We must have attained one hundred percent neutralization--one
hundred point oh oh oh oh oh--which we didn't quite expect. Therefore we
must have stopped instantaneously when our inertia was restored.
Incidentally, that original, pre-inertialess velocity 'intrinsic'
velocity, suppose we could call it?--is going to introduce plenty of
complications, but we don't have to worry about them right now. Also, it
isn't _where_ we are that is worrying me--we can get fixes on enough
recognizable stars to find that out in short order--it's _when_."

"That's right, too. Say we're two light years away from home. You think
maybe that we're two years older now than we were ten minutes ago?
Interesting no end--and distinctly possible. Maybe even probable--I
wouldn't know--there's been a lot of discussion on that theory, and as
far as I know we're the first ones who ever had a chance to prove or
disprove it absolutely. Let's snap back to Tellus and find out, right
now."

"We'll do that, after a little more experimenting. You see, I had no
intention of giving us such a long push. I was going to throw the
switches in and out, but you know what happened. However, there's one
good thing about it--it's worth two years of anybody's life to settle
that relativity-time thing definitely, one way or the other."

"I'll say it is. But say, we've got a lot of power on our ultra-wave;
enough to reach Tellus, I think. Let's locate the sun and get in touch
with Samms."

"Let's work on these controls a little first, so we'll have something to
report. Out here's a fine place to try the ship out--nothing in the
way."

"All right with me. But I _would_ like to find out whether I'm two years
older than I think I am, or not!"

Then for four hours they put the great super-ship through her paces,
just as test-pilots check up on every detail of performance of an
airplane of new and radical design. They found that the horrible vertigo
could be endured, perhaps in time even conquered as space-sickness could
be conquered, by a strong will in a sound body; and that their new
conveyance had possibilities of which even Rodebush had never dreamed.
Finally, their most pressing questions answered, they turned their most
powerful ultra-beam communicator toward the yellowish star which they
knew to be Old Sol.

"Samms ... Samms." Cleveland spoke slowly and distinctly. "Rodebush and
Cleveland reporting from the 'Space-Eating Wampus', now directly in line
with Beta