not too far ahead of you in technology. We've been
using rocket vehicles just like yours for over a century. That's fine
for a solar system, but it's not much good for the stars. When the warp
principle was discovered, it looked like the answer. But something went
wrong, the scanner picked up this planet, and I was coming through, and
then something blew. Next thing I knew I was falling. When I tried to
make contact again, the scanner was gone!"

"And you found things here the same as back home," said Morgan.

"The same! Your planet and mine are practically twins. Similar cities,
similar technology, everything. The people are the same, with precisely
the same anatomy and physiology, the same sort of laws, the same
institutions, even compatible languages. Can't you see the importance of
it? This planet is on the other side of the universe from mine, with the
first intelligent life we've yet encountered anywhere. But when I try to
tell your people that I'm a native of another star system, _they won't
believe me_!"

"Why should they?" asked Morgan. "You look like a human being. You talk
like one. You eat like one. You act like one. What you're asking them to
believe is utterly incredible."

"_But it's true._"

Morgan shrugged. "So it's true. I won't argue with you. But as I asked
before, even if I _did_ believe you, what do you expect _me_ to do about
it? Why pick _me_, of all the people you've seen?"

There was a desperate light in Parks' eyes. "I was tired, tired of being
laughed at, tired of having people looking at me as though I'd lost my
wits when I tried to tell them the truth. You were here, you were alone,
so I started talking. And then I found out you wrote stories." He looked
up eagerly. "I've got to get back, Morgan, somehow. My life is there,
my family. And think what it would mean to both of our worlds--contact
with another intelligent race! Combine our knowledges, our technologies,
and we could explore the galaxy!"

He leaned forward, his thin face intense. "I need money and I need help.
I know some of the mathematics of the warp principle, know some of the
design, some of the power and wiring principles. You have engineers
here, technologists, physicists. They could fill in what I don't know
and build a guide beam. But they won't do it if they don't believe me.
Your government won't listen to me, they won't appropriate any money."

"Of course they won't. They've got a war or two on their hands, the