n dreamed of landing on the moon. There, in the traditional
space-suit, with a plastic bubble about his head, he would leap twenty feet
into the air, and maybe even turn a somersault as a gesture of man's escape
from the tiring tyranny of gravity. Compared to this dream, his arrival
upon the moon was just a bit ridiculous. He and over a score of others
simply slid down the inside of the long, slanting hose like a group of
third-graders practicing on the fire-escape at the school house.

* * * * *

Larger than the others, Odin landed awkwardly upon the floor of the car.
Before he could jump aside, another passenger piled upon him. It was a
girl, and the perfume in her hair was the same that Maya had always used.
He helped her to her feet and drew her aside just as another voyager came
sliding down. The girl was Nea. Somehow, he had an odd feeling that Maya
was here. He was just a bit annoyed at Nea, and wished to himself that she
wasn't making the trip. She shook her black curls and thanked him softly.

"How awkward of me," she explained. "It wouldn't have happened if I had not
been carrying this--"

She held up a little round satchel. It was exactly like the cases that
people used in his country for carrying bowling balls. Odin was puzzled.
And he assured himself that he would never understand women. Why would
the girl be carrying a bowling ball with her into outer space?

Odin joined Wolden, Ato, and Gunnar in the "engine" of the bumpy little
train. Here were real windows of quartz, and he could see more of the
moon's surface as the tractor and its jointed cars wheeled about in a
great circle and headed off in the direction from whence it had come.

Once there was a loud _Ping_ upon the roof above them. The tractor shook.

"A meteorite," the driver explained. "They're thick tonight. Don't worry.
There's a screen upon the roof that slows them down and melts 'em. The
larger ones never reach us. Some of the tiny ones get through."

They came to a sheer mountain which in the beams of the tractor looked like
a silver pyramid painted across a jet-black canvas.

As though answering an unheard vibration, a door opened and they lumbered
in. The door closed behind them. For a moment they were in such darkness
that even the beam from the tractor seemed alien. Then another door started
to open before them and a widening shaft of light was there to greet them.

Odin was thinking that each race