They walked from the office to the dropper. Compression slid them down to ground level, where they stepped out, Stanley still re-emphasizing his beliefs. "--for centuries science has given humanity play-toys, ships, machines, guns, cars, and now a Rocket, all with supreme disregard for man's needs." "Science," announced Greenwald as they emerged onto the tarmac, "has produced, via private enterprise, greater amounts of goods than ever in history! Why, consider the medical developments!" "Yes," said Stanley doggedly, "we cure man's cancer and preserve his greed in a special serum. They used to say 'Starve a cold, stuff a fever.' Today's fever is materialism. All the things science has produced only touch the _Body_. When Science invents something to touch the Mind, I'll give it its due. No. "You cloak your voyage with romantic terminology. Outward to the stars! you cry! Words! What's the _fact_? Why, _why_ this rocket? Greater production? We have _that_! Adventure? Poor excuse to uproot Earth. Exploration? It _could_ wait a few years. Lebensraum? Hardly. _Why_, then, Captain?" "Eh?" murmured Greenwald distractedly. "Ah. Here's the Rocket, now." They walked in the incredible Rocket shadow. Stanley looked at the crowd beyond the barrier. "_Look_ at them. Their sex still a mixture of Victorian voodoo and clabbered Freud. With education needing reorientation, with wars threatening, with religion and philosophy confused, you want to jump off into space!" Stanley shook his head. "Oh, I don't doubt your sincerity, Captain. I just say your timing's poor. If we give them a Rocket toy to play with, do you honestly think they'll solve war, education, unity, thought? Why, they'd propel themselves away from it so quickly your head'd swim! Wars would be fought between worlds. But if we want more wars, let's have them _here_, where we can get at their sources, before we leap to the asteroids seeking our lost pride of race. "What little unity we _do_ have would be broken by countries and individuals clamoring and cut-throating for planets and satellites!" Pausing, Stanley saw the mechanics standing in the Rocket shadow, hating him. Outside the barrier, the crowd recognized him; their murmur grew to a roar of disapproval. Greenwald indicated them. "They're wondering why you waited so long before deciding to stop the Rocket." "Tell them I thought there'd be laws controlling it. Tell them the corporations played along, smiling and bobbing to me, until the Rocket was completed. Then they threw off their false faces and withdrew the legislation only this morning. Tell them that, Captain. And tell them the legislation I planned would've meant a slow, intelligent Rocket expansion over an era of three centuries. Then ask them if they think any business man could wait even five _minutes_."