“When you go back to Washington,” said Purdy, “see what reaction you get to the interplanetary idea.”
I had a pretty good idea what the reaction would be, but I nodded. “O.K. I’ll go flag a space ship and be on my way.”
“O.K.—gag it up,” said Purdy. “But don’t sell it short, If by any chance it’s true, it’ll be the biggest story since the birth of Christ.”
CHAPTER VII
It was dark when the airliner limousine reached La Guardia Field. I had intended taking an earlier plane, but DuBarry persuaded me to stay over for dinner.
We dropped into the Algonquin, next door to True’s office building. Halfway through dinner, I asked John what he thought of the space-travel answer.
“Oh, it’s possible,” he said cautiously. “The time and space angles make it hard to take, but if we’re planning to explore space within fifty years, there’s no reason some other planet people couldn’t do it. Of course, if they’ve been observing us for over a century, as those old sightings seem to indicate, they must be far ahead of us, at least in technical progress.”
Later on, he said thoughtfully, “Even though it’s possible, I hate to think it’s the answer. just imagine the impact on the world. We’d have to reorient our whole lives—and things are complicated enough already.”
Standing at the gate, waiting for my plane to be called, I thought over that angle. Assuming that space travel was the solution—which I still couldn’t believe-what would be the effect on the world?
It was a hard thing to picture. So much depended on the visitors from space. What would their purpose be? Would they be peaceful or hostile? Why had they been observing the earth so intensively in the past few years?