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"I want them all to hear what I'm going to say." Raynor One came up to the bench. "Bart, as your guardian, I advise against it. Some people will call this a publicity stunt. It won't do Eight Colors any good to admit that men have been spying on the Lhari " "I want press coverage," Bart repeated stubbornly, "and as many star-systems on the relay as possible." "All right.

Many star-systems were far off the warp-lines, and could be reached only after days or weeks of travel at finite speeds." "All very true," said Thane, "but it still doesn't explain a thing to me. About your place in this or Candar's." Reine hardly noticed the interruption. He went on, professorially. "The solution has always seemed clear.

From the nearer stars, they had sent out colonizing ships all through the galaxy. Some vanished and were never heard from again, but some made it, and in a few centuries man had spread all over hundreds of star-systems. And then man met the people of the Lhari. It was a big universe, with measureless millions of stars, and plenty of room for more than two intelligent civilizations.

It could travel between star-systems and even star-clusters, but it was not yet capable of crossing the continent of suns on which the human race arose. And between any two solar systems the journeying of the Med Ship consumed much time. Which would be maddening for someone with no work to do or no resources in himself, or herself.

Our earth is very large compared with a tree or an animal, but very small compared with the solar system, a mere point compared with the system of stars to which the sun belongs, and absolutely as nothing compared with the universe of space; and in like manner, while the periods of her growth and development occupy periods very long-lasting compared with those required for the growth and development of a tree or an animal, they are doubtless but brief compared with the eras of the development of our solar system, a mere instant compared with the eras of the development of star-systems, and absolutely evanescent compared with eternity.

The human race was now to be counted in quadrillions on scores of hundreds of inhabited worlds, but the tiny Med Ship seemed the least significant of all possible created things. It could travel between star-systems and even star-clusters, but it was not yet capable of crossing the continent of suns on which the human race arose.

It wasn't surprising that the Lhari, who had only been traveling space for a couple of thousand years themselves, had never come across humans before. But they had been delighted to meet another intelligent race and it was extremely profitable. Because men were still held, mostly, to the planets of their own star-systems.

You can, of course, be given enough drug to keep you in cold-sleep until we reach the Procyon system." Bart wondered if the room steward had mentioned the passenger so bored with the trip that he didn't even visit the Observation Lounge. He felt tempted he was getting awfully tired of staring at the walls. On the other hand, he wanted very much to see the other star-systems.