urself. We'll
miss Mars by a million and a quarter at least."

Two hours later the shift in course of the test rocket was
apparent to all of them and so was their disappointment.

* * * * *

"According to the instruments the steering shifted a quarter of an
inch. No reason shows up," Professor Schultz said.

"Flaw in the metal?" Doctor Johannsen said.

"How far can it go?" Captain Baird asked.

Professor Schultz shrugged. "Until the fuel runs out, which is
probably as good as never, or until the landing mechanism is
activated by a planet-sized body."

"Course? Did you plot it?" The doctor asked.

"Of course I did," Professor Schultz said, "as close as I can
calculate it is headed for Alpha Centauri."

Captain Baird turned away. The doctor watched him.

"Perhaps you will not be quite so hasty with your men's lives in
the future, Captain?" the doctor said.

Professor Schultz was spinning dials. "No contact," the professor
said, "No contact at all."

That had been six months ago. Three more test rockets had been
fired successfully before the urgent report came through from
Alaskan Observation Post No. 4. A rocket was coming across the
Pole.

The strange rocket was tracked and escorted by atomic armed
fighters all the way to the Rocket Testing Station where it cut
its own motors and gently landed. In the center of a division of
atomic-armed infantry the captain, the doctor, and everyone else,
waited impatiently. There was an air of uneasiness.

"You're sure it's not ours?" Captain Baird asked.

The doctor laughed. "Identical, yes, but three times the size of
ours."

"Perhaps one of the Asian ones?"

"No, it's our design, but too large, much too large."

Professor Schultz put their thoughts into words. "Looks like
someone copied ours. Someone, somewhere. It's hard to imagine, but
true nevertheless."

They waited two weeks. Nothing happened. Then a radiation-shielded
team went in to examine the rocket. Two more weeks and the strange
rocket was dismantled and spread over the field of the testing
station. The rocket was dismantled and the station had begun to
talk to itself in whispers and look at the sky.

Captain Baird stood now at the window and looked out at the
dismantled rocket. He looked but his mind was not on the parts of
the rocket he could see from the window.

"The materials, they're not ours?" the captain asked.

"Unknown here," the doctor said.

The captain n