“Who? Mom? Surely you jest.”

“Some jest. When the time comes to take off, I won’t be able to go along—because she won’t.”

“And you’ll be glad of it. Don’t kid yourself, Dad. It won’t, be for quite a while—and if you’re not too old now, you’ll be too old then. It’s going to be a game for young people.”

“You know,” said Baley, half-balling his fist, “you are such a wise guy with your ‘young people.’ Have you ever been off Earth? Have any of those people in the field been off Earth? I have. Two years ago. That was before I had any of this acclimatization—and I survived.”

“I know, Dad, but that was briefly, and in the line of duty, and you were taken care of in a going society. It’s not the same—”

“It was the same,” said Baley stubbornly, knowing in his heart that it wasn’t. “And it won’t take us so long to be able to leave. If I could get permission to go to Aurora, we could get this act off the ground.”

“Forget it. It’s not going to happen that easily.”

“We’ve got to try. The government won’t let us go without Aurora giving us the go-ahead. It’s the largest and strongest of the Spacer worlds and what, it says—”

“Goes! I know. We’ve all talked this over a million times. But you don’t have to go there to get permission. There are such things as hyper-relays. You can talk to them from here. I’ve said that any number of times before.”

“It’s not the same. We’ll need face-to-face contact—and I’ve said that any number of times before.”

“In any case” said Ben, “we’re not ready yet.”

“We’re not ready because Earth won’t give us the ships. The Spacers will, together with the necessary technical help.”