"These people are fine people, as you've--found out. You couldn't even replace that _dhennah_." "How did you--" "They're swell folks, Nicholas, and always will be," the surgeon said softly, "and they've never built a thing, _and never will_. "They don't know greed, because no one has ever achieved anything worth another's wanting. "They don't know jealousy, because no one has ever obtained anything that another couldn't. "They don't know hate, because no one has ever discovered a thing for which to fight that another thinks of sufficient value to fight for. "Only--if they don't know hate or jealousy, Skipper--then, _they don't know love_!" Quietly, Carruthers rose from his chair. For a moment, he hesitated. "What is it you're lonely for, Nicholas?" he asked, and then he left the fore-waist bridge. * * * * * There was a mushroom of sun-fire against the blackness of the cool night, and a thunder of power. Slowly, ponderously, the _White Whale_ backed down her column of flame, hesitated, flared again for a final time from her thick stem, and then settled to Earth. Gantries rolled into position. And the sound of lock-hatches clanging open thrilled the length of the _White Whale_, and there were the muffled voices of men, and the voices became shouts with the joy loud in them. The men trooped down from their great metal monster as fast as the lifts would carry them, and in small groups and in crowds they made their boisterous way across the landing plaza and toward home. And when the shouts had died, a last man descended the smooth sides of the _White Whale_. His eyes glanced over the great bulk of her, making certain she was secure. Then he, too, walked from her, but not as quickly as the rest. Captain Nicholas Joel walked slowly, because he was tired. On every side of him, in dark shadow against the night, there were tall, slender, streamlined shapes pointing toward the stars. His slow boot-steps echoed from their hulls as he passed, a tiny midge of a thing, between them. As Sam had said, these were things that Man had made. And among them again was the _White Whale_. They had said he was a good pilot.