"Maybe--someday," he buzzed in answer. "Not now. To Sirius? I'm going there, anyway with my own people soon. Time? There is plenty--for everything. May you make few errors." Then, with his jet rod he blasted off into the air. Within a minute, his ship, aboard which were hundreds of his kind that we had seen, spat blue fire, and darted out of the open window. Scharber chuckled almost wistfully. "Micro-androids," he said. "Strangest thing I ever saw. Why didn't he take me with him? Got to start seeing the outer-universe somewhere. Why not in miniature? Darn, androids can go anywhere." X The next day, Scharber's protoplastic form was found inert in his small bachelor's apartment. When we were notified, Doc and I had a look at the place. On Scharber's study table were many brief messages, written on paper with a heat-charred line. The words were English, and spelled correctly; but the script was strange. I knew the instrument of the writing. I had written with it myself. But Scharber had left a note of his own, written to us in ink: _Dear Dr. Lanvin, Mrs. Lanvin, Charlie, Jan. Everybody--So I win.... The Little Guy must have guessed. Anyway, he brought his ship here. Then he wrote his questions--though he could hear me answer. Do I want to come along? Yeah--look at the other papers--see for yourselves. You must have made a good impression out there--you who were there. So he likes Earthlings. For pets, maybe? Who knows? Well--I didn't say no.... Wish me luck, and the same to you. Do me a favor? Whoever goes first out to Sirius, take this big carcass of mine along--being android, it ought to keep for a long time. Maybe I'll need it after a while. Right now I'm getting a smaller edition. So long for maybe a hundred years, more or less._ _Scharber._ Smiling like an elf, Doc looked at me. "How do you feel?" he asked. "Same as you, I suppose," I answered. "Haunted...." During the year that followed, that first starship was completed, and ten others of the huge mile-long craft were begun. Jan and I saw them all in their cradles when we went out to the Moon to visit my mother and dad. It was really meant to be a farewell trip. Jan and I hadn't expected to get berthed on that first starcraft, the _Euclid_, but it happened. Not all of the voyagers were of the new flesh. "Farewell nothing," Dad told me slyly at the house. He looked more like a slightly older brother of mine, than somebody paternal. "We're going along, Charlie," Mom intimated. "We've always been ready for new adventure, haven't we?"