The little bullet bumped through the seedy, scruffy Earth and out into the night of the midway, out into the crowd-sounds and music and hot-doggy smells.
"It was fun, Pete," Glory said.
He helped her out onto the rickety platform. He had the insane notion that the girl in the ticket booth and the lounging attendant were laughing at him.
"It sure was, honey," he said wearily, still feeling the illogical fear of he-knew-not-what inside himself. "Real fun."
Glory looked up at him, eyes alight and almost feverishly gay. "I did what you are going to do. I touched the sky!"
New frontiers. New lands in the sky. New hope.
It was quiet. The jet was still and no sound was anywhere in the ship. Now a soft tick from the timer. A whisper from the questing radarscope. And again, the stillness.
We've done it, Pete thought. We've really done it. The hard part is over.
Ride the rocket!