"You mean those old 'flying saucer' reports a couple of centuries ago?"
"Yes, them. And even before that, there'd been reports of strange airships and things. Why, there was one—that's almost four hundred years ago—of a Dutch sea captain who saw something in the air above the Indi Ocean and reported it in his log. Even made a sketch of it, that was almost exactly like those made later by people who said they'd seen it."
"Mmmm," Jak had been thinking back, "then maybe the Bible story of Ezekiel's 'wheel within a wheel' he saw in the air, was one?"
"Sure. Earth people for centuries have seen all sorts of unknown things."
"Then maybe your idea isn't so wild, after all."
"The question now is," Jon ignored the apology, "how do we take some of this stuff back to the ship, and how do we test it to see if it's fuel—or don't we?"
"That's more your line than mine. What do you suggest?"
Jon thought seriously for several minutes, then brightened. "You stay here so I can see where I'm going, and I'll go get the ship and bring it here. Then we'll try one of those cubes in the generator."
"You ... you think it's safe?"
"What would get you, out here in this desert?"