When they left the Sun Lake City infirmary it was almost noon, and the red sun was gleaming down from overhead. Walking slowly, the Hunter twins moved along the surface street toward the U.N. building.
"He'll recover without any trouble," the doctor had assured them. "He caught the stunner beam in the shoulder, and it will be a while before he can use it, but Johnny Coombs will be hard to keep down."
They had promised Johnny to return later. They had had check-ups themselves. Both Tom's eyes were surrounded by purple splotches, and his broken left arm was in a sling. Greg's arms and legs were so stiff he could hardly move them. The Major and the Lieutenant had been sore but uninjured.
Now the boys walked without talking. Already a U.N. linguist was at work on the record tapes from the metal cylinder, and a mathematician was doing a preliminary survey on the math symbols on the metal block.
"I hope there's no trouble reading them," Greg said.
"There won't be. It'll take time, but the records are decipherable. And Dr. Raymond was certain that the engineering can be figured out. Earth is going to get her star-ship, all right."
"And we've got work to do."
"You mean the trial? I guess. The Major says that Jupiter Equilateral is trying to pin the whole thing on Tawney now. They won't get away with it, but it may be nasty just the same."
"Well, one thing's sure ... there'll be some changes made, with the U.N. moving out into the Belt," Greg said.
Somewhere in the distance the twins heard the rumble of engines. They stopped and watched as a great silvery cargo ship lifted from the space port and headed up into the dark blue sky. They watched it until it disappeared from sight.