Wales grinned. "But now you're the last girl in town."
Martha's face changed and she suddenly said, with a little rush of words, "Oh, Jay, do you sometimes get the feeling that it just can't happen, no matter what Lee and all the other scientists say, no matter what their instruments say, that everything we've known all our lives just can't end in flame and shock from the sky—?"
He nodded soberly. "I've had that feeling. We've all had it, had to fight against it. It's that feeling, in the ignorant, that'll keep them here on Earth until it's too late—unless we convince them in time."
"What'll it really be like for us, on Mars?" she asked him. "I don't mean all the cheery government talks about the splendid new life we'll all have there. I mean, really."
"Hard," he said. "It's going to be a hard life, for us all. The mineral resources there are limitless. Out of them, with our new sciences of synthesis, we can make air, water, food. But only certain areas are really habitable. Our new cities out there are already badly crowded—and more millions still pouring in."
He still held her hand, as he said, "But we'll make out. And Earth won't be completely destroyed, remember. Someday years from now—we'll be coming back."
"But it won't be the same, it'll never be the same," she whispered.
He had no answer for that.
Packaged food made them a meal, in the kitchen. It was nearly sunset, by the time they finished.
Martha asked him then, with desperate eagerness, "We're going to try to find Lee now?"