'Now just a moment,' Slutter says, looking around and then far up into space above Ganymede. 'A trapeze bar swings through space, that I understand. But the lines that hold the bar need to be fastened to something at its other end. I don't see where the trapeze lines end. What are they fastened to up there in space, Chug?'
Chug grins and points up. Stobey and Slutter look again. The trapeze lines stretch up and up and disappear from sight. Far, far away, beyond where the lines seem to join and disappear they see a flickering light.
'My special trapeze,' Chug says softly, 'is hitched to a star.' Raising his voice, he shouts, 'Are you ready?'
'We ar-r-e ready!'
Chug unties the trapeze from the platform. He grasps the trapeze bar in the middle; Stobey takes a firm grip of the bar on his right and Slutter does the same on his left.
'Don't let go,' Chug shouts and with a powerful shove they swing out and away from the mountaintop. The trapeze gathers speed. Down below, the ground rushes past, much too fast to see the people that they know are watching them.
'Now! See me hang by my feet', Chug calls out.
He flips through a somersault and catches the trapeze bar with his long spaghetti-thin toes. Stobey decides to try. She takes a deep breath, twists, and in an instant she is somersaulting. Completing the twist, her feet reach for the trapeze bar.
The bar isn't there!
Stobey's heart almost stops. She feels herself falling. Out of nowhere, a hand grasps one of her ankles and she feels herself drawn in. Her hands find the bar. Chug holds her until her grip on the bar is firm and she is safe again.