desire if
you will help them.

"When we left our cities, we didn't know whether we could even escape
from the planet in this ship. There was no opportunity of testing it,
until we started on the journey. Even the men at the controls had never
handled it. All of their knowledge was obtained by years of practice,
sitting in a stationary ship.

"When they left me on the island and returned to the planet, they
_hoped_ I could accomplish my purpose, but the chance of success was
pitifully small.

"I have never enjoyed the comforts of other members of my race, but have
spent my life in an alien universe, carrying around my big head; without
friends or companionship. The gravity within our enclosed cities is
lower than on your planet, making it easy for us to walk.

"After several years of study and planning, I knew there was only one
way of accomplishing what I went after. It is the way I have done it. No
one would have believed that I came from a strange planet; they would
have thought me out of my mind. If I _had_ persuaded them, I could have
found no recruits for the work, no matter what I offered. I _know_ how
anyone feels about leaving their own planet, where they were born and
brought up.

"You will find that the machines need work badly. Some of them are
running only because we use several times the normal power to turn them.
Our mining machines have not worked for more than a generation, and the
mines remain idle. The metal supply is running short.

"The equipment which overcomes gravity, also furnishes us with power.
When weights are lifted, with gravity almost eliminated, then allowed to
sink with the full pull of Jupiter, it creates enormous amounts of
energy for every use.

"It will be months before we reach our cities, and I hope that by that
time you will feel satisfied with your forced migration. To my race, it
was the only course which would avoid annihilation within a few
generations.

"At first it will seem terrible to be shut in beneath a metal cover. But
when you become accustomed to it, that feeling disappears. You depend
just as much on a ship at sea or a plane in the air, but never think of
it in the same way. We _must_ trust you, as we will not know whether you
are repairing or destroying our machines until we see the results.

"You will be given complete power and can draw upon my people for all of
the help you need. You will be even more powerful than the rulers of the
domes. My people de