The family sat in silence. Once Johnny saw his mother wipe a tear away from her eyes. He knew she liked Baba, too. But she liked him only as a pet.
"Dad," he said suddenly. His father looked up from his work. "Would you—?" Johnny didn't know how to put the question he had to ask. "I mean ... well, the colony's in pretty bad shape, isn't it?"
"Yes, son," his father said gravely, "it is."
"The million dollars we get for Baba will help out a lot, won't it?" Johnny was very serious. "But, without it, would everybody starve to death?"
"A million dollars will help the colony out," his father answered. "But even without it, nobody would starve. There are the meat fruit and berries to gather and the animals to hunt. But everyone would have a very hard time. It isn't a simple thing to keep a colony going. It is very difficult and very important. Mankind is reaching out, son, and some day we may inhabit planets of all the stars in the heavens. But only if Venus colony succeeds. It is a big thing, Johnny." Mr. Watson's voice was serious, as if he were talking to another man. Johnny was quiet a minute.
"Dad," he said slowly, "in order to get that million dollars would you have mother or me"—he paused—"put to sleep?"
"Johnny!" Johnny's mother broke in in a horrified voice. "That's no question to ask your father."
"I've got to know, Mother. I've just got to," Johnny said earnestly, his brow wrinkled.
Johnny's father looked at him strangely.
"Did you really think," he asked in a tight, hurt voice, "I would do a thing like that?"