“What they do not know is that the frontiers of space closed long ago—before Man struck fire to warm his cave.”
Ron had an impulse to laugh, as if Engon had made a joke, but the impulse was overwhelmed by the feeling that there was nothing to laugh about. “No frontiers in space—”
“The worlds of space have been explored and exploited for longer than Men of Earth have been able to read and write and work metal. Space is old. Its civilizations are old. Earth is young.
“You can’t burst out of your tight little world and come aconquering and exploiting. You will come, rather, let us say, as visitors to other rooms of a great hotel, where the guests have lived much longer than you late-comers. You must know how to behave in that well-defined and circumspect company. Do you?
“Do you know what
