The Project Gutenberg EBook of An Empty Bottle, by Mari Wolf

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Title: An Empty Bottle

Author: Mari Wolf

Release Date: March 11, 2010 [EBook #31601]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN EMPTY BOTTLE ***

Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

Transcriber's Note:

This etext was produced from If Worlds of Science Fiction September
1952. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S.
copyright on this publication was renewed.

[Illustration]

_They wanted to go home--back to the planet they'd known.
But even the stars had changed. Did the fate of all creation
hinge upon an--_

AN

EMPTY

BOTTLE

By Mari Wolf

* * * * *

Hugh McCann took the last of the photographic plates out of the
developer and laid them on the table beside the others. Then he picked
up the old star charts--Volume 1, Number 1--maps of space from various
planetary systems within a hundred light years of Sol. He looked
around the observation room at the others.

"We might as well start checking."

The men and women around the table nodded. None of them said anything.
Even the muffled conversation from the corridor beyond the observation
room ceased as the people stopped to listen.

McCann set the charts down and opened them at the first sheet--the
composite map of the stars as seen from Earth. "Don't be too
disappointed if we're wrong," he said.

Amos Carhill's fists clenched. He leaned across the table. "You still
don't believe we're near Sol, do you? You're getting senile, Hugh! You
know the mathematics of our position as well as anybody."

"I know the math," Hugh said quietly. "But remember, a lot of our
basics have already proved themselves false this trip. We can't be
sure of anything. Besides, I think I'd remember this planet we're on
if we'd ever been here befor