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The Earthers were jealous of something they certainly wouldn't want if they could experience the suffering involved. Suddenly, he realized he was very tired. He had been walking over an hour, and he was not used to it. The Valhalla was a big ship, but you could go from end to end in less than an hour, and very rarely did you stay on your feet under full grav for long as an hour.
They formed a guild of Spacers, and lived their entire lives on the starships, raised their families there, and never set foot outside their own Enclave during their landings on Earth. They grew to despise Earthers, and the Earthers grew to despise them in turn. There was no logical reason for it, except that they were different. That was enough. But not all Starmen liked being different.
He laughed raucously. "Looka the spacer!" Someone else in the crowd said, "What's he doing in the city anyway? He jump ship?" "Yeah? Why ain't he in the Enclave like all the rest of them?" Alan looked from one to the other with a troubled expression on his face. He didn't want to touch off any serious incident, but he was determined not to let these Earthers push him around, either.
The sight of two men dragging a third along between them attracted not the slightest attention as they left the Undertube and climbed aboard the spacefield bus. Apparently in York City no one cared much about what went on; it made no difference to the busy Earthers whether Steve were unconscious or dead.
And above all else, he was convinced that the secret of the Cavour Hyperdrive was hidden somewhere on Earth the Cavour Hyperdrive, that would enable man to leap interstellar distances almost instantaneously, and bring an end to the sharp differences between Earthers and Spacers.
"This is it," Hawkes said. "The Central Directory Building. We'll try the Standard Matrix first." A little dizzy, Alan followed without discussing the matter. Hawkes led him through a vast lobby big enough to hide the Valhalla in, past throngs of Earthers, into a huge hall lined on all sides by computer banks. "Let's take this booth here," Hawkes suggested.
And this will be the first time you've celebrated your birthday on your native world in three hundred years, Alan." Grinning, Alan thought, Three hundred? No, not really. Out loud he said, "You know that's not right, Dad. Not three hundred years. Just seventeen." He looked out at the slowly-spinning green globe of Earth. "When on Earth, do as the Earthers do," the Captain said.
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