Worlds Apart (28 page)

"The stars," said Rog. "Some people want to consolidate. Let them. I want to move on. Some of you Clades would come with me, I know."

"You wouldn't leave Freedom just like that. I know how you -- feel about it." And since she wasn't watching how she spoke so carefully, trying to put warmth into it, the warmth came.

"The great thing about Freedom was building it," said Rog. "Now it's built. Let's build something else."

He grinned suddenly. "It wouldn't be tomorrow, anyway. But some day -- it would be nice to take a ship somewhere, and make sure it got there, and people could live there, and that the new settlement was strong and healthy -- "

"So that's what you meant," said Phyllis, "about /purposes/. You always have to have one, don't you?"

. She hesitated. Then, not looking at him, she said: "If you do go, I'll come with you."

"I'm glad," Rog told her, without too much enthusiasm -- yet. "I hoped you would, Phyllis. I think you and I could work together well."

For the tirst time in her life Phyllis found herself wishing a proposition had been put to her as a woman and not as an officer. She suppressed the thought instantly, but she knew it would return. She didn't know that her expression had told Rog exactly what she was thinking.

It was with inner amusement that he added: "There won't be any risk of emotion ever clouding /your/ judgment, Phyllis."

She frowned. "Did it ever cloud yours?" she asked.

"I don't think so. I hope not."

The frown cleared. "Then that's all right," she said.

Outstanding Science Fiction

VOR by James Blish (T 238)

2nd FOUNDATION: GALACTIC EMPIRE by Isaac Asimov (T 232) EARTHMAN, COME HOME (Abridged) by James Blish (T 225) CHILDREN OF THE ATOM by Wilmar H. Shiras (T 221)

THE TORTURED PLANET by C. S. Lewis (T 211) (Original title: "That Hideous Strength") (Specially abridged by the author)

SEVEN FOOTPRINTS TO SATAN by A. Merritt (T 208)

YEAR 2018! by James Blish (T 193)

THE TIME DISSOLVER by Jerry Sohl (T 186)

SPACE PLAGUE by George O. Smith (T 180) (Original title: "Highways In Hiding") (Revised)

FROM OUTER SPACE by Hal Clement (T 175) (Original title: "Needle")

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(back cover blurb)

ROG FOLEY had never seen Earth -- and he never would. For all that was left of Earth was an atomic funeral pyre in the sky.

ROG FOLEY was a born leader of the new generation of humans who were born and raised on Mundis, the distant planet circling Brinsen's Star and to which the last survivors of Earth had escaped in a 17-year journey through space.

ROG FOLEY and his disciples were strongly opposed to the way things were being run on Mundis by their elders. There were too many DOs and too many DON'Ts. Finally, in desperation, Rog established a separtate colony -- and it seemed as though the conflicts which had brought Earth to its doom were destined to haunt mankind even in this remote solar system.

BUT THEN a new danger appeared -- invasion by a band of interplan- etary despots who wanted to make Mundis their first conquest on the path to Galactic Empire. Faced by this common peril, the Mundians were forced to unite in a desperate, last-ditch struggle to save humanity.

Here is a mature science-fiction novel of human conflict in outer-space -- with the fate of the entire Universe at stake!

"TOP-DRAWER SCIENCE FICTION" -- Norfolk (Va.) Pilot

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