Third Sarge Elfor was a middle-aged man of military bearing, with a sandy handle-bar mustache. He sat behind a huge desk in one of the town's biggest buildings. There were elevators, open and deserted, in the lobby, but they had to climb ten flights of stairs to reach his gleaming office.
"The Topkick sends you greetings from Kansity, capital of the Earth," he said. "We have watched your ship since it approached the outer atmosphere. We have listened to your communications since you left your ship, and have been interested in the indications that you are of Earth but unfamiliar with it. We are interested also in your use of a vehicle that can travel for three days without refueling. But we do not find a record of any ship named Discovery, and we do not know what you mean by Deneb III."
"The Discovery left Earth 258 years ago," replied John. "We established a colony on Deneb III, the third planet of the star Deneb, before returning to Earth."
"You are the descendents of the ship's original crew, then?"
"No," said John. He explained as well as he could the extension of subjective time at near-light speeds.
"Mmm. And you have left a colony on a planet of another star." They could not tell from the Third Sarge's tone what he thought. After a moment's meditation, he said:
"We shall talk again tomorrow. Tonight you are our guests and will be accorded all courtesy as deevs. Are you husbands and wives, or shall we billet men and women separately?"
"However it suits your convenience," answered John. "You may billet us all together if you prefer."
Third Sarge Elfor took them at their word. They were conducted to a single room, evidently in the heart of officers' quarters. Here again they ran into the same anomaly that had impressed them since they landed.
There were gleaming electric fixtures, but orderlies brought them tallow candles as dusk fell. There was plumbing of the most advanced order, but when they turned the taps no water came. The orderlies brought buckets full of hot water for their baths in the bright-tiled tub.
"I don't understand this at all, Ann," said John. He was towelling himself vigorously, while she brushed the quartet's clothing clean of the dust of the road. Phil lolled in luxurious undress on one of the four beds, reading a book from the well-stocked bookcase. Fran, preparing for her bath, was binding up her hair before a full-length mirror. "Even the cold water doesn't run a drop."
"Plumbing gets out of order in the best of families, John," Ann reminded him with a smile.
He glanced affectionately at her. Blue-eyed, black-haired Ann had been John's companion in the six-months exploration of Deneb III, and their seven-year-old son now was learning to read in the starship's school. John and Ann clashed like flint and steel in the crowded confines of the starship and consequently maintained no association while aspace. But they were a happy team in the free, challenging atmosphere of a planet.
"Electricity, too, at the same time?" he asked. "And it's not just that. The whole place reeks of latent power and high science, but they use an absolute minimum of it."
"I've got a partial solution to the garrison state of affairs and the military set-up, anyhow," said Phil from the bed. "They've had a war since we've been gone."
"That's no surprise," commented Fran. Chubby, blonde Fran and dark, stocky Phil had been companions for a year aboard the Discovery. They had volunteered jointly for the exploration mission. "They should have had several of them in 250 years."
"This was an interplanetary war," retorted Phil mildly. "Or rather, it wasn't war, but occupation of the Earth by the enemy. The Jovians were smart enough not to attack Earth directly, but threw their strength at the crucial moment behind the weaker side in the war between Eurasia and the American Alliance. Then they moved in to take over the war-weakened victors."
"The classic role of the strong neutral," commented John drily. "What were the Jovians like?"
"Evidently everybody on Earth knew from first-hand experience when this book was written a century ago. There are no descriptions and no illustrations. There are some hints, though: methane-breathing, cold-loving. They had domed, refrigerated cities."
"What are you reading—a history book?" asked Ann curiously.
"Yes, it's the newest book of the whole lot, and the only one that isn't brittle and dog-eared. At that, it's the worst-made book of them all. It looks like it was printed on a hand-press and bound by hand."
"Pioneers, oh pioneers!" trilled Fran softly. "But what are they doing in the midst of all this technology?"