Transcriber's Note:
This etext was produced from If Worlds of Science Fiction September 1952. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.
They wanted to go home—back to the planet they'd known. But even the stars had changed. Did the fate of all creation hinge upon an—
AN
EMPTY
BOTTLE
By Mari Wolf
ugh McCann took the last of the photographic plates out of the developer and laid them on the table beside the others. Then he picked up the old star charts—Volume 1, Number 1—maps of space from various planetary systems within a hundred light years of Sol. He looked around the observation room at the others.
"We might as well start checking."