There was no time to gloat over her victory. That would come later. Right now minutes counted. She snatched up a cloak, pushed Robert out through the door and hurried him along the hall and out into the street where his car waited.
"We must hurry," she said breathlessly. "We can get to the spaceship ahead of schedule, before your flight partner arrives, and be gone from Earth before anyone knows what is happening. I'll be with you, in his place."
Robert did not offer to help her into the car, but got in first and waited until she closed the door behind her, then sped away from the curb and through the streets to the spaceport.
Ninon said, "Tell me, Robert, isn't it true that if a clock recedes from Earth at the speed of light, and if we could watch it as it did so, it would still be running but it would never show later time?"
The young man said gruffly, "Roughly so, according to theory."
"And if the clock went away from Earth faster than the speed of light, wouldn't it run backwards?"
The answer was curtly cautious. "It might appear to."
"Then if people travel at the speed of light they won't get any older?"
Robert flicked a curious glance at her. "If you could watch them from Earth they appear not to. But it's a matter of relativity...."
Ninon rushed on. She had studied that book carefully. "And if people travel faster than light, a lot faster, they'll grow younger, won't they?"