Halter watched the brightness die and another lightspot grow one moon. The focus shifted in close to a fleet of shining silver ships. Then another fleet dropped from close above, hanging still, and there were blinding flashes engulfing each ship below, one after the other, until there were only the shining ships above, climbing into the dusk glow of the Sun. The glowing circle of bright-ringed Saturn was already rushing toward Colonel Halter from far back in the depth of screen. The focus shifted onto the planet's glaring surface. Men in the uniform of Earth soldiers were rushing out of transparent shell houses and staring in panic as the missiles plummeted through the shells and erupted clouds of steam which spouted up from mile-deep craters and there was nothing but the steam and the holes and the white cold. Jupiter made a hole in the blackness, with eleven tiny holes scattered all around her, like droplets of fire. Ships streaked up, one for each droplet, circling each, spraying fire, until each droplet flared like a tiny sun. Yellow Mars, holding closely its two speedy rocks of moons, spun into the screen. A straggling line of men moved across a desert that whipped them with sheets of yellow dust. A single ship dived from out of the Sun, swooped along the line, licking it with the tongue of flame that streaked behind. As the ship flashed beyond the horizon, a line of smoking rag bundles lay still upon the yellow sand. * * * * * Darkness closed in upon the television screen in Colonel Halter's office. In the long moment of silence that followed, he thought, _Oh, God, after this awful picture, how can I convince them to come out of the womb of that ship and live again? What reason can I give?_ Immobilizing his face, he saw the half circle of the six old people again in the control room of the old, old ship. He said, "You'll set down in approximately twenty minutes." "Yes," agreed the captain, "from where we jumped into space seventy-five years ago. The people of Earth were talking about their problems, not killing each other about them. There was hope. We felt that by the time we'd finished our mission and come back from that other solar system, where a healthy colony could be born, most of those problems would be solved." A pause. "But now there's this terrible killing all through the System. We won't face it." The roaring of the rockets now as they plunged flame against the concrete slab of the landing field. The bug bodies of the tugs gently easing old _Alpha_ to Earth. Colonel Halter was saying, "How about this other solar system? You haven't let us know whether or not you reached it." "We saw it." There was a hollowness in the captain's voice. "We didn't reach it. But we will. You'll repair the _Alpha_ and refuel it." "As you were saying," prompted Colonel Halter, "you didn't reach it."