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Below him, or rather in the direction his feet pointed, so the syht shadow cutting it like a knife Other frag like star dust, dimmer and thicker, until, as you followed thements were motionless, but that was only because the ships had taken up an orbit about Saturn equivalent to that of the outer edge of the rings

The day before, Rioz reflected, he had been on that nearest frag with more than a score of others to ain

Today-today he was space-floating

"Mario?" The voice that broke upon his earphones was questioning

Momentarily Rioz was flooded with annoyance Da," he said

"I thought I had your ship spotted How are you?"

"Fine That you, Ted?"

"That&039;s right," said Long

"Anything wrong on the frag"

"You?"

"It gets reed Rioz

"You know, I&039;ve read Earth books-"

"Grounder books, you mean" Rioz yawned and found if difficult under the circumstances to use the expression with the proper amount of resent on grass," continued Long "You know that green stuff like thin, long pieces of paper they have all over the ground down there, and they look up at the blue sky with clouds in it Did you ever see any films of that?"

"Sure It didn&039;t attract h After all, Earth is quite close to the Sun, and they say their ath to hold the heat I ht under open sky with nothing on but clothes Still, I iine they like it"

"Grounders are nuts!"

"They talk about the trees, big brown stalks, and the winds, air movements, you know"

"You mean drafts They can keep that, too"

"It doesn&039;t matter The point is they describe it beautifully, almost passionately Many times I&039;ve wondered &039;What&039;s it really like? Will I ever feel it or is this so only Earth-men can possibly feel?&039; I&039;ve felt so often that I wasvital Now I knohat it must be like It&039;s this Complete peace in the middle of a beauty-drenched universe"

Rioz said, "They wouldn&039;t like it The Grounders, I mean They&039;re so used to their own lousy little world they wouldn&039;t appreciate what it&039;s like to float and look down on Saturn" He flipped his body slightly and began swaying back and forth about his center ofsaid, "Yes, I think so too They&039;re slaves to their planet Even if they come to Mars, it will only be their children that are free There&039;ll be starships sos that can carry thousands of people and maintain their self-contained equilibriuh the whole Galaxy But people will have to live their lives out on shipboard until new methods of inter-stellar travel are developed, so it will be Martians, not planet-bound Earthmen, ill colonize the Universe That&039;s inevitable It&039;s got to be It&039;s the Martian way"

But Riozand swaying gently, half a million miles above Saturn