He did not anticipate that the long run would ever come into being. No! There were men on Pluto who knew what to do and who would do it.
But, even so, he could savor this moment, when a ship of deep space was under his fingers, taking him upward in a blaze of rising glory.
She was still taking him upward when the tracking Z-beams struck her. She exploded in a blaze of light that was visible over most of the Solar System.
The screens in the command center of the station revealed the flare of light that marked the passing of the Andromeda. The room was silent. General Stanley turned back to Craig and Mary, asking them to repeat again the story that had moved him to take this action.
Dazed, the general listened. When they had finished, he turned again to Captain Martin.
"But this immortality you talked about on Star Goal?" he questioned.
"The immortality is there all right," Captain Martin answered. "It is both real and unreal. There is no question that the Sorodromes can slow changes in body cells which produces immortality. But the process they use to do this gives them almost complete control over you. And the immortality and the control go together. Once the control is broken, the increased life span goes too. Also, if the control is broken, you begin to age very rapidly, until you come up to your actual age. Thus within the next year every man who flew with the Andromeda will find his body processes catching up with his chronological age."
The captain's face had become etched with lines during the past few minutes, mute evidence of the process now beginning in him. But he did not seem to mind the immortality he had lost, the price he had paid for it had been too high.
"There's one blessing anyhow," the general said. "Nuoy went with the ship." His eyes glowed at the thought of that. The Solar System would be a better place to live for many men because Nuoy was no longer in it.