“I’ll risk it!” you say.
“Then we have no time to lose,” Bru says. “Follow me.”
Bru leads you through a series of narrow, winding passageways. He stops at a wall that looks no different from any of the others.
“Beyond this wall is the space shuttle,” says Bru. “Usually, only the U-TY masters can dissolve it, but I thinkI can do it now.”
“Why now?”
“The U-TY have lowered the force field, because their robots are preparing for a final trip to Earth before their ship leaves this solar system forever.”
Bru floats before the wall; slowly, it begins to dissolve. A moment later the two of you pass through into a brightly lit chamber. Before you is the gleaming white shuttlecraft.
“They use this vehicle to collect their samples from Earth,” Bru says.
As he speaks, the wall forms again, sealing the passageway behind you. Bru opens the latch and floats inside the craft. You are right behind him. In a moment you hear a rumbling and then a rushing of air. Blast off! Your head aches. Sweat pours off your body. The force increases unbearably. A moment later you are unconscious.
You awaken, dazed and shaken.
“We're on Earth!” Bru cries.
Looking through the open port, you can see that the craft has landed on a sand dune a few hundred feet from a shoreline. The air is warm. The salt air smells good.
Bru stretches his limbs and tests his footing on the sandy ground.
“Can you move all right in Earth gravity?”' you ask.
By way of an answer, Bru curls up into a ball and rolls up to the top of a dune. You follow slowly—still shaky after your escape.
“There's an Earth person!" Bru points toward a pot-bellied man, standing by the water's edge, staring out to sea. His surf-casting rod is planted in the sand nearby.
“I’ll ask him where we are,” you say.