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{\noindent}
{\centering
{\LARGE\strut{The Lonely Ones}}
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{\noindent}
\noindent
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the \hyperlink{project-gutenberg-license}{Project Gutenberg License}
included with this eBook or online at
{https://www.gutenberg.org/license}.
\par

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{\noindent}
\noindent
Title: The Lonely Ones
\par

\noindent
Author: Edward W. Ludwig
\par

\noindent
Release Date: December 12, 2011 {[}EBook \#38302{]}
\par

\noindent
Language: English
\par

\noindent
Character set encoding: UTF-8
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*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LONELY ONES ***
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Produced by Frank van Drogen, Greg Weeks, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at {http://www.pgdp.net}.
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{\LARGE\strut{The Lonely Ones}}\par}
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{\noindent}
{\vl By Edward W. Ludwig\par}
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{\vl Illustrated by PAUL ORBAN\par}
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{\advance\leftskip\parindentamount{}\advance\rightskip\parindentamount{}
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{\noindent}
{\itshape{The line between noble dreams and madness is
thin, and loneliness can push men past it....}}\par}

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{\noindent}
Onward sped the {\itshape{Wanderer}}, onward
through cold, silent infinity, on
and on, an insignificant pencil
of silver lost in the terrible,
brooding blackness.\par

But even more awful than the
blackness was the loneliness of the
six men who inhabited the silver
rocket. They moved in loneliness as
fish move in water. Their lives revolved
in loneliness as planets revolve
in space and time. They bore
their loneliness like a shroud, and
it was as much a part of them as
sight in their eyes. Loneliness was
both their brother and their god.\par

Yet, like a tiny flame in the darkness,
there was hope, a savage, desperate
hope that grew with the
passing of each day, each month,
and each year.\par

And at last....\par

"Lord," breathed Captain Sam
Wiley.\par

Lieutenant Gunderson nodded.
"It's a big one, isn't it?"\par

"It's a big one," repeated Captain
Wiley.\par

They stared at the image in the
{\itshape{Wanderer's}} forward visi-screen, at
the great, shining gray ball. They
stared hard, for it was like an enchanted,
God-given fruit handed
them on a star-flecked platter of
midnight. It was like the answer to
a thousand prayers, a shining symbol
of hope which could mean the
end of loneliness.\par

"It's ten times as big as Earth,"
mused Lieutenant Gunderson. "Do
you think this'll be it, Captain?"\par

"I'm afraid to think."\par

A thoughtful silence.\par

"Captain."\par

"Yes?"\par

"Do you hear my heart pounding?"\par

Captain Wiley smiled. "No. No,
of course not."\par

"It seems like everybody should
be hearing it. But we shouldn't get
excited, should we? We mustn't
hope too hard." He bit his lip.
"But there {\itshape{should}} be life there,
don't you think, Captain?"\par

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"There may be."\par

"Nine years, Captain. Think of
it. It's taken us nine years to get
here. There's {\itshape{got}} to be life."\par

"Prepare for deceleration, Lieutenant."\par

Lieutenant Gunderson's tall,
slim body sagged for an instant.
Then his eyes brightened.\par

"Yes, sir!"\par

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Captain Sam Wiley continued
to stare at the beautiful gray
globe in the visi-screen. He was not
like Gunderson, with boyish eagerness
and anxiety flowing out of him
in a ceaseless babble. His emotion
was as great, or greater, but it was
imprisoned within him, like swirling,
foaming liquid inside a corked
jug.\par

It wouldn't do to encourage the
men too much. Because, if they
were disappointed....\par

He shook his silver-thatched
head. There it was, he thought. A
new world. A world that, perhaps,
held life.\par

Life. It was a word uttered only
with reverence, for throughout the
Solar System, with the exception
of on Earth, there had been only
death.\par

First it was the Moon, airless and
lifeless. That had been expected, of
course.\par

But Mars. For centuries men had
dreamed of Mars and written of
Mars with its canals and dead
cities, with its ancient men and
strange animals. Everyone {\itshape{knew}}
there was or had been life on Mars.\par

The flaming rockets reached
Mars, and the canals became volcanic
crevices, and the dead cities
became jagged peaks of red stone,
and the endless sands were smooth,
smooth, smooth, untouched by feet
of living creatures. There was
plant-life, a species of green-red
lichen in the Polar regions. But nowhere
was there real life.\par

Then Venus, with its dust and
wind. No life there. Not even the
stars to make one think of home.
Only the dust and wind, a dark veil
of death screaming eternally over
hot dry land.\par

And Jupiter, with its seas of ice;
and hot Mercury, a cracked, withered
mummy of a planet, baked as
hard and dry as an ancient walnut
in a furnace.\par

Next, the airless, rocky asteroids,
and frozen Saturn with its swirling
ammonia snows. And last, the
white, silent worlds, Uranus, Neptune,
and Pluto.\par

World after world, all dead,
with no sign of life, no reminder of
life, and no promise of life.\par

Thus the loneliness had grown. It
was not a child of Earth. It was
not born in the hearts of those who
scurried along city pavements or of
those in the green fields or of those
in the cool, clean houses.\par

It was a child of the incredible
distances, of the infinite night, of
emptiness and silence. It was born
in the hearts of the slit-eyed men,
the oldish young men, the spacemen.\par

For without life on other worlds,
where was the sky's challenge? Why
go on and on to discover only
worlds of death?\par

The dream of the spacemen
turned from the planets to the stars.
Somewhere in the galaxy or in
other galaxies there {\itshape{had}} to be life.
Life was a wonderful and precious
thing. It wasn't right that it should
be confined to a single, tiny planet.
If it were, then life would seem
meaningless. Mankind would be a
freak, a cosmic accident.\par

And now the {\itshape{Wanderer}} was on
the first interstellar flight, hurtling
through the dark spaces to Proxima
Centauri. Moving silently, as if motionless,
yet at a speed of 160,000
miles a second. And ahead loomed
the great, gray planet, the only
planet of the sun, growing larger,
larger, each instant....\par

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A gentle, murmuring hum
filled the ship. The indicator
lights on the control panel glowed
like a swarm of pink eyes.\par

"Deceleration compensator adjusted
for 12 G's, sir," reported
Lieutenant Gunderson.\par

Captain Wiley nodded, still
studying the image of the planet.\par

"There—there's something else,
Captain."\par

"Yes?"\par

"It's Brown, sir. He's drunk."\par

Captain Wiley turned, a scowl
on his hard, lined face. "Drunk?
Where'd he get the stuff?"\par

"He saved it, sir, saved it for
nine years. Said he was going to
drink it when we discovered life."\par

"We haven't discovered life yet."\par

"I know. He said he wouldn't set
foot on the planet if he was sober.
Said if there isn't life there, he
couldn't take it—unless he was
drunk."\par

Captain Wiley grunted. "All
right."\par

They looked at the world.\par

"Wouldn't it be wonderful, Captain?
Just think—to meet another
race. It wouldn't matter what they
were like, would it? If they were
primitive, we could teach them
things. If they were ahead of us,
they could teach us. You know
what I'd like? To have someone
meet us, to gather around us. It
wouldn't matter if they were afraid
of us or even if they tried to kill us.
We'd know that we aren't alone."\par

"I know what you mean," said
Captain Wiley. Some of his emotion
overflowed the prison of his
body. "There's no thrill in landing
on dead worlds. If no one's there to
see you, you don't feel like a hero."\par

"That's it, Captain! That's why
I came on this crazy trip. I guess
that's why we all came. I...."\par

Captain Wiley cleared his throat.
"Lieutenant, commence deceleration.
6 G's."\par

"Yes, sir!"\par

The planet grew bigger, filling
the entire visi-screen.\par

Someone coughed behind Captain
Wiley.\par

"Sir, the men would like to look
at the screen. They can't see the
planet out of the ports yet." The
speaker was Doyle, the ship's Engineer,
a dry, tight-skinned little
man.\par

"Sure." Captain Wiley stepped
aside.\par

Doyle looked, then Parker and
Fong. Just three of them, for Watkins
had sliced his wrists the fourth
year out. And Brown was drunk.\par

As they looked, a realization
came to Captain Wiley. The men
were getting old. The years had
passed so gradually that he'd never
really noticed it before. Lieutenant
Gunderson had been a kid just out
of Space Academy. Parker and
Doyle and Fong, too, had been in
their twenties. They had been boys.
And now something was gone—the
sharp eyes and sure movements
of youth, the smooth skin and thick,
soft hair.\par

Now they had become men. And
yet for a few moments, as they
gazed at the screen, they seemed
like happy, expectant children.\par

"I wish Brown could see this,"
Doyle murmured. "He says now he
isn't going to get off his couch till
we land and discover life. Says he
won't dare look for himself."\par

"The planet's right for life," said
Fong, the dark-faced astro-physicist.
"Atmosphere forty per cent
oxygen, lots of water vapor. No
poisonous gases, according to spectroscopic
analyses. It should be
ideal for life."\par

"There {\itshape{is}} life there," said Parker,
the radarman. "You know why?
Because we've given up eighteen
years of our lives. Nine years to get
here, nine to get back. I'm thirty
now. I was twenty-one when we left
Earth. I gave up all those good
years. They say that you can have
something if you pay enough for it.
Well, we've paid for this. There has
to be a—a sort of universal justice.
That's why I know there's life here,
life that moves and thinks—maybe
even life we can talk to."\par

"You need a drink," said Fong.\par

"It's getting bigger," murmured
Lieutenant Gunderson.\par

"The Centaurians," mused
Doyle, half to himself. "What'll
they be like? Monsters or men? If
Parker's right about universal justice,
they'll be men."\par

"Hey, where there's men, there's
women!" yelled Parker. "A Centaurian
woman! Say!"\par

"Look at those clouds!" exclaimed
Doyle. "Damn it, we can't
see the surface."\par

"Hey, there! Look there, to the
right! See it? It's silver, down in a
hole in the clouds. It's like a city!"\par

"Maybe it's just water."\par

"No, it's a city!"\par

"Bring 'er down, Captain. God,
Captain, bring 'er down fast!"\par

"Drag Brown in here! He ought
to see this!"\par

"Can't you bring 'er down faster,
Captain?"\par

"Damn it, it {\itshape{is}} a city!"\par

"Why doesn't someone get
Brown?"\par

"Take to your couches, men,"
said Captain Wiley. "Landing's apt
to be a bit bumpy. Better strap
yourselves in."\par

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Down went the rocket, more
slowly now, great plumes of
scarlet thundering from its forward
braking jets. Down, down into soft,
cotton-like clouds, the whiteness
sliding silently past the ports.\par

Suddenly, a droning voice:\par

"To those in the ship from the
planet called Earth: Please refrain
from landing at this moment. You
will await landing instructions."\par

Parker leaped off his couch,
grasping a stanchion for support.
"That voice! It was human!"\par

Captain Wiley's trembling hand
moved over the jet-control panel.
The ship slowed in its descent. The
clouds outside the portholes became
motionless, a milky whiteness
pressed against the ship.\par

"The voice!" Parker cried again.
"Am I crazy? Did everyone hear
it?"\par

Captain Wiley turned away from
the panel. "We heard it, Parker. It
was in our minds. Telepathy."\par

He smiled. "Yes, the planet is inhabited.
There are intelligent beings
on it. Perhaps they're more intelligent
than we are."\par

It was strange. The men had
hoped, dreamed, prayed for this
moment. Now they sat stunned, unable
to comprehend, their tongues
frozen.\par

"We'll see them very soon," said
Captain Wiley, his voice quivering.
"We'll wait for their directions."\par

Breathlessly, they waited.\par

Captain Wiley's fingers drummed
nervously on the base of the control
panel. Lieutenant Gunderson
rose from his couch, stood in the
center of the cabin, then returned
to his couch.\par

Silence, save for the constant,
rumbling roar of the jets which
held the ship aloft.\par

"I wonder how long it'll be,"
murmured Fong at last.\par

"It seems like a long time!" burst
Parker.\par

"We've waited nine years," said
Captain Wiley. "We can wait a
few more minutes."\par

They waited.\par

"Good Lord!" said Parker.
"How long is it going to be? What
time is it? We've been waiting an
hour! What kind of people are they
down there?"\par

"Maybe they've forgotten about
us," said Fong.\par

"That's it!" cried Parker.
"They've forgotten about us! Hey,
you! Down there—you that talked
to us! We're still here, damn it! We
want to land!"\par

"Parker," said Captain Wiley,
sternly.\par

Parker sat down on his couch, his
lips quivering.\par

Then came the voice:\par

"We regret that a landing is impossible
at this moment. Our field
is overcrowded, and your vessel is
without priority. You must wait
your turn."\par

Captain Wiley stared forward at
nothing. "Whoever you are," he
whispered, "please understand that
we have come a long way to reach
your planet. Our trip...."\par

"We do not wish to discuss your
trip. You will be notified when
landing space is available."\par

Captain Wiley's body shook.
"Wait, tell us who you are. What
do you look like? Tell us...."\par

"Talking to you is quite difficult.
We must form our thoughts so as
to form word-patterns in your
minds. You will be notified."\par

"Wait a minute!" called Captain
Wiley.\par

No answer.\par

Captain Wiley straightened in an
effort to maintain dignity.\par

They waited....\par

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It was night.\par

The darkness was an impenetrable
blanket, a solid thing, like
thick black velvet glued over the
ports. It was worse than the darkness
of space.\par

Captain Wiley sat before the
control panel, slowly beating his
fists against the arms of his chair, a
human metronome ticking off the
slow seconds.\par

Parker stood before a porthole.\par

"Hey, look, Captain! There's a
streak of red, like a meteor. And
there's another!"\par

Captain Wiley rose, looked out.
"They're rockets. They're going to
land. These people are highly advanced."\par

His face became grim. Below
them lay a planet, an intelligent
race hidden beneath clouds and
darkness. What manner of creatures
were they? How great was their
civilization? What marvelous secrets
had their scientists discovered?
What was their food like, their
women, their whiskey?\par

The questions darted endlessly
through his mind like teasing
needle-points. All these wondrous
things lay below them, and here
they sat, like starving men, their
hands tied, gazing upon a steaming
but unobtainable dinner. So near
and yet so far.\par

He trembled. The emotion grew
within him until it burst out as water
bursts through the cracked wall
of a dam. He became like Parker.\par

"Why should we wait?" he
yelled. "Why must we land in their
field? Parker! Prepare to release
flares! We're going down! We'll
land anywhere—in a street, in the
country. We don't have to wait for
orders!"\par

Parker bounced off his couch.
Someone called, "Brown, we're going
to land!"\par

A scurrying of feet, the rush of
taut-muscled bodies, the babble of
excited voices.\par

"We're going down!"\par

"{\itshape{We're going down!}}"\par

The grumble of the {\itshape{Wanderer's}}
jets loudened, softened, spluttered,
loudened again. Vibration filled the
ship as it sank downward.\par

Suddenly it lurched upward, like
a child's ball caught in a stream of
rising water. The jolt staggered the
men. They seized stanchions and
bulkhead railings to keep their balance.\par

"What the hell?"\par

Abruptly, the strange movement
ceased. The ship seemed motionless.
There was no vibration.\par

"Captain," said Lieutenant Gunderson.
"There's no change in altitude.
We're still at 35,000 feet, no
more, no less."\par

"We {\itshape{must}} be going down," said
Captain Wiley, puzzled. "Kill jets
4 and 6."\par

The Lieutenant's hands flicked
off two switches. A moment later:
"There's no change, Captain."\par

Then came the voice:\par

"To those in the vessel from the
planet Earth: Please do not oppose
orders of the Landing Council. You
are the first visitors in the history of
our world whom we have had to
restrain with physical force. You
will be notified when landing space
is available."\par

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Morning.\par

The warm sunlight streamed
into the clouds, washing away the
last shadows and filtering through
the portholes.\par

The men breakfasted, bathed,
shaved, smoked, sat, twisted their
fingers, looked out the ports. They
were silent men, with dark shadows
about their eyes and with tight,
white-lipped mouths.\par

Frequently, the clouds near them
were cut by swift, dark shapes
swooping downward. The shapes
were indistinct in the cotton-like
whiteness, but obviously they were
huge, like a dozen {\itshape{Wanderers}} made
into one.\par

"Those ships are big," someone
murmured, without enthusiasm.\par

"It's a busy spaceport," grumbled
Captain Wiley.\par

Thoughts, words, movements
came so slowly it was like walking
under water. Enthusiasm was dead.
The men were automatons, sitting,
waiting, eating, sitting, waiting.\par

A day passed, and a night.\par

"Maybe they've forgotten us,"
said Fong.\par

No one answered. The thought
had been voiced before, a hundred
times.\par

Then, at last, the droning words:\par

"To those in the vessel from the
planet Earth: You will now land.
We will carry you directly over the
field. Then you will descend
straight down. The atmosphere is
suitable to your type of life and is
free of germs. You will not need
protection."\par

The men stared at one another.\par

"Hey," Doyle said, "did you hear
that? He says we can go down."\par

The men blinked. Captain Wiley
swallowed hard. He rose with a
stiff, slow, nervous hesitancy.\par

"We're going down," he mumbled,
as if repeating the words over
and over in his mind and trying to
believe them.\par

The men stirred as realization
sprouted and grew. They stirred
like lethargic animals aroused from
the long, dreamless sleep of hibernation.\par

"We're going to land," breathed
Parker, unbelievingly.\par

The {\itshape{Wanderer}} moved as though
caught in the grip of a giant, invisible
hand.\par

The voice said:\par

"You may now descend."\par

Captain Wiley moved to the jet-control
panel. "Lieutenant!" he
snapped. "Wake up. Let's go!"\par

The ship sank downward through
the thick sea of clouds. The men
walked to the ports. A tenseness, an
excitement grew in their faces, like
dying flame being fanned into its
former brilliancy.\par

Out of the clouds loomed monstrous,
shining, silver spires and
towers, Cyclopean bridges, gigantic
lake-like mirrors, immense golden
spheres. It was a nightmare world,
a jungle of fantastic shape and
color.\par

The men gasped, whispered,
murmured, the flame of their excitement
growing, growing.\par

"The whole planet is a city!"
breathed Parker.\par

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Thump!\par

The {\itshape{Wanderer}} came to rest
on a broad landing field of light
blue stone. The jets coughed, spluttered,
died. The ship quivered, then
lay still, its interior charged with
an electric, pregnant silence.\par

"You first, Captain." Lieutenant
Gunderson's voice cracked, and his
face was flushed. "You be the first
to go outside."\par

Captain Wiley stepped through
the airlock, his heart pounding. It
was over now—all the bewilderment,
the numbness.\par

And his eyes were shining. He'd
waited so long that it was hard to
believe the waiting was over. But it
was, he told himself. The journey
was over, and the waiting, and now
the loneliness would soon be over.
Mankind was not alone. It was a
good universe after all!\par

He stepped outside, followed by
Lieutenant Gunderson, then by
Parker, Doyle and Fong.\par

He rubbed his eyes. This couldn't
be! A world like this couldn't exist!
He shook his head, blinked furiously.\par

"It—it can't be true," he mumbled
to Lieutenant Gunderson.
"We're still on the ship—dreaming."\par

The landing field was huge, perhaps
ten miles across, and its sides
were lined with incredible ships,
the smallest of which seemed forty
times as large as the {\itshape{Wanderer}}.
There were silver ships, golden
ships, black ships, round ships,
transparent ships, cigar-shaped
ships, flat-topped ships.\par

And scattered over the field were—creatures.\par

A few were the size of men, but
most were giants by comparison.
Some were humanoid, some reptilian.
Some were naked, some clad
in helmeted suits, some enveloped
with a shimmering, water-like luminescence.
The creatures walked,
slithered, floated, crawled.\par

Beyond the ships and the field lay
the great city, its web-work of towers,
minarets, spheres and bridges
like the peaks of an enormous
mountain range stretching up into
space itself. The structures were
like the colors of a rainbow mixed
in a cosmic paint pot, molded and
solidified into fantastic shapes by a
mad god.\par

"I—I'm going back to the ship,"
stammered Parker. The whiteness
of death was in his face. "I'm going
to stay with Brown."\par

He turned, and then he
screamed.\par

"Captain, the ship's moving!"\par

Silently, the {\itshape{Wanderer}} was drifting
to the side of the field.\par

The toneless voice said:\par

"We are removing your vessel so
that other descending ships will not
damage it."\par

Captain Wiley shouted into the
air. "Wait! Don't go away! Help
us! Where can we see you?"\par

The voice seemed to hesitate. "It
is difficult for us to speak in
thoughts that you understand."\par

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Silence.\par

Captain Wiley studied the
faces of his men. They were not
faces of conquerors or of triumphant
spacemen. They were the
faces of dazed, frightened children
who had caught a glimpse of Hell.
He attempted, feebly, to smile.\par

"All right," he said loudly, "so
it isn't like we expected. So no one
came to meet us with brass bands
and ten cent flags. We've still succeeded,
haven't we? We've found
life that's intelligent beyond our
comprehension. What if our own
civilization is insignificant by comparison?
Look at those beings.
Think of what we can learn from
them. Why, their ships might have
exceeded the speed of light. They
might be from other galaxies!"\par

"Let's find out," said Parker.\par

They strode to the nearest ship,
an immense, smooth, bluish sphere.
Two creatures stood before it,
shaped like men and yet twice the
size of men. They wore white, skin-tight
garments that revealed muscular
bodies like those of gods.\par

They looked at Captain Wiley
and smiled.\par

One of them pointed toward the
{\itshape{Wanderer}}. Their smiles widened
and then they laughed.\par

They laughed gently, understandingly,
but they {\itshape{laughed}}.\par

And then they turned away.\par

"Talk to them," Parker urged.\par

"How?" Beads of perspiration
shone on Captain Wiley's face.\par

"Any way. Go ahead."\par

Captain Wiley wiped his forehead.
"We are from Earth, the
third planet...."\par

The two god-like men seemed annoyed.
They walked away, ignoring
the Earthmen.\par

Captain Wiley spat. "All right, so
they won't talk to us. Look at that
city! Think of the things we can see
there and tell the folks on Earth
about! Why, we'll be heroes!"\par

"Let's go," said Parker, his voice
quavering around the edges.\par

They walked toward a large, oval
opening in a side of the field, a
hole between mountainous, conical
structures that seemed like the entrance
to a street.\par

Suddenly breath exploded from
Captain Wiley's lungs. His body
jerked back. He fell to the blue
stone pavement.\par

Then he scrambled erect, scowling,
his hands outstretched. He felt
a soft, rubbery, invisible substance.\par

"It's a wall!" he exclaimed.\par

The voice droned:\par

"To those of Earth: Beings under
the 4th stage of Galactic Development
are restricted to the area
of the landing field. We are sorry.
In your primitive stage it would be
unwise for you to learn the nature
of our civilization. Knowledge of
our science would be abused by
your people, and used for the thing
you call war. We hope that you
have been inspired by what you
have seen. However, neither we nor
the other visitors to our planet are
permitted to hold contact with you.
It is suggested that you and your
vessel depart."\par

"Listen, you!" screamed Parker.
"We've been nine years getting
here! By Heaven, we won't leave
now! We're...."\par

"We have no time to discuss the
matter. Beings under the 4th stage
of Galactic...."\par

"Never mind!" spat Captain
Wiley.\par

Madness flamed in Parker's
eyes. "We won't go! I tell you, we
{\itshape{won't}}, we {\itshape{won't}}!"\par

His fists streaked through the air
as if at an invisible enemy. He ran
toward the wall.\par

He collided with a jolt that sent
him staggering backward, crying,
sobbing, screaming, all at once.\par

Captain Wiley stepped forward,
struck him on the chin. Parker
crumpled.\par

They stood looking at his body,
which lay motionless except for the
slow rising and falling of his chest.\par

"What now, Captain?" asked
Lieutenant Gunderson.\par

Captain Wiley thought for a few
seconds.\par

Then he said, "We're ignorant
country bumpkins, Lieutenant, riding
into the city in a chugging jalopy.
We're stupid savages, trying
to discuss the making of fire with
the creators of atomic energy. We're
children racing a paper glider
against an atomic-powered jet.
We're too ridiculous to be noticed.
We're tolerated—but nothing
more."\par

"Shall we go home?" asked
Fong, a weariness in his voice.\par

Lieutenant Gunderson scratched
his neck. "I don't think I'd want to
go home now. Could you bear to
tell the truth about what happened?"\par

Fong looked wistfully at the shining
city. "If we told the truth, they
probably wouldn't believe us.
We've failed. It sounds crazy. We
reached Proxima Centauri and
found life, and yet somehow we
failed. No, I wouldn't like to go
home."\par

"Still, we learned something,"
said Doyle. "We know now that
there is life on worlds beside our
own. Somewhere there must be
other races like ours."\par

They looked at each other,
strangely, for a long, long moment.\par

At last Lieutenant Gunderson
asked, "How far is Alpha Centauri?"\par

Captain Wiley frowned. "{\itshape{Alpha}}
Centauri?" Through his mind
swirled chaotic visions of colossal
distances, eternal night, and lonely
years. He sought hard to find a
seed of hope in his mind, and yet
there was no seed. There were only
a coldness and an emptiness.\par

Suddenly, the voice:\par

"Yes, Men of Earth, we suggest
that you try Alpha Centauri."\par

The men stood silent and numb,
like bewildered children, as the implication
of those incredible words
sifted into their consciousness.\par

Finally Fong said, "Did—did you
hear that? He said..."\par

Captain Sam Wiley nodded, very
slowly. "Yes. Alpha Centauri.
{\itshape{Alpha}} Centauri."\par

His eyes began to twinkle, and
then he smiled....\par

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Onward sped the {\itshape{Wanderer}},
onward through cold, silent infinity,
on and on, an insignificant
pencil of silver lost in the terrible,
brooding blackness.\par

Yet even greater than the blackness
was the flaming hope in the
six men who inhabited the silver
rocket. They moved in hope as fish
move in water. Their lives revolved
in hope as planets revolve in space
and time. They bore their hope
like a jeweled crown, and it was as
much a part of them as sight in
their eyes. Hope was both their
brother and their god.\par

And there was no loneliness.\par

THE END\par

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{\scshape{Transcribers note}}: This etext was produced from Galaxy Science Fiction July 1953. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.\par}
\end{verse}

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*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LONELY ONES ***\par

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