Chambers was no longer a beaten man, no longer a man with a white bandage around his head and his power stripped from him. Once again he was the fighting financier who had sat back at the desk in the Interplanetary building on Earth and issued orders… orders that sped across millions of miles of space.
He shrugged his shoulders. “They didn't want it. Man doesn't want to live under scientific government. He doesn't want to be protected against blunders. He wants what he calls freedom. The right to do the things he wants to do, even if it means making a damn fool of himself. The right to rise to great heights and tumble to equally low depths. That's human nature and I ruled it out. But you can't rule out human nature."
They sat in silence, no one speaking. Russ cupped his pipe bowl in his hand and watched Chambers. Chambers leaned back and slowly puffed at the cigar. Greg just sat, his face unchanging.
Craven finally broke the silence. “Just what are you planning to do?"
Chambers flicked his hand toward the distant sun that gleamed through the vision port.
"There's a new solar system out there,” he said. “New worlds, a new sun. A place to start over again. You and I discovered it. It's ours by right of discovery. We'll go there and stake out our claim."
"But there may be nothing there,” protested Greg. “That sun is younger than our Sun. The planets may not have cooled as yet. Life may not have developed."
"In such a case,” said Chambers, “we shall find another planetary system around another sun. A system that has cooled, where there is life."
Russ gasped. Here was something important, something that should set a precedent. The first men to roam from star to star seeking new worlds. The first men to turn their backs on the old solar system and strike out in search of new worlds swinging in their paths around distant suns.
Greg was saying, “allright, if that s the way you want it. I was hoping you'd come back with us. But we'll help you repair your ship. We'll give you all the supplies we can spare."