Before the first sounds of thunder, Mike had been puzzling a lot of things at once. "Did you ever jump so high before?" "It really wasn't awful high. Higher, though I guess than ever before. Felt kind of funny, huh?" "Sure did. Is it hard for you to walk?" "We never played soldier much--you know how Dad felt about that. The other guys are pretty good at keeping the same step. We'll catch on, though." "I didn't mean that. I didn't feel--well, heavy enough, sort of. I kinda bounce when I try to walk." "Me too, but all dreams are funny. I suppose in a dream you could jump clear over the buildings back there if you wanted to. Boy, wait'll we tell Dad about dreaming we're in a military school. He'll have a fit!" "He sure will. Remember that time we asked him about it? I guess even Mom was surprised at how he flew up that way. He said if he hadn't thought he could teach us himself how to grow up good without putting us in uniforms to do it he'd never have had us. But it's kind of fun though. So far--" That was when they heard the thundering sound almost directly above them, but it was like no thunder they had ever heard before. There was a sudden swirling of the thick sky above them, and they jumped up, rooted, watching. The _Mikol VII_ burst suddenly through the heavy clouds, its stern belching flame and rolling volumes of sound. The heavy air about them vibrated as they watched. It looked like a huge, shining artillery shell, dropping groundward as though held in the grip of some great, invisible hand that slowed it, held it in perfect balance as it descended wrong-end first, directly above the circular place at the end of the long, broad street. "Like a big V-2 going the wrong way!" Mike said. "It's a space-ship, that's what it is!" Terry yelled. "Comin' in to land. Just like in the movie we saw, Mike. Just like." "Look, it's almost down--c'mon up on this little hill here. You can see 'em driving big trucks or something out to meet it. What do you suppose it's got?" "Wonder where it's from? Mars, I bet." "Hi! Pretty sight, isn't it?" It was the tall boy who led their section. He had his thumbs hooked in his belt just behind where the gold stars were. "Sure is," Terry said, eyes glued to the towering craft which had just settled perfectly to the ground. "It's the _Mikol VII_, and it's the last shipment before the games. Guess there'll be another ten thousand or so guys, and then we can start getting all our equipment issued. They don't give us our stuff until everybody's here. That's to make it so that we all have an absolutely equal amount of training. Watch--they're starting to come out now. Just the way you guys did when you came." * * * * * Mike and Terry weren't listening. They watched as a great opening suddenly appeared near the ship's blunt stern, to which an inclined ramp was being towed by a tiny surface-vehicle. Then they started coming out, five abreast, in seemingly unending numbers.