It was only after they had gone a long way and a long time through the sunwashed spaces that one of the three, Shay, the navigator, ventured to put a question to Kellard.
"You were with the first mission to Ganymede, sir, weren't you?"
Kellard nodded. "Yes, I was."
"Wouldn't that have been something!" said Shay. "I mean, to be the first."
"It was something," said Kellard.
"Maybe someday I——" Shay began, and broke off and then went on, "I mean, if the star-drive is perfected as soon as some people say it will be, I could maybe be one of the first ones out there? Sir?"
"You could be," said Kellard. "Someone's going to be first. The stars are waiting. All we have to do is go out there and keep going, and the stars will be ours, just like the planets here are, all ours, forever and amen."
Shay looked at him puzzledly, and shuffled, and then went away. Halfrich had been listening, and watching. He said, "Did you have to slap the kid's face?"
Kellard shrugged. "What did I say? I was merely repeating what everyone feels, these days. The glory of the conquest of space."
"I'd give a lot," Halfrich said, "to know what's riding you. We'll soon reach Sunside and we'll find out, but I wish you'd tell me now."