"Oh!"
"For nearly two years the balance of strength has been swinging in our favor. We have purposely let ships through in the later years, but those that got inside the orbit of Uranus never got out again. The attrition has at last given us overwhelming strength, for we have produced."
The man paused. Sue sat numb.
Another spoke: "We have been building up a Fifth Sector, part of it on Earth and part near Polaris. It has been the best kept secret of the age. But the Earthside part of it has been in action. It can no longer remain a secret. We are going to strike. We are going to lure the enemy in close and then envelope him. It will be much like the big strike which occurred nearly two years ago. But this time we will crush him. We have finally produced the new weapons."
"Oh!"
"And now, if you are ready, the men will take you to the ship."
Sue moved in a daze. Somewhere up the shaft toward the surface they changed to a car that ran horizontally on a rail. They came out, miles away, in a huge dome in the center of which was a converted warship.
In the ship she found Albert. He had his new arm and held her close for a long moment.
"I know the machines in the factories," she said. "I've lived with them most of my life, but I won't know how to operate the weapons. You'll have to show me."
"Huh?"
"You'll have to show me how to fight, Al. I've thought about it, but I just can't understand it."
"Fight? Sue, the fighting is almost over. I couldn't tell you. It's been a secret. The last battle is in the making now. You can't even dream of the forces we've assembled. They can jolt planets out of their orbits, burst suns. This is the beginning of the future I've wanted to tell you about."
"I'll do my best, Al. I'll try—"
"Sue, look at me. You're not going to fight. Neither am I. This ship is going into an orbit about the planet."
"The lower ring, the last one before the ground defenses?"
"No, Sue. Open your mind just a moment and let me see inside you."
"Hold me."
Finally he understood and explained: "This ship is to go into an orbit to nullify gravity. Science doesn't have to depend on trial and error. They can calculate a thing mathematically and predict the results. They worked out your idea that gravity is what breaks down the cells. The answer is that the body will not age so long as it replaces its cells and gets rid of its old ones. To free the body of gravity will slow down the cellular breakdown. In ten years you won't age as much as you would in one in a field of gravity. Is it clear?"
"Will that postpone the change of life?"
"Medical science is certain that it will. It devolves upon aging."
"Does that mean that I'll—"
"It does, Sue. It means that about fifty years from now when the sperm revives in men, you women will have children again."
"But Al, we'll be—"
"No, Sue. We'll feel and look about as we ordinarily would in our twenties. And thousands, millions of ships, will soon be released to be converted. A whole populace will live in ships—at least until children begin being born."
"Will we—"
"Yes, Sue. We'll have a few ounces of weight in the orbit. Our cells will more than replace themselves. We'll adjust to it, carry along hydroponic plants and everything we need. We'll be strong and vigorous, with nothing much to do but study, work out new things in the arts and sciences, and—"
"And what, Al?"
"Make love."
"Oh!" she said. "Deep inside me I've always believed in that bright future. I was trying to remember that each tomorrow would bring it closer."
"The big job is almost done, Sue. Let's keep on remembering tomorrow."
"Hold me close, Al."