Again, Richardson concentrated before replying. "To another Earth," he said. "That's right. The old guy, our father, said that this one was going to be destroyed by some disaster, and the people standing about were laughing and jeering and saying the old man was crazy."
"Do you know what sort of disaster was going to happen?" asked Franstein.
Richardson looked at him and suddenly a smile formed on his face. "Now I know where that dream came from," he said. "Remember that book On The Beach? The story about how everyone on Earth was wiped out by nuclear fallout? That's it! I remember wondering when I read it if some of us would be able to go to another planet before anything like that happened here, and I remember thinking, too, that we'd probably take things like seeds and so on with us, and even the ova of animals, and that by then we'd probably know how to preserve them—freeze them or something of the sort."
"We can do that now," Snow said.
"Well, there it is, then," said Richardson, smiling again. "There's the explanation."
"It explains the dream all right," agreed Snow, "but what about the sounds? Particularly those you made in the capsule?"
"Lord, yes!" said Richardson, and the smile left his face. "I'd forgotten about those. That puts us back to where we came in, doesn't it?"
"I'm not so sure," said Franstein. He got to his feet and, in his turn, prowled up and down the room, deep in thought. The others waited for him to go on, and presently he turned to them, a glint of excitement in his eyes. "I think we're onto something," he said. "Those sounds are obviously a part of your dream, Ham, including the ones you made in the capsule, and only you know what they mean."
"But I don't even remember making them!"
"No, but your mind does. If we can unlock your mind, we can find the secret, and there's a way in which it can be done. Hypnosis."