ld
Odin. "Over four years have passed, as light is measured. We have not
eaten more than twenty meals."

He pulled the lever that slowed them out of the Fourth Drive into
three-dimensional space. There was the same sickening sensation when
they dropped lower than the speed of light. And, braking all the
while, they zoomed swiftly down upon the binary suns and their seven
worlds.

* * * * *

Odin had been watching the screens for three hours. He felt sick and old
over the things that he had seen. Seven worlds--all blackened and burned
out. Life had been there, but what form of life only Grim Hagen might have
told them. They were cindered--their atmosphere, which had not been oxygen,
had burned away. Ato's probing instruments found neither liquid nor gas.
His screens found an occasional shattered city, where broken spires reached
twisted fingers into the vacant sky.

Ato was watching the needles upon another machine. "The Old Ship has been
here. What happened I do not know. They may have defied Grim Hagen. Maybe
they refused to join him. Certainly, in all the worlds, billions of them,
there must be many where conflict and submission are unknown. These people
might not have been able to understand Grim Hagen's ultimatum. They may
have died trying to figure out what the strange voice from the sky was
talking about. On the other hand, he may not have given them an ultimatum
at all. This may have been a practice assault--like Hitler's attack upon
Poland, just to see how much death could be inflicted. We shall never
know."

They flashed away into space. Ato threw them into the Fourth Drive again.
And once more the lights from the far-off stars circled like fireflies.
And eternity curved in a rainbow of light about them.

* * * * *

Hours no longer existed, but it seemed to Jack Odin that many hours passed
while he tried to get that sick, cold feeling out of his chest. Time
crawled by while he tried to resolve his thoughts. Perhaps Wolden had been
right. Men did not belong here. Man and Brons were orphans of the stars.
Was there some element upon the earth that made them vicious? Was there any
way that they could come out here into space on equal terms with living
things? Or must they always come as conquerors, eager to fight, or refugees
who soon became resentful of the natives. Would the worlds out there become
mere plundered planets with a portion of the a