"Yes, them. And even before that, there'd been reports of strange airships and things. Why, there was one--that's almost four hundred years ago--of a Dutch sea captain who saw something in the air above the Indi Ocean and reported it in his log. Even made a sketch of it, that was almost exactly like those made later by people who said they'd seen it." "_Mmmm_," Jak had been thinking back, "then maybe the Bible story of Ezekiel's 'wheel within a wheel' he saw in the air, was one?" "Sure. Earth people for centuries have seen all sorts of unknown things." "Then maybe your idea isn't so wild, after all." "The question now is," Jon ignored the apology, "how do we take some of this stuff back to the ship, and how do we test it to see if it's fuel--or don't we?" "That's more your line than mine. What do you suggest?" Jon thought seriously for several minutes, then brightened. "You stay here so I can see where I'm going, and I'll go get the ship and bring it here. Then we'll try one of those cubes in the generator." "You ... you think it's safe?" "What would get you, out here in this desert?" "I didn't mean that, and you know it. I meant, do you think it's safe to try this stuff that way?" "Oh, that? Sure." Jon threw down the extra things he was carrying, and started away at a trot. When he reached the ship and was inside the airlocks, he called to his mother as he was sitting down at the controls. "What's the matter, Jon?" she asked as she came in and saw him working at the controls. "And where's Jak?" "We found something out there too heavy to carry, and Jak's watching it while I bring up the ship. Strap down." She sank into the co-pilot's seat and fastened the broad belt about her even as Jon was activating the generator and tubes. Raggedly, since he was trying to handle the controls and read the directions at the same time--it simply didn't occur to him to ask his mother to read them to him--the boy finally got the ship into the air. "What is it you've found?" His mother could contain her curiosity no longer. "Something we think is that new fuel Pop talked about, but it's radioactive and we didn't dare try to carry it without special equipment," he told her absently as the ship began lowering. He maneuvered it to a bumpy landing close to his brother, whom they could now see through the port, excitedly waving his arms at them. "We think it's something some other people left here as a cache, a long, long time ago," Jon explained as he put his controls in neutral, his voice an excited squeak. "Some other Earth people?" she asked incredulously. "You mean we aren't the first ones here, after all?" "No, we don't think it was Terrans," he said as he unstrapped. But before he could get out of the seat, they heard the lockdoor mechanisms working, and knew Jak was coming inboard, so the two stayed in the control room. Jon answered his mother's anxious questions as best he could.