one. But Walden watched him, and sighed.

"They'll never let you do it, Eric. It's a mad dream."

"What are you talking about?"

"The ship. You want to go to the stars, don't you?"

Eric stared at him, more surprised than he'd been in years. He had said
nothing. There was no way for Walden to know. Unless he'd perceived
it--and Eric couldn't be perceived, any more than he could perc