right star was the one to the left."

"I don't know," Johnson sighed. "I been feeling partial toward that
one on the right. What about you, Alvar?"

"I always thought we were going straight in the opposite direction
from what we should, I guess. I always wanted to turn around and go
back. It won't make over maybe a month's difference. And what does a
month matter anyway out here--hell there never was any time out here
until we came along. We make our own time here, and a month don't
matter to me."

Sweat ran down Russell's face. His voice trembled. "No--that's wrong.
You're both wrong." He could see himself going it alone. Going crazy
because he was alone. He'd have broken away, gone his own direction,
long ago but for that fear.

"How can we tell which of us is right?" Alvar said. "It's like
everything was changing all the time out here. Sometimes I'd swear
none of those suns had red rims, and at other times--like the old man
said, they're all pretty and lying and saying nothing, just changing
all the time. Jezebel stars, the old man said."

"I know I'm right," Russell pleaded. "My hunches always been right.
My hunch got us out of that prison didn't it? Listen--I tell you it's
that star to the left--"

"The one to the right," said Johnson.

"We been going away from the right one all the time," said Alvar.

"We got to stay together," said Russell. "Nobody could spend a year
out here ... alone...."

"Ah ... in another month or so we'd be lousy company anyway," Alvar
said. "Maybe a guy could get to the point where he'd sleep most of the
time ... just wake up enough times to give himself another boost with
the old life-gun."

"We got to face it," Johnson said finally. "We three don't go on
together any more."

"That's it," said Alvar. "There's three suns that look like they might
be right seeing as how we all agree the old man was wrong. But we
believe there is one we can live by, because we all seem to agree that
the old man might have been right about that. If we stick together,
the chance is three to one against us. But if each of us makes for one
star, one of us has a chance to live. Maybe not in paradise like the
old man said, but a place where we can live. And maybe there'll be
intelligent life, maybe even a ship, and whoever gets the right star
can come and help the other two...."

"No ... God no...." Russell whispered over and over. "None of us can
ever make it alone...."

Alvar said, "We each ta