"Games!" he bellowed indignantly. "They'll soon find out it's no game. We'll run away for good. They'll be sorry they didn't pay attention to us!" He rubbed furiously on the metal plates. "Here are the last of the supplies," Lanya intruded irrelevantly. They had already rehashed, many times, their plan to return to Mars in ten or twenty years as diplomats to negotiate with the highest executives in the Martian government. The splendor of their positions would flabbergast their parents. They would beg to be forgiven. Lanya and Virgil had not decided yet whether they would forgive them or not. Perhaps eventually they would. Virgil lugged the supplies into the ship and packed them rigidly in the storage compartment. He came out and stood with his sister gazing up at the gleaming hull. "That does it," he said with apparent satisfaction. "Tomorrow we leave, Lanya." Now that the venture was so close at hand, Lanya's confidence was less serene. Maybe it was rather risky after all. If nothing else, Virgil might be arrested for charting in space without authorization. Maybe he couldn't fly this ship at all. His piloting had been mostly theory so far. Application was something else again, she feared. Virgil's face showed doubt too. "You sure you're not afraid to go?" he asked almost hopefully. "No. It's the only way we'll ever get any recognition around here," Lanya said stoutly. "Right! I hope Muuck is watching tomorrow. We'll blast out of here like a comet! Make his cruiser look like a freighter." "I'll bet they have _everything_ on Earth," Lanya said with forced enthusiasm as they walked across the dry sand to their flat, rambling house. She looked up to see their father's copter skimming in from the direction of the city. It hovered over them momentarily, then streaked toward the house and settled lightly to the ground. Lanya began to run after Virgil who was galloping across the sand. "Hello, father," they said breathlessly as they tore into the house behind him. "Hello, kids. What's new?" Jonathan asked automatically as he always did. Lanya screwed up her courage. Here was one last opportunity to have someone stop their running away. "We're all set to take off for Earth tomorrow." "Oh? That's fine. Wasn't that a rocket launching rig I saw out in the hollow?" "Yes. That's where we take off at 0900 tomorrow. We'll probably be gone for months and months. Maybe years!" Jonathan switched on the telescreen. "Is that so? Well, well. Ummm! These blasted commercials!" He snapped the screen off angrily, then turned it back on to the government-sponsored channels. Lanya looked at her brother and shrugged hopelessly. It was out of their hands now. They had made every reasonable effort to halt the thing--now it would just go ahead on its own momentum. * * * * * At 0830 Lanya trotted beside her brother with determination across the scorching sand to the ship nestled in the launching tower.