n Above to teach them something else instead."
Kramer looked up at the wall speaker. "How are you going to get the
people to leave Terra and come with you, if by your own theory, this
generation can't be saved, it all has to start with the next?"
The wall speaker was silent. Then it made a sound, the faint dry
chuckle.
"I'm surprised at you Philip. Settlers can be found. We won't need
many, just a few." The speaker chuckled again. "I'll acquaint you with
my solution."
At the far end of the corridor a door slid open. There was sound, a
hesitant sound. Kramer turned.
"Dolores!"
Dolores Kramer stood uncertainly, looking into the control room. She
blinked in amazement. "Phil! What are you doing here? What's going
on?"
They stared at each other.
"What's happening?" Dolores said. "I received a vidcall that you had
been hurt in a lunar explosion--"
The wall speaker rasped into life. "You see, Philip, that problem is
already solved. We don't really need so many people; even a single
couple might do."
Kramer nodded slowly. "I see," he murmured thickly. "Just one couple.
One man and woman."
"They might make it all right, if there were someone to watch and see
that things went as they should. There will be quite a few things I
can help you with, Philip. Quite a few. We'll get along very well, I
think."
Kramer grinned wryly. "You could even help us name the animals," he
said. "I understand that's the first step."
"I'll be glad to," the toneless, impersonal voice said. "As I recall,
my part will be to bring them to you, one by one. Then you can do the
actual naming."
"I don't understand," Dolores faltered. "What does he mean, Phil?
Naming animals. What kind of animals? Where are we going?"
Kramer walked slowly over to the port and stood staring silently out,
his arms folded. Beyond the ship a myriad fragments of light gleamed,
countless coals glowing in the dark void. Stars, suns, systems.
Endless, without number. A universe of worlds. An infinity of planets,
waiting for them, gleaming and winking from the darkness.
He turned back, away from the port. "Where are we going?" He smiled at
his wife, standing nervous and frightened, her large eyes full of
alarm. "I don't know where we are going," he said. "But somehow that
doesn't seem too important right now.... I'm beginning to see the
Professor's point, it's the result that counts."
And for the first time in many months he put his arm around Do
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