He reached the gate. There was no one there except a bald, middle-aged man and a boy of perhaps ten. They seemed to be waiting for him. Barrent found it hard to believe that these were government officials; still, who knew the ways of Earth? He passed through the gate. The bald man, holding the boy by the hand, walked over to him. "I beg your pardon," the man said. "Yes?" "I saw you come from the starship. Would you mind if I ask you a few questions?" "Not at all," Barrent said, his hand near the coverall zipper beneath which lay his needlebeam. He was certain now that the bald man was a police agent. The only thing that didn't make sense was the presence of the child, unless the boy was an agent-in-training. "The fact of the matter is," the man said, "my boy Ronny here is doing a thesis for his Tenth Grade Master's Degree. On starships." "So I wanted to see one," Ronny said. He was an undersized child with a pinched, intelligent face. "He wanted to see one," the man explained. "I told him it wasn't necessary, since all the facts and pictures are in the encyclopedia. But he wanted to see one." "It gives me a good opening paragraph," Ronny said. "Of course," Barrent said, nodding vigorously. He was beginning to wonder about the man. For a member of the secret police, he was certainly taking a devious route. "You work on the ships?" Ronny asked. "That's right." "How fast do they go?" "In real or subspace?" Barrent asked. This question seemed to throw Ronny off his stride. He pushed out his lower lip and said, "Gee, I didn't know they went in subspace." He thought for a moment. "As a matter of fact, I don't think I know what subspace is." Barrent and the boy's father smiled understandingly. "Well," Ronny said, "how fast do they go in real space?" "A hundred thousand miles an hour," Barrent said, naming the first figure that came into his head. The boy nodded, and his father nodded. "Very fast," the father said. "And much faster in subspace of course," Barrent said. "Of course," the man said. "Starships are very fast indeed. They have to be. Quite long distances involved. Isn't that right, sir?" "Very long distances," Barrent said. "How is the ship powered?" Ronny asked. "In the usual way," Barrent told him. "We had triplex boosters installed last year, but that comes more under the classification of auxiliary power." "I've heard about those triplex boosters," the man said. "Tremendous things." "They're adequate," Barrent said judiciously. He was certain now that this man was just what he purported to be: a citizen with no particular knowledge of spacecraft simply bringing his son to the starport. "How do you get enough air?" Ronny asked. "We generate our own," Barrent said. "But air isn't any trouble. Water's the big problem. Water isn't compressible, you know. It's hard to store in sufficient quantities. And then there's the navigation problem when the ship emerges from subspace." "What _is_ subspace?" Ronny asked.