The Jovian smiled. "Have you forgotten, sir, that when your mission is ended you will wish to return home? Then the new course and trajectory must be calculated and the verniers reset. That is why it is necessary we install a complete unit and train you in its use."
The scientist said petulantly, "Despite all these precautions it is a fool-hardy trip. It would be safer, to my way of thinking, to visit a nearer star ... say Proxima Centauri ... thereby diminishing the risk of over or undershooting our mark.
"Sometimes," he bridled, "I think this whole scheme is madness. It is ridiculous to think of us, tiny mites that we are, daring to attack the people of a universe so infinitely greater than ours that we will be as dust motes beneath their crushing heels!"
Gary stared at the little man curiously. "People greater than us, Dr. Anjers? Now, that's a peculiar thought. Whatever makes you say—"
Anjers wriggled in sudden defiant embarrassment. "It was not my idea, Dr. Lane, but your own. It was you who advanced the theory that our universe is dwindling. It follows as a natural corollary that any race existing outside our universe—"
Gary nodded. "Why, yes, I suppose you're right. But I'd never stopped to think of it in quite that way. A race of giants—"
But the little man's words had had an even more striking effect upon the Jovian engineer. He said excitedly, "A great race? A race of giants? That's strange. There is a legend among our people that once, countless centuries ago, our forefathers were mighty men who clashed in brutal conflict with a race of giants."
The Liberty's personnel embarked on an expedition to the Flaming Sea.