"What's wrong with it?” challenged Stutsman.
"Nothing,” said Craven calmly. “Absolutely nothing at all… except that we may never reach the Solar System!"
Stutsman seemed to sag. The wolfish snarl on his lips drooped. His eyes stared. Then with an effort he braced himself.
"What do you mean? Why can't we?” He gestured toward the vision plate, toward the tiny yellow star between the two brighter stars.
"That,” said Craven, “isn't our Sun. It has planets, but it isn't out Sun."
Chambers stepped quickly to Craven, reached out a hand and hoisted him from the chair, shook him.
"You must be joking! That has to be the Sun!"
Craven shrugged free of Chambers’ clutch, spoke in an even voice. “I never joke. We made a mistake, that's all. I hadn't meant to tell you yet. I had intended to get in close to the star and take on a full load of power and then try to locate our Sun. But I'm afraid it's a hopeless task."
"A hopeless task?” shrieked Stutsman. “You are trying to trick me. This is put up between the two of you. That's the Sun over there. I know it is!"
"It isn't,” said Craven. “Manning tricked us. He started off in the wrong direction. He made us think he was going straight back to the Solar System, but he didn't. He circled and went in some other direction."