He waved through the open doorway, pointing out the early evening sky. Just rising over the horizon was a blue body that was of a dazzling brilliance, outshining all the other heavenly bodies. Thak's voice became emotional.
"On that planet," he said, "are civilized beings. They hold the only hope for the salvation of our race. We must work to contact them, as long as there is one of us to carry on!"
"What is this, Thak?" Mitfpa demanded angrily. "How can you say, old one, that people of intelligence live on the blue planet? You will tell me next that you have been there!"
The soldier laughed scornfully, but Thak's voice was unruffled as he explained. "This is no mere fancy of mine. These people have been signalling to us for some time. And when I signalled back by creating a network of space-warping lines through our entire power system, they strengthened their signals. Then came your war—"
"Space warps?" Mitfpa growled. "More power wasted? How was this accomplished?"
The workers were bolting the last legs of the telescope into position, and the students were making happy squeaks. Thak looked gratefully toward his new instrument, and toward the scholars. A fine lot of young ones, these. Perhaps, in them, astronomy would become once more a science of great importance. Perhaps they would be the salvation of Mars.
He answered Mitfpa's questions. "The power used was very small. You have heard of controlled space warps?"
"What about it?" grumbled the soldier.
"An interesting laboratory trick. But it also occurs in nature. As a youth I once saw the light of stars bent around the sun in a selector-scope; indeed, it was this very phenomenon that showed our scientists how to make their own warps."
"Enough of your lecture, old one. What was the result of this scientific trickery?"