“I talked in my sleep? But I don’t!”
“Maybe not under ordinary circumstances. But let our medico get the digester on you and you do. You’ve had a pretty hard pull, kid, haven’t you?”
Dard levered himself up on his elbows and the other slipped extra support behind him. Now he could see that he was stretched out on a narrow cot in a room which seemed to be part cave, for three of its walls were bare rock, the fourth a smooth gray substance cut by a door. There were no windows, and a soft light issued from two tubes in the rock ceiling. His visitor perched on a folding stool and there was no other furniture in the cell-like chamber.
But there were coverings over him such as he had not seen for years, and he was wearing a clean, one piece coverall over a bathed body. He smoothed the top blanket lovingly. “Where is here—and what is here?” he expanded his first question.
“This is the Cleft, the last stronghold, as far as we know, of the Free Men.” The other got to his feet and stretched. He was a tall lean-waisted man, with dark brown skin, against which his strong teeth and the china-white of his eyeballs made startling contrast. Curly black hair was cropped very close to his round skull, and he had only a slight trace of beard. “This is the gateway to Ad Astra—” he paused, eyeing Dard as if to assess the effect those last two words had on the boy.
“Ad Astra,” Dard repeated. “Lars spoke of that once.”
“Ad Astra means ’to the Stars.’ And this is the jumping off place.”
Dard frowned. To the stars! Not interplanetary—but galactic flight! But that was impossible!
” I thought that Mars and Venus—” he began doubtfully.
“Who said anything about Mars or Venus. kid? Sure, they’re impossible. It would take most of the resources of a willing Terra to plant a colony on either of them—as who should know better than I? No, not interplanetary flight stellar. Go out to take our pick of waiting worlds such as earth creepers never dreamed of, that’s what we’re going to do! Ad Astra!”