Five men sat in a room and discussed their future. Carter, his young features taunt with the effort necessary to move his body in a, to him, three times normal gravity, slumped in a chair and stared at the sagging cheeks of the old doctor. Wendis and Menson, used to a high G field while in space, didn’t seem to be affected by the gravity, though they gasped and sweated in the thick, humid air. Curt smiled as he stared through a window, savouring the green fields and blue sky, his healed body tingling with excitement as he thought of the new world waiting for his exploration.
“I’ve heard from the Matriarch,” said Lasser bitterly. “As I suspected they have dismantled the ships. We are here to stay.”
Wendis clenched his big hands. “That means that we never go into space again, never see the
